Flight pond

Kudu101

Well-Known Member
Hello,

just a few questions for those of you with experience of flight ponds (this is my first go) . iv been regularly feeding my flight pond since the begging of August and I've had about 15-20 Mallard coming in regularly in the evening over the last week.

First of all, When do you start to shoot the pond? should i begin to shoot it in September or is it best to leave it until it gets colder.

I have read that as it gets colder and food gets more sparse the duck will increase in numbers, is this a common occurrence? if so how much of an increase have you experienced in the past (i know it will depend on the flight pond and other factors but I'm still interested).

Iv also got 5 call ducks on the pond, 4 ducks and a drake, shall i get rid of the drake? i have been told that his presence will discourage the ducks to call as often.

Many thanks
 
No idea about getting rid of the drake. The most important thing, besides feeding, is to visit the pond each morning to drive off the duck so that it does not become a daytime roost. Drive them off and they will bring more back each night. Don't wait to get loads coming in, they can get fed up and suddenly disappear. we found that once you have about 20 coming in at flight time, the following night you will have enough come in to shoot 20. Lots of teal seem to put off mallard with all their squabbling. Get some water snails living there to attract pochard and other divers.
 
I haven't triple checked this but when you say call birds do you mean live decoys? Pretty sure that is illegal in the UK if you were to shoot over them. Worth a check.

From my experience I would think that come harvest time the birds will be feeding in the fields and once that is all hovered up they will return to the ponds. Then winter comes, as does the rain and creates splashes and pockets of water all over the shop which they invariably love and stay away from the ponds. That is if the ice hasn't already taken over in which case the pond can be scuppered anyway unless there is some open water or a real draw for them to come in. So for my advice I would say start in early October as this also gives this years ducks a chance to fatten up a bit, and shoot sparingly, like every 2 weeks at most. They soon learn that the pond that 'lights up' when they come in is not a safe one!

I often leave it too late - like November on my bits and you know what, they are never there when I come to shoot them! Saying all this though each pond is different depending on size and area so it really is a case of get out, see what happens and use your best judgement. The above are a few helpful learnings from up here though!

Edit - found this on BASC ''The use of sound recordings and decoys of live birds tethered, blinded or maimed is illegal. It is also an offence to cause or permit such methods to be used.''

Not saying your call birds are though as I know nothing of your set up but this is a murky area for me and a heads up if anyone knows better. Couldn't find much more info though.
 
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No idea about getting rid of the drake. The most important thing, besides feeding, is to visit the pond each morning to drive off the duck so that it does not become a daytime roost. Drive them off and they will bring more back each night. Don't wait to get loads coming in, they can get fed up and suddenly disappear. we found that once you have about 20 coming in at flight time, the following night you will have enough come in to shoot 20. Lots of teal seem to put off mallard with all their squabbling. Get some water snails living there to attract pochard and other divers.

Thanks jto.

Il try to make it there on the way to work to push them off the pond. Can you do this too early? As i would have to do it at about 6.00am. Also would i find water snails in small streams? Plenty of those near my house.

Regards
 
Hi chris,

I meant call ducks, as in the domesticated breed of minature duck. I was led to believe that this was acceptable. They are free to go where they wish, fed well and no harm is done to them at all. Could some one please clarify if this is against the rules.

Thanks for the info, il have to monitor the pond a bit longer i think and then decide on when im going to shoot it. Sounds like one early on would do no harm.

Thanks
 
Thanks jto.

Il try to make it there on the way to work to push them off the pond. Can you do this too early? As i would have to do it at about 6.00am. Also would i find water snails in small streams? Plenty of those near my house.

Regards

A keeper once told me that scaring ducks off a pond in the dark was a NO, NO, but I don't know if that would be right. There would be commercial sources of water snails, I would think, aquarium supplies? I think they breed quite fast.
 
Hi chris,

il have to monitor the pond a bit longer i think and then decide on when im going to shoot it. Sounds like one early on would do no harm.

Thanks

Don't try to be greedy, as soon as there are a couple of dozen coming it, shoot the next evening. If you wait for hundreds, you may be disappointed. We have had over 80 off one pond(several shoots) by the end of September, without call birds. Never stay shooting until no more duck are coming in, leave some to form a 'lead-in' for the following nights.
 
Start shooting ASAP because as soon as the stubbles open up and with all this rain your ducks will be gone. Best on a windy evening and with little moon so not going to be good as we are rapidly approaching a full moon. Best to feed just before dusk and its difficult to stop ducks roosting durring the day but helped if you do not over feed. I have had tiny flight ponds for decades and just selectively shoot drakes. I don't shoot a lot but I do like roast mallard.

D
 
The only ting about shooting early in Sept is the ducks are a pain to pluck as often still a few blood quills about. Sometimes birds will still be a bit smaller too.

Every pond is different and will depend on wot is in the general area (how close to rivers, big ponds/lochs or shore) all will make a difference to ur pond. It will also improve over time as more ducks learn there is feed there year on year.

Just decide wot sort of bag/sport/bangs u want and go when u have enough duck to give u that, but as others have said sometimes leaving for a big bag is a mistake if weather changes and fields flood (stubbles gor grain or grass for drowned worms etc)

I've never chased duck of ponds before and still get decent flights, quite often duck do not like sitting on a small pond throu day but will flight in at night from the big safe water they've sat on all day. But i would not distrub ducks in the dark, that would stop them coming.


Wouldnae worry about getting snails either, never heard of that before either, but unless ur pond is deep enough u won't really attract diving duck anyway. Possibly different where u are but very few ponds/lochs in my area attract diving duck and very few end up in the game bag
 
if it were me i would get an early go in youve put the time and effort in youve got a good few ducks coming in so youve earnt a shoot, dont over shoot it tho wild ducks do not stand up to pressure at all to much shooting will just drive birds away maybe once now and then once a month after that and keep your eyes open for any teal around christmas. I shoot on what i can only discribe as a small splash of water about a foot/foot half deep and the size of 2 sqwash courts which apears once it gets wet enough in a small corner of a feild right next to the river avon i have no dog so i have to be super selective over which shoots i take so as they land on dry land or into the splash (incase your wondering ive only ever lost one duck in all the years of doing it) i walk about 3/4 mile to get there carrying decoys netting ect and then back with anything ive managed to bag its a total pain in the ar5e to get to and the most flustraighting times can be had there as you watch ducks fly 10-15yrds behind you up the river knowing you cant shoot at them but in fairness i feel more of a conection to the countryside and all thats in it there than anywhere else and the memorys i have of being sat down there are also some of the fondest i have and i hope you get as much enjoyment out of your duck shooting as i have
 
If you have the time and want duck on the table on a regular basis, shoot the first one(or pair) that come in and get out of it. That way you might be able to do it every night of the season.
 
The best nights shooting ever I had was last season flighting teal and mallard on Countryboys ponds.
In my opinion shotgun shooting dosnt get much more exciting.

If you have never shot over a productive pond at dusk get it on your shooting bucket list.
 
Agree with all said. I feed with barley in preference to wheat, get there early shoot a brace or the first couple that come in then go home, leaves pond undisturbed and more frequent shooting. Have on occassions shot 6-8 and seen more but they soon wise up. A couple evenings glassing away from the pond in cover will give you some idea of what numbers you have. Duck can be very fickle just make the most of when they are about.

D
 
There is plenty good advice in the thread, but the most important thing is to keep feed on the pond consistantly, wether u feed every day or once a week it doesnae really matter that much, u might be better off feeding every day before dusk but that is a big commitment and a lot of time, if u do not have the time and cannot guarrantee it it is far better fed in bulk when u can.
The longer u feed it the more duck will get to know about it so will improve year on year

The ponds i keeper now are getting beter and better as having been feed right for a good few years now, far better than when i 1st joined the shoot, as in those days the intention was to feed every night like the best practice will tell u but it just was not happening. I only feed the ponds either once a week or once a fortnight and it works well for us. But every pond is different.
Even when i was keepering on a big shoot with some real quality duck ponds they where only fed once a week/fortnight, althou sometimes 1T at a time but seem literally thousands of teal and wigeon come of those ponds, esp the god wild duck ponds where distrubed as little as possible.

I know most advice is to stop flight early to let last few duck in, and it is good advice, but i doubt i've ever followed it. We tend to shoot till the end and then pick wot was not picked as it was shot, doesnae seem to make much difference. We shoot ever 2 weeks after a shoot day, weather or moon makes the biggest difference to the flights and not wot was shoot/missed or anything else on the previous shoot.

The biggest problem i have with 1 of the ponds is too many teal!! Seem to be putting the mallard off and the way they flight +surrounding trees/hill makes them very hard to see never mind shoot.

If anyone has any ideas how to reduce the teal numbers?? At moment feeding the pond as deep as i dare too which did work a bit last season and teal have moved more to an other pond where visibilty is better
 
It used to be said that whole maize would not be eaten by moorhens, can teal swallow whole maize?
 
If anyone has any ideas how to reduce the teal numbers?? At moment feeding the pond as deep as i dare too which did work a bit last season and teal have moved more to an other pond where visibilty is better
i think feeding in deeper water is about it, one thing i have noticed about teal tho is they seem to like the cover so maybe try and thin out that a little and make the pond more open, my only wish is that i was over run by teal
 
Having call ducks on your pond is not illegal,but don't think they are a great advantage on a flight pond,as they will encourage other ducks to sit on the pond all day they are probably better on a a pond where ducks roost during the day that you can drive off to guns.

Feed your pond every day if you can ideally just enough so that it's cleaned up each night, feed in the shallows at the edge of the pond, barley is best but they will eat other grain.

Dont chase the ducks off in the dark, and don't shoot more often than once a fortnight for best results.

Not everyone myself included can spend the time feeding and chasing off every day and need to resort to feeding
larger amounts less often,while satisfactory results can be achieved they will never be as good as those on ponds that are fed every day.
 
Hello,

just a few questions for those of you with experience of flight ponds (this is my first go) . iv been regularly feeding my flight pond since the begging of August and I've had about 15-20 Mallard coming in regularly in the evening over the last week.

First of all, When do you start to shoot the pond? should i begin to shoot it in September or is it best to leave it until it gets colder.

I have read that as it gets colder and food gets more sparse the duck will increase in numbers, is this a common occurrence? if so how much of an increase have you experienced in the past (i know it will depend on the flight pond and other factors but I'm still interested).

Iv also got 5 call ducks on the pond, 4 ducks and a drake, shall i get rid of the drake? i have been told that his presence will discourage the ducks to call as often.

Many thanks

Hi Kudu101,

Much advice has already been given on this thread but if you have a look on the BASC or GWCT websites, or pretty much anywhere on the Web, there's plenty of advice out there on how to look after your flight pond. Personally, THE most important bit after feeding is do not over shoot the pond! If you hit it too hard to often, I promise you will see the numbers drop significantly.

The basics are feed the pond with barley if possible and tailor the amount of feed for the amount of birds coming in. In an ideal world, if you have the time feed it daily, add just enough feed so that when the birds come in overnight there is nothing left in the morning. If you dump too much feed in, the birds will stay put during the day instead of going back to their roost and flighting back in the evening. Obviously it's not always possible to feed daily so you often have no option but to leave enough feed in for several days but don't over do it or the feed could rot.

At the moment resident wildfowl will be gleaning the stubble so don't expect huge numbers to come in just yet. Once the stubble has been ploughed in, they will start looking elsewhere to feed including you pond. Whatever you do, don't overshoot you pond at this point in September, remember you want the Mallard to bring all their mates with them. Personally I've always organised shooting for around twice a month but it can be less depending on numbers. Let the numbers build and shoot once or twice a month. Finish the shoot whilst the birds are still coming in too. Oh and one thing about the moon, don't bother trying to flight the pond on a full moon as the duck will flight all night instead of last light, because there is enough moonlight for the duck to come and go as they please all night.

Come November on the last full moon, the main migration of wildfowl will arrive from northern Europe and Iceland. Depending on where you live, you will see an influx of Teal as well as Mallard and others. If you're close enough to an estuary you might even see Wigeon and Pintail if you are lucky. Teal are fantastic shooting and will keep you on your toes for sure and one that I am always glad to see. Many fowlers up here on the Dee Estuary don't even bother going out on the marsh until we've had the moon in November, it makes that much of a difference.

You will need a dog as much as your gun too! Pretty basic but it always amazes how many people go Fowling or Flighting a pool without a dog. As for the call birds, you don't need many and get rid of the Drake, he's pretty pointless and just eating your feed.

Best of luck and enjoy it.
 
It used to be said that whole maize would not be eaten by moorhens, can teal swallow whole maize?

Cheers JTO u may be right but could not afford to feed maize, prob about 3/4 times he price of barley.

i think feeding in deeper water is about it, one thing i have noticed about teal tho is they seem to like the cover so maybe try and thin out that a little and make the pond more open, my only wish is that i was over run by
teal

The pond is actually pretty open the trees are around 200m away but the way the contours/skyline are the teal drop in front of them so u cannae see them whereas the mallard drop in that bit slower. We could move our butts but its not really an option (just got the willow growing nicely, so will be able to form proper living butts next year) and i have sat by myself in all different positions round the pond and the teal are always a nightmare to see on this pond, u just hear the splash on the water.


Roelander is rigt about the moons thou, get a few come in on oct moon but Nov moon makes a big difference.

Just got to play about with it and see wot works for u. as every pond is different some will stand being shot harder more often than others if nesr a good flight line/estuary/loch will stand far harder more regular shoooting once the pond is well established as a feeding pond.
 
Hello, just like to thank everyone for their input, iv learnt a lot from this thread so it is greatly appreciated. Sorry for my lack of activity but iv been pretty busy.

Everything seems to be going well on the pond. Iv tried to head your advice and it seems to be coming along nicely. I counted 40 mallard dropping into the pond one evening last week so we are going to have a go on sat evening. Hides are built and the food is dissapearing steadily! Il keep you updated.

Thanks

Kudu101
 
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