"It is one of the most difficult places I've ever hunted on this continent," said Chuck Lobdell, manager of conservation programs for Ducks Unlimited. He has been hunting the Lewis and Clark Refuge for more than 15 years. "The tide changes can be as much as 8 to 10 feet, and there are a lot of hidden hazards."

Still, there is a reason hunters like this refuge. There can be more than 50,000 ducks wintering here at any time. If you work it right, the action can be fantastic.

But at times the birds are elsewhere.

"There is an amazing connection between the Columbia estuary, Willapa Bay and Tillamook Bay," said Lobdell. "If there isn't much water in the Columbia, the birds will head north or south to one of the bays."

A lack of water is rarely a problem in December and January, but Lobdell reminds hunters that the area is huge, and it takes weather or drastic tide changes to get the birds moving.

"The area is so big that birds can find an area they like and they will just stay there unless they have to move," he said.

Unlike some of the smaller refuges, the hunting pressure is spread out and that it makes it difficult for hunters to push the birds around.

"It's a weather-dependent hunt," said Lobdell. "And the weather is more severe on big tide exchanges."

For this reason it is important to hunt from the right boat, one that does not draw much water, but can take the rough water of the lower Columbia.

Lobdell hunts from a boat that was designed by East Coast waterfowlers and draws as little as 7 inches of water while providing a solid shooting platform. The low draft is necessary to navigate the sandbars and mud flats of the estuary, places you don't want to get stuck during a dropping tide.

While there are a few puddle ducks around in the late season, most of the take in December and January are divers and sea ducks.

Lobdell anchors up near one of the islands within the flight paths of the ducks and draws them to the gun with big strings of decoys. While he has his favorite areas to hunt, he stresses the importance of keying in on the birds' movements more than picking any single spot and sticking with it.

There are a few geese that use the area, but the goose hunting is better farther up the river, and few hunters target them down here.

Unfortunately, a new brand of hunters has been seen targeting this area lately: hunters who illegally run their boats through the rafts of resting birds to force them to move. This has become an enforcement concern, and hunters who try this risk a ticket from the stepped-up patrols.

It bears repeating that this is not an area for novices, nor is it a good place for first-timers. Go with someone who knows the area before trying to navigate the islands and marshes on your own.

The Julia Butler Hansen Refuge is a 6,000-acre area created for the endangered Columbian white-tailed deer but offers hunters some nice opportunities for waterfowl as well.

The area consists of flooded woodlands and pastures, as well as sand flats, islands, sloughs and marshes. Hunting, Price, Tenasillahe and Wallace islands are accessible only by boat. Hunting is permitted along the shoreline on the refuge portion of Hunting and Wallace islands as well.