NWHunter

Good idea Tucker, 40 pounds of corn, 1 feed trough, 10 buckets of water, and a tree stand. You could have deer, ducks and turkeys in one hunt and without leaving your stand. sounds priceless On a serious note, what about using a deer decoy to chill out that dirty old spring gobbler??

I agree with you on that one, but I am sure most of the upper management (or the people that make the policy decisions) of DU, do most of there hunting on private lands managed for amazing duck hunting. Therefore, I am sure it they would be a little hesitant to spread the wealth overwintering areas. Washington State Fish and Game has actually done some leasing corn fields just for ducks. However, again only a token amount of ducks use dry corn fields now. With record corn harvests the past two years you would think things may go back to the good ol days abit, but most of the birds are sitting somewhere on a flooded corn field to really have any idea there may be more out there....Get up and fly like you use to Green heads:rolleyes:

Interesting thoughts. I understand the private land argument and the things that go with it. If they want to do that and its a legal loop hole, then fine enjoy it until the rule is changed. Flight patterns always shift a bit with changing ag practices,however, changing the patterns using flooded corn fields to do this and then make money off it disturbs me. If it is to remain legal then I believe the USFWS should begin flooding its corn to bring some of the public resource back to where the public can have a crack at them without paying 250 dollars a day. I used to really enjoy dry corn field shoots in late November, now, unless you are really lucky most of those ducks now refuge on the flooded corn ponds, and the refuges remain empty. I think these discussion are really good for the future of waterfowling because to the regular person it is seen as baiting, cheating or whatever. And this is where the anti hunting parties begin there onslaughts, they did it with bears, whats stopping them from going after shooting ducks near or on any agricultural fields??

I read some old arguments for and against flooding corn fields. Both sides of the argument are interesting. However, I have yet to see anything like what I have seen. Flooded corn has changed entire flight patterns of migrating ducks. The proof sits on USFWS survey flights. What used to be great public land hunting has now turned into a barren hit and miss operation, while the private hunt clubs pound away at thousands of ducks. Any thoughts?