Hunting Forum

Maybe you could take a rollerand just haphazerdly pull that leaving lanes fo the ducks to land in then the tall stuff would act as feeding and shelter for them, if that would be legal, unless the place is a swamp don't see why it wouldn't dry out after draning. JMHO.

That will still have a time frame attached to it. Any manipulation of land outside of "normal agricultural use" can be viewed as baiting, something the feds don't look kindly upon for waterfowl. If you get a could clean kill and walk to it right away, you shouldn't have to much trouble if it is prairie grass. I wouldn't think you would have a problem drying it out. I can't be sure without more information on the soil. I know in MO they flood corn fields every year at hunting clubs and lodges, but their soils are so bad they have to irrigate so draining is no problem plus winter is later and milder so there is more dry time.

The worse Ol Abe has ever done in coming back with a downed duck was in fuggin smartweed
What the State sez may not "fly" with the fuggin Feds....gotta remember, Clint, the Feds shut down a Governors Annual Dove hunt a few years ago after state approved it!

alexk1, you shoulda been here last spring for the water. LOL. some didn't get stuff planted till in JUNE.

The field is in a bottom, and it normally takes it a little longer to dry than normal. And with all that grass I figured it would take even longer. The farmer that usually farms it, usually waits till almost June before he plants it. He just didn't plant it this year cause it was to wet (from to much spring rains) to disk up. Then it growed up and he didn't feel like messing with it. The tractor we have blowed a head gasket and so we were kinda screwed as far as planting it ourselves. I guess when I get our tractor back I will just bushhog it and disk it up to be on the safe side. We have an 8 acre lake connected to the field that we can still hunt over. I also have 2 Wildlife Bioligist that hunt with me so we have to be legal as possible. I would really like to flood it the way it is to see how the ducks like it, but on the other hand I want to make sure the field gets planted next spring to.

Tom I disked up a field one time and sewed it with mixed bird feed. I did this 15 days before the season started and the day it opened me and 3 other guys couldn't hardly keep our guns loaded. Well that same day I added some wheat to the field and decided to hunt it again the next weekend. We had about 12 of us out there that morning, 3 of the guys out there were going to school for wildlife biology. About 30 minutes into the hunt, there was birds every freakin where and the guy hunting beside me packed his stuff up and told his son to come on. I didn't think much about it. Ended up being a game warden at the other end of the field. He ended up shutting the field down and we all got fines from $350 to $550. He had found cracked corn and millet from the wild bird feed that I throwed out. We all had to go to federal court to pay the fines. One of the guys that was going to school fought it and they throwed it out of court at a later date cause he told the judge that he thought it was pretty rediculous to get fined that much money when he only had 2 birds. Ever since then I have tried to stay as legal as possible cause it just wasn't worth all the trouble. The 3 guys that were going to school almost lost their scholorships. They got real lucky. One of them still duck hunts with me. He said that could have ruined his life. He had already done 4 yrs. in college.

I here you. We started are decade of wet just a couple of years ago. Half the fields have water on them in April. People still don't understand that if you drain your property you screw over your neighbors down below. That's been a problem everywhere in the prairie pothole region. The reason it shouldn't be a problem in this case is that the field doesn't naturally flood and you shouldn't be flooding it more than 8 in. Anything more than that and you'll limit the species using it. Beyond 15 in and even the mallards won't show.

Clint, I hope your buddies didn't plan on being COs because they can't now, must have a clean record. Job market is already tight, especially for technicians and biologists which don't get paid very much except in the private world. Scholarships help keep you from having to change careers. Hope they at least got through undergrad alright.

I checked on the MDC site and rolling down grass and weed's are the same here as if you mowed lanes down, Illegal to do either one here in Missouri and hunt them.

Well we were planning on bushogging the whole field last weekend until we noticed a type of millet that my buddy noticed. So I guess we are going to bushog a hole out for the decoys and some lanes up through the field. Hopefully the ducks will like it. I figured it's worth a try anyway. I think I would rather have a good duck season and worry about the field next spring.

Alex we pump water into our field. But It will naturally flood as well because we are so close to the middle fork obion river. Some places in the field will get up to 3ft. But most of it stays around 1 to 2 ft. Our pit is in a levy between an 8 acre lake that is 12 ft deep and a 35 acre field. So we shoot a pretty good variety of ducks.

Well we ended up bushogging the field about 2 weeks ago and left a couple strips up the field to make it look like their was something out there. We just had a huge rain 3 days ago and the field is already holding a variety of ducks. So maybe we will have a decent season.

Good luck Clint....ducks are down....Mingo NWR and Duck Creek Conservation Area in SE MO report a record of 114,000 ducks....SEMO is reporting 178,000 total!

Damn shame our two lease fields are a whole 1 1/2 miles away form the areas.....and a bigger shame, I will be in SE LA as usual for annual Thankksgiving buddy hunt!

Thats good news. The closest refuges to me are all 30 to 50 miles. But their in every direction. I guess we get alot of ducks goin and coming from them. I don't know. The refuges here are starting to get alot of birds from what I've been hearing.

No grass and weeds this year! lol. Just standing corn. All I need now is lots of RAIN!

Flooded corn wud be damm fine!