Guide Life: TJ Mallette
Jacob Morris for SPLIT REED
It is a cold winter morning and you are leaning against a mighty oak tree awaiting daylight. It’s an almost eerie feeling, the only sounds you hear are decoys hitting the water, coffee being poured, and the echo of a wood duck in the distance. At the first hint of daylight flocks of mallards start breaking the treetops headed feet down into the hole, you hear the guide yell “kill them” as you raise up and send some 3” # 2’s through the woods towards green. You can’t help but reflect on the history of the spot you are hunting, your mind wanders and you start thinking about the stories these famed woods could tell or about the shotgun pellets still embedded in the mighty oak you are leaning against. If that sounds like something you would book right away just to experience then, you need to check out Black Duck Waterfowl owned and operated by TJ and Ashton Mallette in the famed Stuttgart, AR. Their operation is one of the places where green timber guiding became a thing before duck hunting was “cool”. It is the same ground legends in this industry were made, where they hunted and shaped the timber hunting style. TJ put it this way “Our tract borders the famed Bayou Meto and is owned by the legendary, Monroe Williams. The man behind Lester Capps and several other famed timber guides.”
TJ Mallette is from Madison, MS, he was born and raised to be a duck hunter. Even as a kid he was obsessed with the sport. When most kids would be drawing cars, houses, or stick people TJ would be drawing his perfect boat and truck set up for duck hunting. You could say he got his start at an early age. “My first duck hunt was when I was 7 years old and immediately fell in love with it. My dad got an old 18-wheeler inner tube tire, put a trash can lid in it that I would stand so I wouldn’t get wet. I didn’t have waders and was too small to even fit in waders. He would tie a rope to the inner tube and tie the other end to his waders and drag me through the flooded timber to our spot.” Not only is TJ a great duck hunter but he is also a world-class duck caller having competed in some of the biggest waterfowl calling competitions in the world. “I got my first duck call for Christmas when I was 7 and when I was 9 it was my first time to go to Stuttgart, AR where I met Butch Richenback and blew in my first competition it was the junior world contest. When I was old enough I won the Grand America regional one year and the Mississippi state a couple of times which qualified me for the world contest.” Want to know how to be successful in anything you do? You have to surround yourself with people who will not only push you but are some of the best at what they do. That’s what TJ did when he was young he had some great mentors that became lifelong friends and that set him up for success in an industry that is as cutthroat as it gets, especially in Stuttgart, AR. “ I had the privilege to have some great mentors through my life. Butch Richenback and Jim Ronquest being my main mentors over all these years.” With big names like those two as your mentors and the RNT shop within a few hours’ drive from your house, it’s no wonder TJ can entice mallards on a daily basis and put them feet down in your face.
Jim Ronquest
TJ got started guiding at an early age as well, instead of growing up hunting for himself, he grew up hunting through other people learning how to be a guide and letting his passion rub off on others by having them experience the same thing he enjoys so much. “I started guiding in Mississippi at the age of 15 and guided throughout high school and college. When I wasn’t guiding I would drive over to the RNT shop where Butch and Jimbo would help me with contest calling and I would learn endless things from them about the sport and life. I still learn stuff to this day from Jimbo, he is one of my best friends and greatest mentors. RNT has been a big part of my ride along the way and my whole life was pretty much training me to be an outfitter.” Apart from guiding TJ also worked for Delta Waterfowl as their development director on the fundraising side of things in the Mississippi area. He stopped working for Delta at the time he started running his own outfit full time. Black Duck Waterfowl was born around 4 years ago when an opportunity presented itself to TJ. “I realized I could go out on my own and Black Duck Waterfowl was started when my wife and I had an opportunity to buy and run a quality operation in Canada. Which included the lodge and four zones. We got a good area and developed some really great relationships with the farmers up there, they are like family to us now. Around the same time, we started our operation in Arkansas just guiding on the weekends. That land is owned by Monroe Williams ground and our name is a tribute to him, he is the one that had Black Duck Hunting Lodge. He had Lester Capps who was one of the original green timber guides back in the day. We added more ground and this coming year we plan on doing a 60-day full season this coming year in Arkansas.”
Behind every great duck hunter, waterfowl guide, and person there is an even better woman who deserves a lot more credit than they get. TJ attributes a lot of his success to his wife Ashton, saying “My wife Ashton; I couldn’t do any of this without her. She deserves as much credit for the success Black Duck has had. She does all the stuff you don’t see like lodge management, Chef, and burning up the roads scouting or setting up the spreads. She is a killer for sure, she is definitely one of the best women waterfowlers there is. She is just awesome and I couldn’t do it without her.” If you want to experience this family-operated, unique hunting operation in the plains of Canada or green timber/ AG fields of Arkansas you may want to contact Black Duck Waterfowl, a Premier outfitter with Split Reed.
Click on Jacob to find him on Instagram