Hunting for Duck Hunters

UPPER MARLBORO, Md. — It’s called “the small world phenomenon,” which is illustrated in the trivia game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.”

You might call our version “six degrees of bacon-wrapped duck breast.” Just as you can link Kevin Bacon to anyone else in Hollywood in six steps or less, based on their movies, you can probably link any two duck hunters in six steps or less, based on others they’ve hunted with.

Here’s the deal on these duck treks: We don’t know duck hunters in every state. So when we want to hunt in some place like Chesapeake Bay, we have to start playing the game. That’s how we got to...