Duckmen - I pulled my comment back from the DU vs DW exchange in hopes that I could mend hard feelings.
You haven't replied to my post but I would like to get some feedback on the set aside issue. You mentioned that planting food plots for ducks and leaving them alone is how you wanted to support the ducks. So I may have been short sighted with my 95% comment. My question is - how do you plant food plots that will serve as a hunt free feeding zone for nutrients? Most folks have small leases or hunt public ground. I don't see how this can work on smaller leases and I certainly can't imagine someone planting public land (assume it's against the law??). I am interested in understanding your current practices. I may be able to get this to work on my lease since there are gaps in the tracts. How do you best plant duck grub that you don't hunt without drawing all of your birds in to it all of the time? I would hate to hose the rest of the lease.
Duckmen?
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MSDuckmen
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Duckmen?
Well Softcall since you asked a second time I feel that you are truly asking and not just patronizing me.
I will answer your question as best I can but I will tell you up front that it is not what you want to hear.
There are public places that you can obtain permission to plant a food crop for game. The Game and fish are quick to help you find these areas when you tell them up front that it is not to be hunted and would like for it to be in a closed to hunting area.
Many other places are also available to you if you look for them, an example I will use is the Ross Barrnett Reservoir near Jackson. The area around the lake has a multitude of shallow water areas. Last year off of highway 43 there was a Mud flat that was just west of the refuge in between the highway and Pine Island. Many years ago as a youth that area was totally covered with cat tails. Cattails are a major attractant to ducks in that they feed heavily on the cat tail pod and use the tall cattails as cover. Last year I notice the water down and saw several people setting out drums for future catfish grabbing. I took my boat and pulled up no less than 100 cattails from the management area and transplanted them on this open mud flat. It made for great hiding places for the ducks close to the refuge and gave the open water birds a place to feed as well. As you can see in my pictures below I farm out pin oak trees a hundred at a time. These small acorns are what your woodies and mallards love to feed on.
Now with this said I will never see a duck feed from acorns off these trees but none the less after I’m gone the trees will produce an abundant fruit for the birds years after I’m gone. I plant no less than 100 trees a year. Another great trick is to buy wild birdseed in 50 pound sacks. Any area that hold water in the winter and dries to a muddy bottom in the summer can be planted with nothing more than a leaf rake. I have planted areas on WMA’s, National Forest, and private holes with just this kind of planting. The wild birdseed will grow to a head in only a couple of months and the great thing about it is that it will come back year after year. If I only had a small lease and wanted to plant for the birds then you have to make a decision and one that you will stand by. If you plant a no hunt zone on your lease then you should stand by it even when the season turns dismal. This is where most feeders fail. It is just something they can’t handle when times are slow. Once shot you have destroyed the safe house and killed the imprinting. Areas that are planted, as a safe house will over years bring you a vast amount of birds. It is like hunting next to a refuge. Some days they will hold up in there and others they will come to areas that you hunt. The birds become conditioned to what is safe and what is not. If you have a safe area new birds coming in will use both the safe and hunting areas.
The entire concept to planting a lease should involve the imprinting of ducks to a safe area. Some of the finest hunting spots in LA and MS use this concept.
I don’t hunt the Reservoir anymore and haven’t for many years, That still doesn’t stop me from making it better. I look forward to hunting there again someday when the ducks start using it like they once did.
This past year I planted 5 different areas with wild birdseed, All took and produced a great crop, I saw many ducks using these areas, the only draw back is that it does little to help your diving ducks. I also planted 50+ persimmon trees, better than 20 catalpa trees and well around 500 pin oaks.
You can always find places to plant, public and private. It is a matter of, if you want to.
But you see it takes much more effort and restraint than sending in your 20 dollars to an organization.
Don’t get me wrong I think the Organizations are doing great things. I just feel I can do a better job with my little bit of money than they can. It is my belief that if all the duck hunters put forth this kind of effort, as a group we could surpass anything these organizations are doing.
It all falls back to the individual and what they can or will do. It is funny that during the DW meeting some of the focus was on the building of hen houses to help the mallards have a better chance of nesting. When you look into one of those nesting boxes how many drakes do you see tending that nest? I’ll answer for you “NONE”
Yet this past season I got land blasted for saying you put yourself on a higher level when you elect not to shoot hens. Then you have DW tell you that by building these hen houses that you have increased the chances of a brood being born and surviving. With out a hunter taking the first step, restraining from shooting hens then the chances are even less. It has always baffled me on how humans come to the conclusions they do. I have also heard in the meeting that the likelihood of a smaller limit, shorter seasons, one hen mallard in limit is a great possibility for next season. If killing hens is not a problem and hunters are only impacting 10% of the duck population why is it that we may now go back to a one mallard hen in the limit. You see none of it makes sense to me. That is why I chose to make a difference myself. Yes I will support DW and DU in their operation. I just want to see results and not talk. I want to be able to know that we are doing more to help our sport for future hunters as well as manage it responsibly today. I want to see these Organizations do more for the youth and get them involved with local projects not just in Canada.
You want to give this planting a shot then contact me. I’ll be hitting it hard in June, July and August. I have already put out the Oak Trees for this year as you do that when they are in a dormant stage. But if you want to give that a shot too, email me and I will tell you what to do now to be ready for next winters planting.
Sorry for this being so long you have just touched something that is dear to my heart.
MS Duckmen
Dan
I will answer your question as best I can but I will tell you up front that it is not what you want to hear.
There are public places that you can obtain permission to plant a food crop for game. The Game and fish are quick to help you find these areas when you tell them up front that it is not to be hunted and would like for it to be in a closed to hunting area.
Many other places are also available to you if you look for them, an example I will use is the Ross Barrnett Reservoir near Jackson. The area around the lake has a multitude of shallow water areas. Last year off of highway 43 there was a Mud flat that was just west of the refuge in between the highway and Pine Island. Many years ago as a youth that area was totally covered with cat tails. Cattails are a major attractant to ducks in that they feed heavily on the cat tail pod and use the tall cattails as cover. Last year I notice the water down and saw several people setting out drums for future catfish grabbing. I took my boat and pulled up no less than 100 cattails from the management area and transplanted them on this open mud flat. It made for great hiding places for the ducks close to the refuge and gave the open water birds a place to feed as well. As you can see in my pictures below I farm out pin oak trees a hundred at a time. These small acorns are what your woodies and mallards love to feed on.
Now with this said I will never see a duck feed from acorns off these trees but none the less after I’m gone the trees will produce an abundant fruit for the birds years after I’m gone. I plant no less than 100 trees a year. Another great trick is to buy wild birdseed in 50 pound sacks. Any area that hold water in the winter and dries to a muddy bottom in the summer can be planted with nothing more than a leaf rake. I have planted areas on WMA’s, National Forest, and private holes with just this kind of planting. The wild birdseed will grow to a head in only a couple of months and the great thing about it is that it will come back year after year. If I only had a small lease and wanted to plant for the birds then you have to make a decision and one that you will stand by. If you plant a no hunt zone on your lease then you should stand by it even when the season turns dismal. This is where most feeders fail. It is just something they can’t handle when times are slow. Once shot you have destroyed the safe house and killed the imprinting. Areas that are planted, as a safe house will over years bring you a vast amount of birds. It is like hunting next to a refuge. Some days they will hold up in there and others they will come to areas that you hunt. The birds become conditioned to what is safe and what is not. If you have a safe area new birds coming in will use both the safe and hunting areas.
The entire concept to planting a lease should involve the imprinting of ducks to a safe area. Some of the finest hunting spots in LA and MS use this concept.
I don’t hunt the Reservoir anymore and haven’t for many years, That still doesn’t stop me from making it better. I look forward to hunting there again someday when the ducks start using it like they once did.
This past year I planted 5 different areas with wild birdseed, All took and produced a great crop, I saw many ducks using these areas, the only draw back is that it does little to help your diving ducks. I also planted 50+ persimmon trees, better than 20 catalpa trees and well around 500 pin oaks.
You can always find places to plant, public and private. It is a matter of, if you want to.
But you see it takes much more effort and restraint than sending in your 20 dollars to an organization.
Don’t get me wrong I think the Organizations are doing great things. I just feel I can do a better job with my little bit of money than they can. It is my belief that if all the duck hunters put forth this kind of effort, as a group we could surpass anything these organizations are doing.
It all falls back to the individual and what they can or will do. It is funny that during the DW meeting some of the focus was on the building of hen houses to help the mallards have a better chance of nesting. When you look into one of those nesting boxes how many drakes do you see tending that nest? I’ll answer for you “NONE”
Yet this past season I got land blasted for saying you put yourself on a higher level when you elect not to shoot hens. Then you have DW tell you that by building these hen houses that you have increased the chances of a brood being born and surviving. With out a hunter taking the first step, restraining from shooting hens then the chances are even less. It has always baffled me on how humans come to the conclusions they do. I have also heard in the meeting that the likelihood of a smaller limit, shorter seasons, one hen mallard in limit is a great possibility for next season. If killing hens is not a problem and hunters are only impacting 10% of the duck population why is it that we may now go back to a one mallard hen in the limit. You see none of it makes sense to me. That is why I chose to make a difference myself. Yes I will support DW and DU in their operation. I just want to see results and not talk. I want to be able to know that we are doing more to help our sport for future hunters as well as manage it responsibly today. I want to see these Organizations do more for the youth and get them involved with local projects not just in Canada.
You want to give this planting a shot then contact me. I’ll be hitting it hard in June, July and August. I have already put out the Oak Trees for this year as you do that when they are in a dormant stage. But if you want to give that a shot too, email me and I will tell you what to do now to be ready for next winters planting.
Sorry for this being so long you have just touched something that is dear to my heart.
MS Duckmen
Dan
Duckmen?
Duckmen - sorry for the delay in responding. That's one heck of alot of detail. Are you planting these trees as part of a CRP or WRP program? I currently have about 100 acres or so of CRP under lease and it's broken into three sections with a good bit of acreage between them. We don't hunt it any more even when it floods. There are a few ducks that held in there this year - oddly enough, they were woodies. These areas are located in spots where we had blinds 25 years ago. We no longer hunt them because there are better areas on the place. The good news is that they tie directly into a large tract of flooded green timber so I think that they will continue to draw birds. I'll approach my fellow members to see if they would consider keeping this off limits. The ducks seem to want to use it again and I have to believe it's because of those 3 year old trees. Do they produce many acorns at that age? I've never really paid attention.
I had trouble considering planting areas with egyptian wheat, bt or jap millet, or buying crop from the farmer to leave it there. There's a higher annual expense associated with that from the club's perspective and with lease prices on the rise, we have to watch expenses collectively.
I like the CRP set aside best and it sounds like it can accomplish a great deal.
Thanks -
I had trouble considering planting areas with egyptian wheat, bt or jap millet, or buying crop from the farmer to leave it there. There's a higher annual expense associated with that from the club's perspective and with lease prices on the rise, we have to watch expenses collectively.
I like the CRP set aside best and it sounds like it can accomplish a great deal.
Thanks -
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