Here is a couple of pics of my duck farming in my break, just got back today and got a couple of places that have been replanted and some of them are looking pretty good.

In about a week I will go in an plant Japanese Millet in about 4 or 5 other holes.

All in all will have about 80 or more acres in corn and millet. Scattered thorough out my Cypress and Willow Break. Flooded timber hunting can't beat it.The whole break is about 150 acres or slightly less of water, corn and millet.

I can't wait.

Marty

Marty

Sounds like paradise. We're pretty much at the mercy of nature and the farmers here, and pressure is intense.

It isn't the greatest place in the world to hunt, there are better. But I don't have to worry about someone edging up or setting up close to where I am hunting. The folks that join my club go through a extensive interview process that goes something like this.

1. How many days a year do you hunt.
2. Do you have a dog.
3. Where do you live.
4. Do you blow a duck call in competition.
5. Do you blow an acryllic duck call.
6. Do you shoot trap or skeet.

If the answer to 1 is more than 10 days.... accepted, considered a gold member.

If the answer to 2 no.... accepted, considered a gold member.

If the answer to 3 is more than 200 miles.... accepted considered a gold member.

If the answer to 4 is yes.... REJECTED not going to be within hearing distance of me.

If the answer to 5 is yes..... Conditional acceptance, pending meeting answers to 1,2 silver member.

If the answer to 6 is yes..... conditional acceptance, pending answers to 1,2 silver member.

There area few other minor questions, but these are the big SIX, so if any of you guys are interested there might be an opening or so. Just be aware the membership board only meets once a month, and be prepared with the right response to the appropriate question.

All joking aside, my lease is not very productive early season, Rice,Beans and big Corn fields in my area can be stiff competition for early birds. However, I hold the water low early in the season to limit access to about 30% of the Brake. Then when the local fields have been fed out or at least depleted, usually after the 1st week of Jan. I flood the rest. That's when the fun really starts, a couple of holes, I believe the second one in these pic's will have Millet and Corn waste high and I will flood them with water and man the duck's just can't stay out of them.

Love all the prep and stuff getting ready for the season, glad it is time to start.

Marty

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Marty Newport,

Just thank your lucky stars there's seldom a southwest wind, because you could probably hear me calling on a good one. I'm, shall we say, "quite aggressive" with a duck call.

I'm with Rick, question number 4 would get me rejected . It would take quite a northwind though for you to hear my BOSS or MVP ringing from up hear in MN, SD or ND. Me and my boys can make some noise .

Sweet looking holes Marty, they look ducky and there's not even water yet.

Craig, I'd have no business stepping on stage with a lot of you boys that do so, but I have it in my head that there's some kinda way to draw every bird that can hear my MVP, and it's up to me to find it.

I'm no worlds contender but I've placed in a few duck and goose state and local contest years ago. I haven't blown in a contest in two years, havent had enough time to practice. After we get settled into our new home and bussiness I intend to get back into it. I enjoy the competition and it gets me sharp for hunting season.

Marty,

I totally agree with you on this post!! The pictures are great, and I take the less is more approach with calling! Ducks are wayyyyyyy more fund to call then judges. I think at times they are smarter as well.

I'll poke at craig a bit as we have littermate pups and he seems like he'll take it. South of you (Craig) we are hunting the educated birds. You know the ones who were fast and sly. Not the ones who can't get out of the Canada and Minnesota dekes because they are weighed down with leg bands and neck collars.

These are the threads and posts I love and enjoy. So thanks!! Not he ole..."Blah Blah Blah, I'm tough, Blah Blah, I'm smart you're not."

Good luck and Craig let me know if you get them papers.

Tim Ziola

I luv calling the dumb ducks up here, they make me feel good about myself .

Bands have been good the last two years, been in on 7 band kills in the last two years, had a 3 year dry spell before that.

PS Checking the mail daily.

quote:

Originally posted by Craig Klein:
I luv calling the dumb ducks up here, they make me feel good about myself .

That's what I tell folks about mallards down here: they're the ones that make me look like I know what I'm doing.

An old friend who's won on Main Street in Stuttgart, Jim Ronquest, once said something along the lines of, "There are only two places you can call a duck: where he wants to be and where he doesn't mind going."

For some, "good calling" doesn't amount to much more than not running everything out of where it wants to be. And that's fine if you're where enough birds want to be to make your hunt.

Others use a call to greater influence, whether it's just moving birds from that side of the pond to this or changing the flight plans of distant passing birds with no initial intent on stopping nearby. For me, it's at the high, wide end of that scale that calling becomes most rewarding. Or when birds using the area are otherwise intent on taking refuge with a mob of their fellows just over yonder.

Or, forgive me Brother Jimbo, when they know dang good and well what's going on in your spot and are plainly shunning it, only to be tripped up by tricks of timing, tone and/or cadence. That's duck calling, and it ain't gonna happen with the call in your pocket.

Rick I am with you and Jimbo!We do alot of scouting and are in the right spot most of the time! Nothing like hooking some big northern blacks with my PH2 or XR2!

Paul you blow that XR2 much? I loved the way that call sounded but was just to much work to blow, it would just plain wear me out. I do think it is one of the most realistic sounding calls out there. I had one of the covetted brass banded ones and sold it before I knew they were something special.

Being on the X is fun but my favorite type of hunt is running traffic on a good migration day. I love seeing those tiny south bound dots in the sky and getting on them hard and watching them spiral down till there in your face, staying on them hard the hole way. Then when you grab them out of your dogs mouth and wonder how far this greenhead traveled in the last 24 hours. Those are the hunts I live for.

Every time I read about the premium on brass-banded XR-2s, I strain without success to recall if that's what mine had. But whatever it was, it was worth a lot to me to be able to give it to a kid who craved one but was working his way through college and too responsible to spring for such luxury.

Hey Craig......definitely different but it like when you switch for the first time to a short reed.....one day yah just get it!

I love our first big northly blows in November......new blacks start showing up in big numbers and mostly in large flocks of drakes!

The PH2 is really close though! Not quite as loud but extremely ducky!

What a great gesture Rick! money ain't everything!

Hey Paul it did take a little while to get use to, you have to blow it hard or it don't sound quite right. It's not that I couldn't run it, it just takes more wind then I care to donate. If you need to do alot of calling it just plain wears ya out. That being said I wish I wouldn't of sold it cause it was pure duck.

I don't remember the XR-2 being very loud, the PH2 is even quiter? I may be looking for a new timber call.

Yeah Craig it is definitely different! The PH2 is not as loud but very comparable duckwise to the XR2. Way easier to blow for sure!

One big thing I learned being with Zink the last two years is these calls.....all of them get easier to blow and more goosey or ducky as the reeds get broken in!

If you have somewhere to take a test ride ride try it out! there is a Youtube vid of Freddy showing how to use the PH2 which will give you a good idea what your looking at!

try this Craig!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3EgycXPhFI

It's been a few years, but I recall the XR-2 coming with special instructions and doing a fine duck - just not fun to run or very versatile in terms of tone. At least not in my hands. Don't recall thinking of it as a loud call, but it wasn't yesterday.

Know some folks think the little call has big magic.

Good link Paul, I never really heard of breaking in a duck call (goose yes) but I could see the XR2 which is a stiff double reed could get better with age. Rick what do you blow for a timber call? Or do you blow your MVP for everthing? They are very versitile. I have been blowing an echo timber its good but not perfect, there has to be a better one. Always looking for excusses to buy a new call.

I think we offically Hi-Jacked Marty's thread, sorry Marty.