Pacific Wings strives to provide excellent quality duck or goose hunting experiences from the time you arrive. We know that to truly enjoy your hunt, a comfortable nights rest is essential.
To make that possible, we have arranged special reduced pricing with a fine area hotel. The hotel sits just yards from the Columbia River, and it is possible to watch waterfowl on or near the river from some of the rooms. The hotel has just been remodeled and is in the heart of Richland near many nice restaurants and plenty of retail stores. Quick access to the freeway system from the hotel makes your early morning commute to the hunt site easy.
The guides at Pacific Wings have many years of experience calling and hunting ducks and geese. Their expertise in decoy placement, “reading” the birds and calling guarantees that most hunters will enjoy a lot of fast action and close shooting. While no hunt is guaranteed, most hunters will take limits or close to it.
Your guide will take care of all the calling and other details of the hunt. You are responsible for purchasing a valid Washington license and migratory bird stamp (See the Pricing page for details). You also need to bring your gun, shells legal for waterfowl hunting and any other gear you may need. In order to keep the birds coming into the properties daily, we usually wrap up the hunts by noon so you will have plenty of time to grab lunch after the hunt. Bringing snacks along on the hunt is a good idea. We normally meet at a convenience store so picking up what you need is easy.
Children are welcome to accompany you, but please keep in mind that waterfowl hunting often entails long periods of time of keeping still and quiet. Kids can take part in retrieving birds and picking up decoys, so they can get in on the fun too.
Pacific Wings has exclusive hunting rights on several private properties. In 2020 we purchased our own “duck farm”. We have spent the spring and summer doing extensive duck habitat enhancement. We are fortunate to be in the middle of the Pacific Flyway here in the Columbia Basin of Washington State. We are getting more and more hunters coming from different regions of the US and occasionally from other countries. It’s great to offer them some of the best mallard hunting in the country. Mallards are the draw that bring clients to us and we try our hardest to make the hunting experience one not to be forgotten by them. With a 7 mallard limit and 107 day season what’s there not to like? This year we will have 6 ponds filled on the new property for the opener and also 4 ponds on our leased next door property and 4 ponds on the Othello property. Lots of water to bring all those early ducks in. We are excited to see more hunting areas on the properties this year. It’s a thrill to see that all the planning and hard work is bringing everything together.
When duck hunting, your guide will take care of calling and setting decoys, we encourage our hunters to bring waders or hip boots as access to some blinds will involve some shallow water wading. We use trained retrievers to ensure minimal loss of downed game and to add to the quality of the experience. Early season hunting can be quite warm but as the season progresses, be prepared for cold and wet weather. Mallards are the primary duck in the area, but our hunters also take Widgeon, Teal, Pintails and other ducks.
Meet the Owner, Mike Franklin
Mike began waterfowling as a young man in the area around Spokane, Washington. He began hunting ducks with friends and relatives and started guiding in the middle 70’s. He founded Pacific Wings in 1986. While running a guide service is what really keeps him occupied, Mike also has a love of restoring neglected property back into productive wetlands. In the 90’s Mike restored a 2,000 acre property near the Tri-Cities, WA. He took a cattle ranch, which only had the capacity to hunt 10-12 hunters daily, and developed new ponds and blinds until the property had 40 blinds and could easily accommodate over 100 hunters who would all be able to shoot limits of mallards on the same day. Mike has moved his interest to two leased farms in the Basin City and Othello areas and has been improving them for duck hunting for several years. Now with the ownership of the new farm, he and his son Justin are in the process of a large project of habitat restoration and improvement which will result in some fantastic duck hunting in the coming seasons. Pacific Wings has been featured on the Northwest Hunter television show, ESPN, Sporting Classics TV and magazine and Wing & Shot and Wildfowl magazines. With proper management of waterfowl populations and rehabilitation of wetlands, Mike is able to provide countless hours of enjoyment for the people who love the sport of waterfowl hunting as much as he does.
Mike hunted in Saskatchewan for 17 years for one week a year before he began outfitting there. He acquired his outfitter’s license in 2004 and has been growing every season with custom decoys and custom blinds. Mike, his son Justin and grandson Greyson plus a great crew now spend about 45 days a year outfitting in Canada.