The Hunting Files

A Yankee Duck Hole (Part 2)

So we have our duck hole location all planned out and I have the seed bed ready, what do I plant? I chose Japanese Millet and Buckwheat since it fit my capabilities (hand seeder) and short growing season (70-80 days). My friends to the south plant rice and corn as well as millet. I don’t have the farm equipment to pull that off and spring planting is out of the question for me as my hole is too wet to work till mid-summer. My other option was to work the soil up and rely on natural plants such as wild millets, smartweeds, and other goodies to germinate and grow. So after burning the dead weeds you see in the image from (part 1) I attached a small disk to my ATV and scratched the soil. Just prior to the 4^th of July we planted millet at about 40lbs/acre rate using my hand seeder. That turned out to be too much seed and my yield has suffered as a result. The correct seeding rate for Japanese Millet should be about 20lbs/acre. We ran the ATV disk over the seeds to work them into the soil. The Japanese Millet cost me about $50 for a 50 lb bag and the Buckwheat cost $15 for 40 lbs. As you can see in the attached photo taken 60 days after planting both crops came in well. Later I found out the nutritional value and desirability of the buckwheat for waterfowl is questionable. Ducks like it but I guess it has limited nutritional value. As it turns out that won’t be an issue for me any way as my whitetail deer have pretty much cleaned out the buckwheat soon after it got to be 18-24” high. They never bothered the millet.
          It’s now September and I turned the water pump on a few weeks prior to our opening day. I don’t know how long it is going to take to put 18” of water in the field but based on my flow rate of 100 gallons per minute I am guessing a few days at least. A big unknown for me this first season is how much water loss I will have as the field saturates. I have a neighbor checking it for me and I have a stand pipe at the low end so any excess will flow into my willow bog.
         The even larger unknown for me is how much duck usage I will have at my hole. I think it’s a great mystery how ducks find productive new feeding areas. Is it just by chance or can they see it or smell it, I don’t know.  My duck brothers to the South tell me they “sweeten” a new hole the first year to develop a tradition of usage by the ducks. This consists of dumping piles of shelled corn in the hole. They do NOT hunt the hole that first year as that would be illegal baiting. I believe this approach would be problematic for me as I have neighbor hunters immediately adjacent to my property. If you have any questions regarding dumping food for ducks (even if you don’t hunt them) check with a game warden first. Next time I will share the final results of the Yankee duck hole project and hopefully share some successful hunting stories.

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A Yankee Duck Hole (part 1)

We don't have  "duck holes" north of the Mason-Dixon line, we hunt migrators at passes or marshes or in boats or fields. Many Southern duck hunters use  techniques of moist soil management to create  flooded crop "honey-holes" that consistently produce great waterfowl hunting. It works so well that it can't be legal, but it is as long as you follow the Federal migratory bird regulation regarding baiting (Google it) .I would not have considered this approach  up till now since the birds always came through in good numbers during the great migrations and shooting was good. With the declines in our MN waterfowl hunting quality I felt I could either hit the road to ND or try to improve what I was fortunate to own already (13 acres  of land adjacent to a flight lake). So I am going to try and create my own duck hole and I will share my experience as I go along. I am no farmer just a duck hunter so bear with me!  The basic elements needed for moist soil management are a crop area that will hold 6"-24" of water, a source of water, and drainage.My first step was to do an elevation survey and review the drainage and water source issues (be cautious if wetlands are present as any modifications are regulated, if you have questions contact your local SCS or DNR offices). These elements checked-out for me so our first step this June was to remove the existing trees, bushes, and grass in order to create a seed bed. The attached image shows the grass at my site about 10 days after the herbicide was applied. As it turns out I have a long donut shaped depression in this field that will hold water with a high spot in the middle that I intend to mow and use for layout blinds.Next I will describe the seed selection, soil preparation, and planting. 

http://www.autumnwings.com/