Dry feeding

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Iglow

Iglow

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Yoknapatawpha county.
Our place is froze and our ice eater quit, new one should be here today and we're gonna try to get it in tomorrow but, have y'all ever had any luck with field dry hunting when things are like they are now? We've got a cut corn field, some duck and geese decoys, and white covers. We're thinking about it for tomorrow. We've seen them dry feed there a few times over the years.
 
I have yet to see ducks dry feed South of the Ohio but I'm a youngin.
Give it a shot and best of luck!
 
I've heard of it happening in East Tennessee when it gets unseasonably cold, but with absolutely no predictability.
But my thought is: if they've come this far south, I don't know why they'd tough it out dry feeding here when they need only fly a couple more hours to find open water aplenty to the south.
 
Seen it work on tv as I was scrolling yesterday, beats the yugo out of getting frozen wet feet vs frozen 🤣
 
We used to kill a bunch in ETN that way. But, we never set up a hunt until we had scouted and found them feeding in a particular field. Without that, it is a complete roll of the dice.

I'd rather try another deal that worked in iced up conditions: Buy up some blue Rit dye and mix in water. Pour the blue water on top of the ice and let it freeze. Put one or two decoys without keels on the ice in your blue hole. It can be surprisingly effective in getting some birds within range.
 
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I have seen ducks dry feeding in cold weather like this in the past in WTN. I have had a few dry field or hunting over nothing more then a puddle. I don't know if you will get them to work a field they are not already used to feeding in. But it would be worth a shot. Might kill a few.
 
Listening to somebody talk about mallards following snow geese into a field so they could eat through the goose yugo… maybe we've been a little too hard on some of the spooners or divers over the years.

Anyway- I've never hunted them like that, but if a man ever was going to try that at this latitude I would have to think this is the time for it.
 
Dodge Man said:
I have seen ducks dry feeding in cold weather like this in the past in WTN. I have had a few dry field or hunting over nothing more then a puddle. I don't know if you will get them to work a field they are not already used to feeding in. But it would be worth a shot. Might kill a few.
Click to expand...
This
 
If you have snow goose decoys and speck or canada decoys. Maybe a few duck decoys to the up wind side. You could probably kill a few birds if they are in the area.
 
We saw canadas and mallards feeding in the corn fields on the Cumberland river in the snow when I was a kid, not often but when it was real cold like this.
 
Displaced_Vol said:
Listening to somebody talk about mallards following snow geese into a field so they could eat through the goose ****… maybe we've been a little too hard on some of the spooners or divers over the years.

Anyway- I've never hunted them like that, but if a man ever was going to try that at this latitude I would have to think this is the time for it.
Click to expand...
Most likely that is not the case. Snow geees are whats called grubbers. They pull up plants and eat the roots. Ducks are probably going to eat the top part of the plants that the snow geese leave behind. Or the snow geese are digging up grain and the ducks are eating that as well. That's why there was the big push to "save the tundra". The way snow geese feed is different then other waterfowl. They kill the plant because they put it up from the ground and eat the root. All other geese eat the top off the plant and it will grow back.
 
Seen it work in a snow goose spread.
Have also seen mallards dry feeding south of the ohio but it wasn't very far south of it in either instance. Both times very near large refuges. Once it was late in the season in a bean field and stupid cold and snowy like now, the other time was just in a managed pool that wasn't all the way flooded out.
 
I know one field in West Tennessee that I've seen them dry feed by the tens of thousand. Hunted by that field today and they are not dry feeding yet I guess there's too much snow and ice still. As soon as it melts, I guarantee they'll be on it like flies on….
 
Dodge Man said:
Most likely that is not the case. Snow geees are whats called grubbers. They pull up plants and eat the roots. Ducks are probably going to eat the top part of the plants that the snow geese leave behind. Or the snow geese are digging up grain and the ducks are eating that as well. That's why there was the big push to "save the tundra". The way snow geese feed is different than other waterfowl. They kill the plant because they put it up from the ground and eat the root. All other geese eat the top off the plant and it will grow back.
Click to expand...
Not doubting that at all @Dodge Man but I found where I heard it:


Listen from 48 minutes through 52ish
Eating the back side of the heifers & snow geese
 
Killed the snot out of them in North Dakota in dry fields, and had a few good hunts in Indiana. Have no idea around here, but I'd give it a go. We bought some field mallards, but they decoyed perfectly into dark goose decoys.
 
Me and my dad were part of a duck massacre when i was still in high school early 2000s arkabutla lake was froze over. We were hunting a dry cut corn field hiding in a ditch. Decoys laying in the dirt . Used the truck headlights to put the decoys out. I'll never forget that ! We smashed them good . We Killed pintails , widgeons , and a black duck on top of the mallards. Good times
 
Killed them in a dry bean field today in Arkansas. First time I've ever done it. Went over with hopes we would be flooded out by the nearby river and instead had a field full of ducks and geese waiting on us. Had to shove the keels down into the snow so the decoys would stand up straight.
 
Saw some fields today in Arkansas with ducks. Pretty neat to see.
 

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I was quail hunting back in the early 90s. Noticed a field that bordered the property I was hunting, was full of ducks. Acquired permission to hunt it, came back that afternoon with steel shot and killed a few. It was fun, but we didn't really know what we were doing at the time as neither of us had never been duck hunting at the time.
 
I've seen a large flock of wood ducks fly off a pond and onto a dry bean field during a snow storm while I was deer hunting. They definitely do it but conditions have to be just right…. The field I have seen them on in the past they have not been on this year. I guess because of the snow and ice. Surprised by that.
 

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