How would you do it?

[ksp965]

Seasons over, the interest of waterfowlers has wained until next year, (by the lack of posts). But, now is the time to start planning for next year. Many complained there are not enough waterfowl, (true enough). So what would you do to attrack and hold more waterfowl. What would you plant, how would you manage it? Be specific. Lets here some ideas that a reader can act on.

[Multidigits]

Hunt the refuges every other day. Plenty of safe places without letting 'em sit on ground we could be hunting. But you have to get them here first, so the other states would need to follow suit.

[quackrstackr]

Are we talking personal hunting area here or state run refuges? Big difference.

Unless you own a lot of acreage and you can let a sizeable chunk sit unmolested and unaffected by your hunting activities, you're not going to hold much unless you just hunt it once a week or maybe once every couple of weeks.

In that case I'd plant millet, milo, rice, or corn (leave at least half standing) to hold the birds. From what I've seen the past several years, the best thing to attract them to an area you hunt frequently is standing corn. It is a visual marker from the air that there is food there and immediately recognized by passing birds, unlike planting some of the millets, milo or rice (small scale of course). The smaller grain crops tend to not have that drawing power on passing birds, they'll eat it up once they find it and get in there and you get the snowball effect... but if you are hunting it a lot they don't get that chance.

I don't know many people that have the land to rest a big enough section far enough away from the hunting pressure to make a "mini-refuge" work.

<b><u>5 Rivers Taxidermy & Outfitters</u></b>
http://www.5riversdux.com

Straight powder.......

[Grant]

Me and a buddy are looking to flood a field next year, things are looking really good for it right now. He has several ponds on his place that usually pick up several birds, hope to let them be rest holes, the hunt the flooded field no more than 3 times a week, well unless were picking up new birds every day. Going to plant corn, no need for anything else. Have intentions on leaving it all standing, maybe knock open a few holes in front of the blind. Ducks love corn, plus, deer and turkey will burn it up before you flood it.

http://www.hunt101.com/img/097736.jpg

[steelslinger]

I like the idea of hunting the refuge, but not every other day. Maybe 2 days a week not together and rotating schedule. IMO ducks are educated too easy and every other day is too much. I would like to see a schedule like mon and thur one week, tues and fri the next and wed and sat the next and so on. Might get confusing, but a schedule could be made and posted at the refuge and available at places that sell license. Even if they made it a draw hunt that would be ok, they have draw hunts on the Sloughs WMA already (excluding the Sauheber tract, sorry can't spell). Mostly I would like to see the WMA's start pumping water as soon as possible after harvest. We had a good number of ducks come through this last year in November, but they didn't even start the pumps till the end of Nov, and 1st week of Dec. Sad to have birds show up and no reason to stay. The Sloughs WMA could be a good setup, but it's not run properly IMO.

I'm still doing some work and research on starting the Kentucky Waterfowl Association. Thanks to all that have helped and any help is appreciated. We have 25 members on the yahoo group right now. Still have a long way to go.http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kentuckywaterfowl/

shoot em in the lips

[duckmaster]

Flooded corn is the best no doubt, but you have to be careful when you flood it. If you do too early in the season, it will spoil before the larger group of migrators get here, or if you get a large number of birds hitting it early, they can clean it out before getting much time to hunt. A good combination of crops, both millets and corn will work, and as long as you don't over shoot it, and it will hold birds in your area. One thing that will keeps birds around is not hunting your roosting area in the afternoons. I do hunt mine in the mornings, but never late in the day. Give them food, and a safe place to roost, you will keep birds. It is exactly what DU is doing up north of us that everyone is upset about.

[PintailIV]

be careful about knocking down corn or any thing else in front of your blind or anywhere else in the area that you are going to hunt it is illegal to manipulate crops for waterfowl hunting. You can engage in normal agricultural practice but you cannot manipulate the crop as you can for dove.
Think about growing corn and sowing Jap millett in with it. cut down abit on your corn amounts and have the millet in between the rows.

[smashdn]

I would be careful about palnting anything in between rows of corn. Some other "crops" are known to be grown between corn rows. Might get a raid on your place if you aren't carefull. The corn thing is a good idea. I hunted a field that was harvested and then had two large low spots that filled after a good rain. Best duck hunting ever. looked like a scene off of whistling wings.