One day’s delay might cause you to miss one of the best hunts of your life. They can provide some of the best shooting in waterfowling, or some of the greatest frustrations. To start a new field or rejuvenate an old one, Vandemore plows or disks to disturb the seed bank, waits for natural vegetation to cover the area, mows, and then just adds water. Field crops offering the most energy for waterfowl include corn, milo and soybeans. Leasing duck hunting rights on rice fields is big business in The Natural State; some sweet spots with a proven history command a lease price that some would consider obscene. When a river surges above flood stage, be there the next morning. Never got into the field hunting but I am going to next season. How much area should I flood and how deep should I make it. I have a few questions for you guys that I have tried to research but never got the answer I was looking for. In all four major North American flyways, hunters refine fields to attract waterfowl. After a certain period they become devoid of the good … After all, duck hunting is generally considered to be a water-based sport. The farmer is going to let me build a Levi and flood it. When most waterfowlers talk about hunting ducks, they'll mention boats, flooded timber or reed-choked marshes, chest waders and floating decoys. I cam across a farm that I can hunt. Illustration by Steve Sanford There is nothing like a flooded-timber hunt when mallards pour from the heavens like rain, but sucking birds into even the best holes is rarely a given. Although Arkansas is rightly known for its flooded-timber duck hunting, the relative dearth of bottomland hardwood forest in comparison to Arkansas’ vast rice acreage means a lot of … However, some grains deteriorate faster than others when flooded. If you’re mostly hunting geese, leave the spinners at home. We do whatever we have to to keep ‘em using our property.” Motion typically attracts birds from long distances, but it also seems to flare many flocks as they get within about 60 yards. Keep this in mind when flooding fields for duck hunting. FIELD HUNTING ADVANTAGES. “Flood the field when the average air temperature is above 55 degrees and you’ll get a lot more bugs,” he says. Flooding Fields for Duck Hunting. He was going to spend the golden years fishing for monster rock quarry bass, but soon discovered the previous owners had started a piping system to flood adjacent ag fields. Hunting is typically best when rising water first starts breaking into riverside woods and fields. After 90 days of flooding, 86 percent of soybeans, 50 percent of corn and 42 percent of milo is deteriorated. If our success starts dropping, then we may quit hunting for a few days to let the ducks get back into the field. Equipment for River Hunting In my experience, geese flare from motorized decoys. Not long ago, a retired duck-hunting friend bought a small parcel of land with a lake. As ducks flock to rice fields, so do hunters. Thus, such spots can be fields of dreams, or domains of disappointment. I've got a 120 acre stubble corn field that I'm lucky enough to be able to hunt in Emmett. Spinning-wing decoys work well for ducks in fields. Some of the corn fields I hunt we dont flood all the way to the ears and still kill a ton of ducks out of em. Choose models with remote controls so you can turn the wings off as ducks make their final approach. I think milo would be fine, but if corn would be easier or if you already have access to some corn seed I'd go ahead and use it. “Sometimes we’ll have a lot of ducks in the area, but they’re hard to kill because the weather’s warm or whatever. And when you dont flood to the ears, the birds wont eat it up near as fast.