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Letting Them Rest

2K views 11 replies 8 participants last post by  duckhunter052002 
#1 ·
If i leave the ducks alone on my place for 2 or 3 seasons and not hunt them will they start using the place more than they do now? :huh: Or will they never come back?

Because we used to have lots of ducks there and now that we have strated hunting them they seemed to have moved to another place they we cant hunt.
 
#2 ·
Sounds like a small pond or such, just don't over hunt it. Once a week in some spots. Some places can't even take that much. You will have to be the judge as to how much pressure your spot can take . Leaving it completely alone won't accomplish your goal goal of more ducks. Better habitat will bring you more ducks.
 
#3 ·
and corn, that always helps!!! just kidding but if you arent gonna hunt it or are gonna let it rest for a season dump as much corn and you can get your hands on and then put some more in there.. this will help draw them and they will get patterned on the area.. but dont hunt over it that would be illegal!!!
 
#5 ·
We hunt a small spot in the desert, we discovered and kept it to ourselves. Cleaned up after ourselves. Never hunted it more than once a week. the birds were always there. Last season so me guys came in, shot it up left trash, and decoys out. We do't know how much they hunted but the first day we showed up after they hunted it we didn't have a duck fly within a hundred yards of us. So don't sky blast and push them out. We hunt a lot of spots never more than once a week, so we get variety, and the ducks get a rest.
 
#6 ·
well its mostly woodies where this place is and a few hundred yards away is another pond that is loaded with mallards and they dont want to come to my place. They used to be all over it untill we started hunting them there. But we dont have the ducks down that we used to 5 years ago either. so im thinking not huntin it for a few year will make them think they are safe to go bac to that place until we come back later and hunt them again.
 
#7 ·
Sounds like you over hunted the hole and that your neighbor has a pond with a fair food source. Letting it rest really won't help much.
A few nesting platforms for the mallards might help. Best bet is to plant it or feed those birds this summer. When you stop feeding you are probably going to lose a lot of them. You can only condition local birds so much. What you really want is a place that produces on a regular basis. The only way you are going to get that is bite the bullet and plant it. Having a private refuge for the birds is fine but they still won't use it much without a food source. There is still time to plant but you better get to it. Like I've said before hunt it sparingly and you should be fine.
 
#8 ·
Those birds arent here during the summer. We dont have nesting mallards here in Louisiana, if we do they are local birds that were pets at one time. I had an engineer for a waterfowl organization tell me to plant corn the first year, plant it again the second and hunt it the third. He said they will come.
 
#9 ·
I hunt in a private club in the Chicago suburbs that has been hunting out of the exact same blinds for decades. We have a lot of resident ducks. First couple days very good shooting and then it really slows until new ducks show up, usually somewhere around the 3rd week and then things pick up and it cycles up and down as new birds come through. However, when things stabilize, the birds very quickly learn where the safe ponds are. I will go hunting in the morning before work and see nothing, but drive home to get ready for work and there will be a pile of ducks and/or geese on the pond across the street from my house and ducks on every pond on the way to work.

By the time they got to you, they have probably been through this routine a few times. I think you are still going to see educated birds, whether or not you leave them alone for a couple seasons or not.

Improved habit will definitely help draw them in and fatten them up for the flight back north. Being very careful to only shoot small groups would probably help to. Dead ducks don't learn anything :thumbsup:
 
#10 ·
On a small spot like that, if you want it to last, hunt it sparingly, once a week perhaps. Be as clean as you can, get in early and get out before 11am.

Also always hunt it in the morning, NEVER shoot it at night, unless its the last day of the season, if you do you are likely shooting the roost and birds will leave and not come back, if the roost is shot a couple times the birds will push out and leave the area.
 
#11 ·
i still say if you are gonna let it rest for a season htne corn/feed it heavily... If you dont hunt it at all you can get the birds used to using the pond, then next year you can plant natural vegetation or some crops, hunt over them legally and then you dont have to worry if the game wardens know you are there... if you are legal who cares if they find out about you anyways.. just my .02
 
#12 ·
putting any kind of feed out during or 30 days before the season is illeagle. we planted millet, both red and white, in your locale you should be able to plant rice and let it grow. i would let it go for a season. up here the ducks use it during the spring and fall, but we only hunt it about once a week and only half day.
 
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