I'm sure this has been discussed before, but what do you guys typically plant for attracting ducks in your ponds? I'm thinking Japanese Millet but I'm not sure if there is something else better. Also, is now the time to do it? Just throw the seeds out on the banks of the pond? I have no way of intentionally flooding it.

And just so we're clear, I can plant for ducks and hunt, I just can't manipulate the crop (shaking the seeds out, etc.)? If i manipulate, I have to wait a year.

The pond is near Winters and is about 3 acres.

Plant it in July or August at the latest, turn it about 1/2 deep, pray for rain, keep the cows out of it.

Habitat threads.

I have nothing helpful to add. Ducks up here eat field corn.

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Plant it in July or August at the latest, turn it about 1/2 deep, pray for rain, keep the cows out of it.

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See that's why I thought maybe to plant it now, giving it a better chance at some rain.

On the pond, there is an island in the middle that I don't believe the cattle can get to. I'll probably plant it all along that.

White proso Millet, Browntop Millet, Japanese Millet & Golden Millet were the forages that I kept coming across when researching the same thing.

I would be planting about 50 miles from Winters in Vancourt and was wondering when I should have it in the ground as well.

Plant Japanese millet only if you love Game Wardens. Illegal. You can plant other millets or even grain sorghum, then flood it.

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Plant Japanese millet only if you love Game Wardens. Illegal. You can plant other millets or even grain sorghum, then flood it.

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Why would Jap Millet be illegal but others legal.

Sweet potato

Walk through? So if a duck falls in it, I can't retrieve it?

habitat threads

another good forage to consider for ducks is smartweed....

If you can't manipulate the water levels, you are going to have a hard time. We have tried the last two years and either, didn't get the rain to keep it alive or (one week before the season started) had a 14 inch rain that wiped it out and it was under 5 feet of water.

Also, cows LOVE millet. We spent about $200 to hot wire our patch of millet and it was a constant struggle to keep the cows out and then the hot fence and charger got wiped out by the flood.

We have just decided to go with what grows. We have enough natural vegetation to have a pretty good duck population. Our spot is south of Austin.

I plant 200# of brown top or Japanese millet in a 13 acre unflooded pond every year around July 4. Disc the ground a couple of times to get rid of the weeds. Spread the millet seed on the loose dirt and hope it rains. Depending on when it rains the millet will be mature in 60 days. Then we start flooding. Brown top is more drought tolerant than Japanese. Don't put it in front of your blinds. If geese find it they will eat it all in a couple of days. You can spread the seed with a fertilizer spreader.

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You can hunt over it the first year, however, you may not walk through, drive through, shred it down, disk it or make any of the seed heads to drop their seed by anything or any activity you do to cause such. Read the Waterfowl baiting federal laws very closely since we follow suit
with those. http://www.fws.gov/le/HuntFish/waterfowl_baiting.htm

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from here

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This sounds like a lot of hassle to shoot ducks. Especially when the green pickup shows up.

My impression was you CAN NOT hunt over millet the first year planted.

good thread.