2024 Gamekeepers / Winter - Ducks Around Landmark Lakes

Any debate about how to attract migratory waterfowl in order to hunt ducks can often include the premise that one needs to hunt where the ducks want to be. In many cases, this includes bodies of water on the landscape that are large enough to produce what managers call site fidelity. Even a small man-made pond can attract ducks, but it typically will not see them stay long and certainly can’t produce an entire waterfowl season of hunting. Migratory duck are looking for food and water and landmark lakes are drought-resistant and provide a reliable destination for them. Where waterfowl managers near these locations have built impoundments with flooded duck food that welcomes the overwintering population of ducks, business is booming.

Photo courtesy Carl Bussells / Santee Cooper

            

In some cases, adjacent properties to these landmark lakes have been utilized by the federal government for years in the form of a National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). A Refuge provides water where ducks can loaf, and presumably a crop of groceries too, although that can vary from location to location. Conversely, waterfowl hunting impoundments in private hands simply do not miss a single growing season, and often expand planting budgets over time to feed the influx of ducks. Many such waterfowl hunting operations are offering a pay-to-hunt option with a daily duck blind rate or a yearly membership. In other cases the private landowner or plantation owner may only invite family, friends and business associate to hunt. But taken together as a whole, these ducky initiatives near landmark lakes create their own mini-flyway most seasons.

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To view past stories from Mossy Oak Gamekeepers click on Mallard DNA -  Quail Habitat Philosophy -  2024 Fence It In -  2024 Reforestation -  2024 Predator Control- 2023 Wild Turkey Decline - 2022 Managing Duck Impoundments - 2021 Regional Wood Duck Study -  Fall 2021- Summer 2021 - Winter 2020- Spring 2020 - Fall 2017- Spring 2016 - Winter 2016 - Fall 2015 - Summer 2015 - Spring 2015 - Winter 2015 - Fall 2014 - Summer 2014 - Spring 2014 - Winter 2013