petrey10

Have a lot of questions on hunting watefowl....I am mostly an upland and Deer hunter....now I have a shot at getting into duck hunting and I am going for it... will farm ponds attract a lot of birds? what can I do to attrach the most birds possible? What kind of blind should I use? what kind of calls? 3'' shells or 3.5''??

ryanaller

All I hunt on are farm ponds and yes they attract plenty of ducks and geese! I have a couple of blinds that I build out of the material around the pond. Usually fallen trees, cattails, grass, anything that will break up my sillhouette. I usually have a blind on the north and south side of the ponds because the wind is either blowing fromone of thosedirections herein Oklahoma. The thing to do is set up your decoys with the wind in mind. If the wind is out of the South sit on the South, if it's out of the North sit on the North. The reason for this is because waterfowl will land against the wind, so put yourself in the best spot to get shots.

As for shells, I typically use 3" 3 or 4's. While hunting geese I will take 3" bb and 3.5" bb to really reach out there.

Good luck!!

SwampTHING

Ryan gave you good advice..

There are ways of attracting huge numbers of waterfowl,, most arent legal so I wont give you any suggestions on how.

The best blind,, is good camo(including a face mask)stay absolutely still when birds are in the air.

3" #2's and buy GOOD steelshot loads,, speed kills with steel.. I personally like 1560fps Fasteel.

The suggestion for calls, buy one and put it away.. learn too use it for next year,, if you were hunting with my group of buddiesand you pulled out a call with very little practice with it.. youdbe given2 options,, put it away and not take it out again, or go swimming for it!

If you guys have no one with experience calling ducks,, dont call them.. It will be a bigger detriment to you than calling and not knowing what you are doing.

petrey10

I am thinking about maing a blind myself...is it better to have a permanent blind or a boat blind...The guy I hunt with is a welder so that will be no problem and I can get scraps from many places...How do you tie in the camo to your blind...anybody have any plans for say a three or four person blind?

petrey10

now I need decoy help too...how many? what do I keep them ancored with? I am goignto be using a J formation to start with but I need to know what ones to get....do the cheap ones work as good as the HIGH END ones?

SwampTHING

Where do you want this blind on a farm pond or big water? how big are the ponds? do you or someone you know own them or lease them or do you just have permission too hunt them? Do you want it for just this year or something permanent? as for decoys what part of the country do you live in,, makes a major difference on what species are best.

DPSchouest

As for decoys, I find that you need to find ones that are not the ebst, but work, such as Carry-Lites. Fourty bucks for 6 is not bad. Just remember to buy a few species. Mix it up some.

As for calls, buy one and use it for next year as stated before. I reccomend a Buck Gardener 6-in-1 whistle. It has mallard drake, wiegon, pintail, wooduck, teal, and bobwhite quail. Very usefull; Ive turned a good number of ducks with it.

petrey10

I live in East Central IL...I will want to attract both ducks and geese...do I mix the different birds? The farm pond is oval shaped being 110 yards long and 50 yards wide and it gets a little narrower on each end...shallow on one side deepest on the other...the area has quite a few geese at times but i havent ever hunted it..We farm the owners ground and he is allowing us to hunt on it

SwampTHING

If you or a family member owned it... id say dig in some 55 gallon barrels for blinds, but since thats not the case I dont think you would get permission to do that. What I would do is go get some of that snow fencing from home depot,, cut it into pieces big enough that you can make a circle big enough too put a small stool on the inside of it too sit on. Cut some local vegetation and attach it to the fence with zip ties. Instant blind, cheap and portable.. Ducks will get really really leery of permanent blinds quick! this one you can move around depending on wind directions.

Decoys,, I would get some geese for sure, canadas and possiblya couple snows if you see them in the area on occasion.A dozen or 2 mallards, maybe a half dozen gadwall and you should be all set. keep your goose decoys seperate from your duck decoys,, you can mix gadwalls and mallards. You can get ghg hotbuy mallard dekes for about $25-30 for a dozen,, people say they are cheap decoys,, yep they sure are, but they work.. If you can spend more,, buy the larger magnum size decoys. Buy some6 oz strap weights for them,, that way you can wrap the weight around the keel or neck when you pick them up.

J-formation,, dont bother with it. Thats a big water set-upfor lotsofdecoys. Make family groups of 4-6 birds and sepretrate the groups,, or at this time of year pair up a drake and a hen or a hen and 2 drakes. Or make 2 small groups with your decoys and an openning in the middle,, put that openning directly infront of your hide,, still keep the geese seperate.

Im not sure if spinners are legal in your state,, if they are that would be my second or third purchase after some floating decoys. A spinner is like crack too ducks,, on the other hand geese absolutely hate them,, if the majority of what you get in the area is geese,, forget about the spinner.

petrey10

where are you finding those decoys for that price at?? I can't find 12 for less than 75 anywhere....even EBAY