My first solo duck hunt.

[TN Whitetail Freak]

Well I went on my first duck hunt yesterday. On thanksgiving I gained permission to a farm that had saw some ducks in the past. So on thanksgiving day after get togethers I went to work learning the place. I discovered it has two flashboards riser systems to hold water on the 170 acre fields that are split N and S. I ran to lumber yard and had flashboards cut. The place had an old blind on it. I replaced the front floor to it. The place appeared to not have been hunted/maintained in years. Well I tried to catch water on the fields with the recent rain and the south field caught 30 acres worth of water about 16-20" deep. The north flashboards system needs repair because the bottom of culvert rusted out and no water was caught. Well I hunted the 30 acres of flooded cotton after setting 16 decoys around the pit blind onsite. I was excited..... i saw a group of 4 to my left and a did a 5 note sequence. The birds caught me off guard when they instantly banked to me and circled downwind of my 'comma' shaped spread. The birds were about to land then they took off. I then realized from the time I threw the decoys to that time my hole had froze up! I learned several things on yesterday's hunt. I also gained confidence in my call because I just started calling this week. That was a instance I won't forget the way those birds reacted on a dime to my simple call. I watched up until 10 am as the 30 acres slowly froze up. What was once water all around the pit turned into ice that ran away from me until the only open water was 200 yds to my north.

Also I learned just because the sun is rising don't mean the water is going to warm up. It was almost opposite.

 

[Southern Sportsman]

It's a terribly addicting sport. If you haven't already, rig up a jerk cord. It's cheap and easy and I n a calm day, it's more valuable than a call.

 

[cbhunter]

Great story, keep us posted on your future frustrations!! haha, hopefully it will lead to lots of success!

 

[TN Whitetail Freak]

It's a terribly addicting sport. If you haven't already, rig up a jerk cord. It's cheap and easy and I n a calm day, it's more valuable than a call.

Yep had one rigged up. If I didn't jerk on it constantly then it froze up in 2 minutes. Anybody have experience with culvert repair for ones that rusted Out? I'm thinking a metal steel sheet to weld o over top of the hole would work if you could transport a welder across the field. Other option I thought of was just filling with quicCRETE

 

[Mud Creek]

Awesome, these posts that have a lot of detail about the hunt really fire me up after a few sentences I forgot I was reading and imagined being in a blind lol. This is my first year and I swear it makes me mad at myself for not getting into it sooner. How could I have thought it wouldn't be fun?!? I love middle TN and I love my rabbit hunting but I'm about ready to move to west tn and duck hunt as much as possible lol.

 

[Grnwing]

If it isn't too rusted you could probably repair it. I wouldn't recommend closing it off, as it will but more stress on the rest of the levee and could cause the water to run over an cause the levee to fail. You want to have some way to "control" your water depth to keep and release the water. Flooding the field and not allowing it to drain in time to get crops in is a great way to lose access to the field. Depending on how long you will be able to hunt this field, you may want to look at replacing the structure in the spring/summer to have it set for next season. Sounds like you found an area with great potential!

On a more important note- Congrats on calling and working the birds!! Its a great feeling to see those wings tip and watch them come in. Hope you get to see it many more times over the next month.

 

[TreyB]

https://youtu.be/I4256EQZf_4

These are nice... Have two of them.

 

[TreyB]

It's a terribly addicting sport. If you haven't already, rig up a jerk cord. It's cheap and easy and I n a calm day, it's more valuable than a call.

Less calling is sometimes better... Plus movement is a spread is HUGE!

 

[John.M]

We limited out 4 days back in October in North Dakota - hunting local birds. We were on the X each day, and didn't blow a single call that was needed. One of the guys fidgets a lot, so he calls when he sees birds - but it wasn't needed.

My first solo hunt had me doubling up on 2 mallards, and then almost getting stuck in thigh deep muck while retrieving them. It was 19 degrees out, and I was hunting an open end of a small lake that was fed by a creek. It took me crawling on my hands and knees to get out of that water, and rush back to my truck to warm up. Man, I was cold that day.

 

[RUGER]

Awesome man, congrats!

Sent from my LGL52VL using Tapatalk

 

[TN Whitetail Freak]

If it isn't too rusted you could probably repair it. I wouldn't recommend closing it off, as it will but more stress on the rest of the levee and could cause the water to run over an cause the levee to fail. You want to have some way to "control" your water depth to keep and release the water. Flooding the field and not allowing it to drain in time to get crops in is a great way to lose access to the field. Depending on how long you will be able to hunt this field, you may want to look at replacing the structure in the spring/summer to have it set for next season.

I wouldn't dare close off the flashboards systems, however the water is going around the flashboards and up into the rusted area and draining into the creek leaving the flashboards I installed useless. My idea was to back field the hole with quick Crete until it was flush with the bottom rusted area of the culvert. Then smooth the quick Crete out across the hole essentially patching the rusted culvert section. 12"×12" with quick Crete in order to stop water from enter drain through that hole and control water with the boards.