Noob questions

awcrow91

Spike
I've asked a few general questions on here with awesome response so far. Learning the game on my own right now and embracing/enjoying the struggle. That being said, another question. Monday, busted a hole in a large farm pond, had 30 gadwall, 6-8 mallards try to land in first fifteen minutes. 3 guns, 8 birds, then nothing for the rest of the morning. These birds were new to the pond. We had seen a few scouting but not those numbers. With everything thawed this weekend, do you think they will hang around or disperse due to more open water available again? Do you think these are migrators or residents searching for somewhere to splash down?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
 

ThrillofDaChase

Ten Pointer
Hard to tell. My guess would be disperse though. Primarily because they were shot on and would have other open water sources to move to. We definitely have an influx of new birds based upon what I saw yesterday, but the cold weather also concentrates birds that are here because water sources that are typically open close up forcing them to move to open water. I believe the best answer is to SCOUT. Go take a gander at said pond on Friday morning, and it should give you an idea for what you may see Saturday. Just my two cents.
 
I would hunt it this weekend then hunt it again closing day. Make sure you don't hunt it too heavy or any birds you'e holding will be gone.
 

skydog

Guest
Migratory birds looking for open water. Not all farm ponds are created equal; if it has food/good habitat then you can expect to see birds in there again. If not, then once the swamps open back up then the birds will move to greener pastures.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Jmac

Guest
I highly doubt that the remainder of those 30 gagwall and 8 mallards will be back anytime soon to THAT pond after being shot at
 

awcrow91

Spike
Appreciate all the responses guys. Unfortunately due to work I can't scout weekdays so I am going to just give it a shot Saturday. I might take a peak at it after work tomorrow or Friday even though I have my doubts about what afternoon scouting will tell me. Hopefully I can catch a few new migrators moving through.
 

darkthirty

Old Mossy Horns
If there are birds on the pond, there's a very high likelihood those birds flew in a first light that morning in the same manner as the ones you shot. I've found if ducks aren't spooked, they'll stay on a pond all day till they fly to roost. So if they're there in the afternoon when u get off work, I'd feel fairly confident those birds will be rolling in Saturday morning. When we used to shoot a bunch of farm ponds, we never scouted early. We just rode by and looked for birds at whatever time of the day we were in the area and set up next morning and kill'em.
 

adamwayne

Guest
Thats really hard to tell. Id keep checking in on it NOT HUNTING IT just checking in. Try and see what, if anything is coming in and what time. They may like something in your hole or they were just passing by and stopped out of curiosity. its going to be tough with the warm weather coming in the next few days. Good luck man!
 

ScottyB

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I would hunt it this weekend then hunt it again closing day. Make sure you don't hunt it too heavy or any birds you'e holding will be gone.

I have several buddies with this same opinion........ They don't want to over hunt the 2 ponds they have so they let it rest for a week or 2. Then shoot it again. Duck season is short .....if you don't have other places to hunt....shoot the birds on that pond every chance you get. Ducks are migratory ...here today ...gone tomorrow. If you aren't there you cannot kill them. If you spend your entire season making sure you don't run all the birds off your pond then you spend very little time hunting. That is just my opinion. The season really flies by.....
 
I have several buddies with this same opinion........ They don't want to over hunt the 2 ponds they have so they let it rest for a week or 2. Then shoot it again. Duck season is short .....if you don't have other places to hunt....shoot the birds on that pond every chance you get. Ducks are migratory ...here today ...gone tomorrow. If you aren't there you cannot kill them. If you spend your entire season making sure you don't run all the birds off your pond then you spend very little time hunting. That is just my opinion. The season really flies by.....

Yes, they are migratory but a lot of the birds that are shot in central nc are resident birds, especially the woodies. You can and will overshoot a hole if you hunt it too frequently. Seen it happen too many times in the past to be of the opinion that you should shoot a hole every chance you get. To be successful, in my opinion, you need about Four or five separate spots that are not very close to each other. If those spots are close by you will be hunting the same birds in a different hole. This means scouting...a lot. Then you need to rotate those holes so that you only hunt them about twice a month at the most. If all your areas are public then you better ready to do a whole lot of scouting to be successful as a duck hunter...especially in the mid Atlantic Flyway.
 
Top