I've only had one season where I had a cornfield to hunt early, and they came in just fine.
But last opening Dove season, and the season before, a certain field was loaded with big ducks just piling into it, cloud after cloud of ducks and many hundreds of geese. Thousands of birds.
They were all gone by the opener of duck season tho.

 

We have had early field hunts where the ranch started feeding Silage earlier than normal , by dumping rows of it
to our dry-stock and beef animals . With alternating checks being irrigated at the same time this created a easy food
source for the local waterfowl in the area , along with providing some short morning hunts with limits . The main
problem we had was keeping the inquisitive animals away from our spread of decoys , other than that , that didn't
keep the birds from taking the bait ! :yes: :thumbsup:

 

We have had early field hunts where the ranch started feeding Silage earlier than normal , by dumping rows of it
to our dry-stock and beef animals . With alternating checks being irrigated at the same time this created a easy food
source for the local waterfowl in the area , along with providing some short morning hunts with limits . The main
problem we had was keeping the inquisitive animals away from our spread of decoys , other than that , that didn't
keep the birds from taking the bait ! :yes: :thumbsup:

Are you sure that didn't constitute baiting?

 

No , as it is a normal practice to start feeding hay and old silage , making room for the new crops as they come in !
The blackbirds get the majority of what's left after the animals feed but when darkness comes the waterfowl find it
with no problem . The interesting part is , once the chopping starts those cut corn fields become magnets ( with a little
blow by ) in strategic spots ! :yes: :thumbsup:

 

No , as it is a normal practice to start feeding hay and old silage , making room for the new crops as they come in !
The blackbirds get the majority of what's left after the animals feed but when darkness comes the waterfowl find it
with no problem . The interesting part is , once the chopping starts those cut corn fields become magnets ( with a little
blow by ) in strategic spots ! :yes: :thumbsup:

What USFWS office has jurisdiction in your area? I'd love to have a written letter from that office's warden in my back pocket so I can hunt over cattle feed. That's baiting all day every day around here.

 

How about the 40 acres of safflower , which gets cut about 2 weeks before Dove season and is baled and stacked
2 bales high for hunters to stand by ? Wow does it draw birds from just about everywhere and makes for some quick
limits ! Well , just like the silage feeding the animals , it comes from fields in the area and along with this commodity
truck loads of cantaloupes and other melons are also dumped in the field where these animals feed on them.....plus
the many wild birds for hunt'n !

What can I say , someone got'a keep'em moving , right ? :thumbsup: :yes:

 

3200 man may be in for a big surprise some day. He probably shouldn't disclose his location and quit coming on the internet talking about how easy it is to shoot birds over baited fields.

 

So rice , corn ,safflower, grain (wheat and oats along with pea's and all Lentils) fields are off limits ?
Wait a minute , hunts north of the US border are also in harvested fields , even though there's no cattle feeding in them
isn't that baiting to ? I do know at Eagle Lake ,WA they hunt over standing flooded corn....what about that ? At $350. a day
only the ones with money can do that ?

The way I read the law is , if a food source is brought into a field for the purpose of baiting game , it's illegal !
As some of you probably know , cattle don't digest all the corn they eat so those manure piles you see all over the place
where there's 300 beef animals ? Feed the birds and provide great hunting ! :yes: :thumbsup:

 

How about the 40 acres of safflower , which gets cut about 2 weeks before Dove season and is baled and stacked
2 bales high for hunters to stand by ?

Doves have different baiting regs than waterfowl. Have sat with a federal agent who pointed the differences out to me, and, as long as you just cut and leave in place, rather than importing, a grain crop for doves, you're legal. But you cannot do that for waterfowl.

A grain field must be either be left standing or harvested to be legally hunted. Though there are normal ag practice exceptions, like being able to hunt swathed grain during its normal drying period (but not if its left longer) or where winter wheat has been sown, it's best to be absolutely certain that's considered permissible where you plan to hunt.

Know I was once warned about spreading wheat straw (and told hay might be a better choice) on snow to look like birds were feeding there. And I'd want to talk to my area's agents before hunting over silage that's been brought into a field. Pretty sure feed lots where grain is fed is one of the examples given for where one cannot hunt waterfowl, but have no idea what they'd say about silage spread afield. Would, however, dang sure want to before hunting there.

 

So rice , corn ,safflower, grain (wheat and oats along with pea's and all Lentils) fields are off limits ?
Wait a minute , hunts north of the US border are also in harvested fields , even though there's no cattle feeding in them
isn't that baiting to ? I do know at Eagle Lake ,WA they hunt over standing flooded corn....what about that ? At $350. a day
only the ones with money can do that ?

The way I read the law is , if a food source is brought into a field for the purpose of baiting game , it's illegal !
As some of you probably know , cattle don't digest all the corn they eat so those manure piles you see all over the place
where there's 300 beef animals ? Feed the birds and provide great hunting ! :yes: :thumbsup:

If a food source is transported to a field or pasture to feed livestock and it attracts waterfowl, it is a baited field. Zero argument around it when it comes to the feds.

 

Thanks for your clarification of the law I will keep it in mind as the seasons come . :thumbsup:

 

Well, it sounds like ducks will come to a field set up early in the season, just make sure it's a harvested crop. Will Teal decoy to a field also?

 

You never know. I have had buddies, novice duck hunters, shoot shovelers. I really that them going on how they just shot really rare birds and they should have them mounted. They even made a call to the taxidermist from the field until I had to let them in on the joke. LOL

 

Well, it sounds like ducks will come to a field set up early in the season, just make sure it's a harvested crop. Will Teal decoy to a field also?

We occasionally shoot green winged teal in corn fields here in SD, both mixed in with mallards and pure gwt flocks, typically have more opportunities at gwt when the cornfield is situated between two bodies of water, more of a traffic situation than an X field. I've never shot a BWT out of a dry field. sheetwater on the other hand, well that can be a BWT gong show early in the season.

 

Thx for the info. I primarily field hunt geese here in Colorado. I would like to hunt ducks early in the season, before the big goose flights start. Do t want to waste my time hunting the early teal season if they won't decoy at all. I have 2 mojo mallards, and my goose decoys . Will a goose spread work with the mojos or would I be better off with a few duck decoys? The goose migration didn't start till December this year, and I feel loved is I missed out of 6 weeks of waterfowl hunting.

 

Thx for the info. I primarily field hunt geese here in Colorado. I would like to hunt ducks early in the season, before the big goose flights start. Do t want to waste my time hunting the early teal season if they won't decoy at all. I have 2 mojo mallards, and my goose decoys . Will a goose spread work with the mojos or would I be better off with a few duck decoys? The goose migration didn't start till December this year, and I feel loved is I missed out of 6 weeks of waterfowl hunting.

During those 6 weeks before your goose flights are there, you'll need to determine 1. do you have ducks in your area, 2. are the ducks flying to fields to feed, or 3. is there a field you can hunt between two roosts. If your answer is yes to 1 & 2, or 1 & 3, you have a chance at shooting ducks in a field. If you can't get on the X, get under the flightline. Early season you have local or fresh migrating young of the year mallards, and you can turn them pretty easy with a few mojos and honker dekes. As the season progresses, you'll figure out fast that you are hunting stale birds as they will shy away from the mojos. Here in SD, tons of guys are field hunting right away in the season, and everybody runs the same spread - honker decoys and a few mojos. If we don't get fresh birds, the mallards are spinner shy by the 2nd or 3rd week of october. Then its a game of "what spread will finish them?" Sometimes its an all mallard spread, or no spinners, or 12 spinners, or snow goose dekes, or a mix of everything. Sometimes you just have to make a new x. Run all the decoys. Run all the spinners. Have a flag in every hunter's hand. Make the birds break off that flightline and come check you out.

 

Teal will decoy to fields if you have duck decoys out, especially spinners. Being close to water def helps.

And hunting over a field with silage manipulated (spread) is 100% baiting per fed regs. Cant even hunt doves there. Chopped and left in the field is okay for doves but not waterfowl. Picked or chopped and removed but some grain left behind per normal agg procedure is legal for waterfowl.

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