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Re: Pre-season Setup

PostPosted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 6:14 pm
by Rick
DukMan wrote:Since last year snuck up on my really fast I'm getting ahead of the curve this year... got out some wood duck houses and put up some mallard nest tubes... plan on broadcasting some millet and discing up some areas for dwarf corn I'll keep posting pics along the way...



Neat, please do.

Re: Pre-season Setup

PostPosted: Wed Mar 22, 2017 10:37 am
by DComeaux
Nice!

I have at least one wood duck nesting in one the two boxes I have at my small pond near my house. One of the boxes needs repair, a roof. Both boxes had hens in em, investigating early on, but I'm not sure if one set up in the box with no roof. I flushed, or saw a hen leaving the pond low level when I was cutting the grass there last weekend, but I'm not sure which box she came out of.

Re: Pre-season Setup

PostPosted: Wed Mar 22, 2017 8:52 pm
by DukMan
Went out this morning to put out 2 more mallard tubes... saw about 100 mallards and spoonies swimming around plus 2 black ducks...kicked up a couple of geese sitting on a nest of 6 eggs... going to put out some traps for predators this weekend and hope to see 6 goslings in a months time

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Re: Pre-season Setup

PostPosted: Thu Mar 23, 2017 6:02 am
by Rick
"Build it, and they shall come."

Re: Pre-season Setup

PostPosted: Mon Mar 27, 2017 8:09 pm
by DukMan
Well it's nesting time so that also means predator control....

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6 egg snatchers removed this weekend


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Re: Pre-season Setup

PostPosted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 4:36 am
by Rick
Gonna bake or stew 'em?

Re: Pre-season Setup

PostPosted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 9:38 am
by DukMan
Hmm neither... never eaten them can't say I'd ever have the stomach for them. I skinned out three of them that weren't too bald and the rest became coyote bait...


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Re: Pre-season Setup

PostPosted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 1:53 pm
by Rick
In the "Way back when...," I'd time one of my annual hunts with a biologist friend to coincide with the Northwest Ohio Trapper's Association's fund raiser, at which they'd serve Lord knows what all cooked until it was falling off the bone with lots of black pepper. Always enjoyed it but never asked what it was...

Re: Pre-season Setup

PostPosted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 12:00 am
by DukMan
Found that with the property flooded the carp came in to spawn so I pulled out the ol' bow fishing rig and went to town... shot 15 common carp and a big mouth buffalo... going to get some set up for the smoker and the rest chopped up and put in buckets to make scent for trapping this fall!
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Re: Pre-season Setup

PostPosted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:02 am
by Rick
Buffalo ribs are a big thing with some down here, but I've not tried them and know zip of their preparation. Did give carp a go during my starving college student phase, but only recall having a big fish whittled down to a small fillet trying to have something that looked appetizing and ended up pitching, rather than cooking, that. Know they are/were raised commercially for whatever gefilte fish is.

Re: Pre-season Setup

PostPosted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 6:42 am
by aunt betty
Friend of mine had a party complete with pork and raccoon.
Had to try it or offend the host.
Raccoon is one of them meat dishes where the more you chew it the dryer it gets.
I could not swallow it. The dog had no trouble. Getting it to the dog without getting caught was a bit tricky.

Re: Pre-season Setup

PostPosted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 9:09 am
by Deltaman
Only time I've ever heard of anybody eating carp was back in the 70's, when I ran into a commercial fisherman with a boatload (and I mean a boat load :o )of Buffalo, and it was the first time I'd even seen the fish. I asked him if he sold them locally, and was told that nobody here would eat them, but he was selling them up North for .17 a pound. I've had baked coon at a wildlife cookout, and it wasn't too bad...........Nutria was better.........all vegetarian..........and was very similar to eating rabbit.

Re: Pre-season Setup

PostPosted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 5:49 pm
by DukMan
Well good news to report...

4/4 wood ducks nests have 4-67 eggs in them... 100% success the first year! Unfortunately I'm 0/4 with mallard tubes... I was expecting low success with them anyway since I don't see too many breeding pairs of mallards around, but I was trying to change that.

The goose nest I found, and posted on here early, got washed out before I could get there to raise it up and it was a total loss however they must have re-nested because I saw 2 pairs with 3 gosling a piece out there. I'm getting ready to spray some barnyard grass and put in a dove field with milo, millet, and sunflowers and spread some millet over some mud flats when the water drops.

Stay tuned for some pictures and more updates!

Re: Pre-season Setup

PostPosted: Sat Jun 10, 2017 4:59 am
by Rick
DukMan wrote:I'm getting ready to spray some barnyard grass...


Barnyard grass is generally considered a good thing/feed here, is it not there?

Fun to follow your marsh management, please keep posting.

Re: Pre-season Setup

PostPosted: Sat Jun 10, 2017 11:49 am
by DukMan
Well there is a local farmer who cuts a small portion of it ~ 1/2 acre but the rest is too wet to get the tractor back in there and it provides little to no food for ducks... I'm looking to replace it with jap millet with seeds that carry a much higher duck browse potential.

Re: Pre-season Setup

PostPosted: Sat Jun 10, 2017 12:15 pm
by Rick
Wouldn't be surprised to learn "barnyard grass" is something different there, but it's millet-like here, and fallow fields that hold it and water generally hold a lot of birds, as well.

Re: Pre-season Setup

PostPosted: Sun Jun 11, 2017 1:03 am
by DukMan
It's technically reed canary grass... an invasive species and terribly hard to get rid of...

Here's a few pics of the results ...

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Re: Pre-season Setup

PostPosted: Sun Jun 11, 2017 4:50 am
by Rick
DukMan wrote:It's technically reed canary grass... an invasive species and terribly hard to get rid of...


That's another animal, but one I know, as we often hid in it when duck hunting up home. Was, in fact, what I was taught to make grass blinding mats out of, so I suppose I may have inadvertently helped spread it.

Re: Pre-season Setup

PostPosted: Tue Jun 13, 2017 6:46 pm
by DukMan
Went out today and saw a pair of mallards hanging around one of my mallard tubes...and sure as sh!t a couple eggs in the tube!

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Re: Pre-season Setup

PostPosted: Mon Jun 19, 2017 12:26 pm
by DukMan
So I'm a bit disappointed... I went out and broadcast about 20lbs of Jap millet onto a mud flat in front of the blind... fully expecting the weather to cooperate and continue to dry out... however the forecast changed and we got 2 days of rain and when I went a week later to check the progress of the millet... the much flat was covered with 3" of water and I kicked up about 15 mallards... who I'm sure just ate all the millet seed.. this means I won't get mature millet for the teal opener... but I'll wait and plant once it dries out and I can till it in... shooting for a mature date of late Sept... also going to put in dwarf corn which also has a 60 day maturity time... we'll see what happens

I've all but given up on my dove plots as it's been so wet and the sorgum and sunflowers I planned to plant need 90 days before I could mow... If I can get them in before the end of the month I'll still do it... however it's looking less and less promising.