Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? A hunting Pond

I am not really sure if this is the place to be posting this but I figured there would be some smart people who could answer my questions.
Hi, I just resently got permisson on a new pond to hunt ducks and geese. The pond is about 10ft deep in the middle and about 2 acre's large. There are several areas on the pond that are 3-12 inches deep. I talked to the land owner and he told me that I could plant whatever kind of "fowl food" I wanted to on it. I live in southern nebraska and I am looking for a good food source for ducks and geese. The first 2 months its good for ducks then the geese start to fly over often. I was looking into planting some wild rice maybe but im not quite sure what would be the best "fowl food" to plant. Also if there is something that is a very good "fowl food" but it is illegal to hunt over because it would be considered baiting I would like to plant that then. NO im not going to hunt it illegaly I would then just set this pond aside so that it could maybe become a roost or loafting area for ducks and geese. I have no problem doing this for then I can scout them from the pond to the fields. Also I would rather plant something the comes back every year.

Thanks, I hope I have give you enough information so that you can help me out in my search for a good "fowl food"

Howdy, Young Gun, and welcome.

The waterfowlers will have lots of good suggestions for you.

If you can get permission to lower the water level by a foot or two during the growing season and then allow it to rise to normal for hunting season, that seems to be the preferred method for attracting waterfowl to food plots.

Hey Young Gun.

Millet is a good waterfowl food. Smartweed is another good food. Most plants need 2-3 months to mature so keep that in mind.

Theo is right about lowering the water level. If you can't lower the water level just spread the seed out on the mudflats when the water drops during the summer.

You can hunt over the stuff you plant the same year but you can't manipulate the plants such as knocking the seed heads to the ground.

Young Gun,
I agree with what has been said by the others, millet or smartweed are excellent waterfowl food plants, but with a pond of that size, waterfowl food production may not be the wisest choice of resources.

More times than not, waterfowl are attracted to small impoundments because of other factors besides food. They typically use these areas as loafing ponds where they can sit, rest and take advantage of the thermal cover (cattails, bulrush, etc) typically provided by these type of permanent wetlands. With that said, because its sounds like you have an atypical permanent wetland (a shallow bench with water depths of 12"-18") then you could possibly try the moist soil management approach that has been suggested. Just Google moist soil management and you'll likely get all the information you need to propagate these waterfowl food plants.

As for baiting, check with your local state game and fish agency. Here in California it's legal to plant a crop of anything, not harvest and then hunt over it. The sticking point is that you can't do anything outside of "normal farming practices" to "manipulate or make it available to the waterfowl". This is an extremely gray are as there is no hard and fast definition of these terms.

Make sure you have plenty of cover, keep it shallow during the hunting season, and hunt it lightly and you should do fine.
DD

If you want something growing permanent in the water I have had some luck planting sago pond weed in my "hunting/forage" pond. It is supposed to be a great favorite of waterfowl. You can buy it from a source in Minnesota if you can't find it in your area. They sell the tubers and tell you all about how to plant them. It's really very easy. They only sell the tubers in about April/May time frame each year. I also hear that you can get wild rice to grow in some ponds even if there is no moving water. I have also found a place that sells giant burr reed seed. This is also supposed to be a great permanent waterfowl feed. I planted some last year, will be interesting to see if it comes up again this year. If you want to plant burr reed you have to buy the seeds now because they need to soak in the refrigerator until spring. Google both the sago and the burr reed and see what you can learn about their interest to waterfowl. These are things I would recommend for permanent water plants. Then as others have said, if you can plant other grain crops around the edges and maybe flood some of it, it will do wonders. I think the feds govern waterfowl baiting laws. And none of these suggestions would be considered baiting by the feds as long as you don't purposely harvest any of the feed and then leave it laying around for the ducks. You gotta leave it grow and seed naturally.

Planting crops is not baiting, intentionally scattering grain or other "attractant" is.

You are even safe by knocking down plants, if you do not "harvest" a crop.

You could spread lime or fertilizer with a wide tired vehicle over the top of the crops. That would knock some down while in the process of improving the soil........

You should be very careful as a violation for federally regulated waterfowl is a serious matter. The regulations are not that simple. You should have a Game & Fish person help with planning any crop you intend to hunt those species over.

I agree with ewest. I can't speak to baiting laws in other states, but here in CA it's any attempt to make the crop more available to waterfowl. Planting a crop is not illegal. Flooding and hunting over this crop is also not illegal. Running your 4 wheeler over the unharvested crop, "accidentally" mowing a portion of the crop are both illegal here.

I should have mentioned earlier but if the crop is naturalized (eg. volunteer from the natural seed bank) then you can manipulate it any way you prefer (mowing, disking, etc).

This is why we recommend managing for smartweed and watergrass (Echinocloa crus-galli) rather than the cultivated varieties of millet. This is because of their superior ability to volunteer from year to year. You'll never get a seed companies to recommend a naturalized watergrass or smartweed over a cultivated millet as this is bad for business.

Back to the batiting issue, this is the situation here in CA, so be sure to check your local state game agency.

Ewest, I'll defer to your expertise on this one, I've never heard of any planted crop being considered baiting though. In fact it is most often what's suggested.


Ewest is dead on about the Federal Migratory bird laws! I was 24 and using a Friends shotgun while dove hunting and never thought to check the magazine for a plug. I chambered a round when the Game warden popped the 5th shell into the magazine.....no plug! I was legal in all other requirements.

Charged in federal court....$10 fine 6 months SUPERVISED probation!!! The PO was at my work 3 times per week for all 6 months....those boys get serious!

The only thing that surprises me about that story Rex is that you are not on probation for attempted PVC murder.

I threatened the witness!

There is a stipulation in the waterfowl laws that prohibits japanese millet from being planted, otherwise a crop that you do not mechanically manipulate is permitted. If you do plant jap millet you may hunt on the regrowth the next year after planting.That is assuming you didn't replant. Consider german millet, our feed and seed supply stores in Texas sell a flyway mix. It is a very difficult task getting waterfowl crops to produce timely.

You can hunt over Japanese Millet the first year but you can't manipulate. If it comes back the second year you can manipulate it.

Not to belabor the point but I'm fairly sure you can not hunt jap millet the first year manipulated or not. It is the only crop that has this restriction. If someone has positive proof otherwise I'll stand corrected.

Federal Regulation

regs

Texas regulation

regs

To me, the fed regulations are clearer in their definations, and what can and cannot be done.

The only thing the TPWD says about millet is the you can't hunt over it if it has been manipulated the first year. It would fall under a flooded standing crop in the rules below. The second year it is considered natural vegetation. It also doesn't differentiate between Japanese Millet and all the other varieties of millet.

It would take one squared away conservation officer with a lot of time on his hands to put together a case to nab a guy breaking some of these laws!

Ok, after rereading the regs, I will stand corrected. Apparently you can hunt millet the year its planted as long as its not manipulated. Man, this much I do know I've labored over a moist soil unit and planted flyway mix for about 3 years and have been very minimally successful.

I just read an interesting article today. My state is contemplating using moist soil management to hold ducks. We have never done that here before because we have lots of natural lakes and ponds. I read an article about research they are doing and they are looking a lot at what has been done down south in places like Louisianna. I have heard a lot about people planting rice, millet, and other stuff that they flood in the fall. This article says that according to studies done in Louisianna you are better off just letting natural water weeds grow into your field. The idea is, build a field that you can flood at will, flood it, draw it down so it's just mud, let the smartweed and other stuff take root, then flood it each fall. They claimed that planting any kind of crop is not near as effective. So our state build a 110 acre project two years ago just to try it out. They split it into 2 equal pieces. In one area they planted millet and other stuff, in the other area they left go wild. They said that the wild area attracted way more ducks. Sounds like that is Bob D's experience too. I'm interested in this subject because I'd like to build one of these some day.

A place I hunt ducks at in PA has several areas they allow to grow up in weeds and then flood for waterfowl season. Great hunting until the crowds push all the ducks to private areas. If you have the land, it would definitely be worth the effort if you're really into duck hunting.

Well not exactly, Moist soil management is basically al a natural manipulation of water levels and control of woody growth and noncontributing weeds. I have tried both(planting and moist soil). I have had continued crop failure on the millet/milo(called a hot crop)and the smart grass/natural growth has proven ineffective. I am of course hard headed and will probably try again. I think the water may be too deep and will install another control structure this summer and replant at least part of it. The area holds ducks; not 300 yards away a beaver pond I own half of gets birds pretty well. I'm on the north end of a resevoir within an ok flyway. It really is quite a riddle.

My thought right now if I do this is to build an areas where I can control water level and then buy some smartweed seed and grow that. I would flood it in the fall. It will re-seed by itself and keep going for some number of years I would think. It grows well around here naturally. If that doesn't work I may resort to planting a crop and flooding it but at this point I'm thinking that would be my last resort.

There has been a lot of good info here.

Just cause I like this topic and it's what I deal with on a daily basis I'll beat this dead horse just a little more.

Food is only one part of the equation and it relationship with improved bird use is a very difficult one to understand because of all the factors involved. Waterfowl eat a variety of foods during their migration. Moist soil food plants (watergrass, smartweed, swamp timothy, etc) are all highly desirable to waterfowl (depending on species). Waterfowl also depend on a wide variety of agricultural food resources as well (rice, wheat, peas, corn, etc). The use of waterfowl to these agricultural resources depends on many factors (availability, weather, seasonal period, etc). Waterfowl also depend a great deal on submergent vegetation and invertebrates. By the second half of the season here in CA, pretty much all the ag waste grain and corn has been eaten up or destroyed by the elements. Birds switch to invertebrates to add the protein reserves they need for the upcoming egg laying.

As a private lands biologist, it kills me when I have a landowner who insists on planting peas (not grown in California) to hunt ducks over because he had a great mallard shoot in Canada over peas. Inevitably the ducks don't hit it and it's a waste of time and money.

Some theories that I've come to accept are 1) We're all farmers at heart and when in doubt we'd all rather plant something. 2)Waterfowlers are an impatient group always looking for the silver bullet. 3) Ducks are no different than people. I'd certainly choose eat hotdogs from a place where I won't get shot, rather than prime rib from a spot with a bunch of people who want me dead.

As a duck hunter, I'd go with good thermal cover and minimized disturbance over wall to wall food any day.

DD