Wild Rice for ducks

[airdriver]

how well would this work just south of the iron range? have a lot of beaver ponds(some shallow, some deep, solid bottom, mushy bottom) would be very interested.

[shnelson]

landdr - can you turn me on to some of this land going for $3-600 per acre? not sure if pm's work here you can shoot me an e-mail [email protected]

[LandDr]

Shnelson...just do an internet search for land for sale near or around Red Lake or some of the towns near by and you might be able to find out what is for sale and what price. It is not good land by any means and probably no income opps...but could be good duck hunting with the right plan. It used to be...maybe build it and they will come.

Airdiver...the beaver ponds have their risks. Usually these ponds are great for wild rice...but beaver and muskrats like to eat wild rice as well. So if the pond is small, you probably couldn't get enough rice started to survive the grazing. If the pond is large, then you may be able to plant enough rice that a good amount will withstand the depredation and set out more seed. Mucky bottom with 12 to 36 inches of water depth would be prefered. Sago is another good option to consider in the water. Another option is to plant Mallard Millet along the water edges and mudflats in late spring or early summer...again plant enough of it to sustain depredation. What would really be great...if there was a damed up area where you could release the water in the spring and keep the water off for planting Mallard Millet...then keep the water off to allow the millet to grow...and then dam it up again to flood the millet out once the seed has hardened and it is close to duck season. That would be a honey hole!!! There are a few ways to keep the water off and then flood it out again. One other option if you can draw the water off but can not keep it off through the growing season is to plant "domestic" rice when the water is off (starts it growing) and then the flooding will keep it growing.

Very interesting stuff!

[MN Greenheads]

A guy up in Deer River did the wild rice deal for some years. He did well on geese and just Ok on ducks. For what it cost him I don't know if he did much better than primo public.I think the Horse and Hunt Club had some Wild Rice set up in the Aitkin area. I don't know how that worked out for them.

I think flooded short corn with open spots in an area like W. MN would work the best. It's amazing what they do in other states (IL. MO.) with food plots. Some of those places it's like they're baiting them but so long as they don't knock the crop down they're still legal.

[LandDr]

That is correct...as long as they don't knock it down, chop it or manipulate it some other way...they can still hunt over it. It is no different than a deer food plot or pheasant food plot.

If you get wild rice or sago started, it can keep coming back year after year...which then the cost is only for the first planting. I have one 15 ac. pond established with rice and another 10 ac. pond that has sago established. Some years the sago pulls in more ducks and some years the wild rice does...but usually the wild rice pulls in more. Bottom line is that I see a lot more ducks than others in my immediate area...always an opportunity to shoot a limit where they will only get one or two ducks.

Looks like some good weather moving in again to push some ducks down. Looking forward to some more big northern ducks!