Search the Community

First flight of the season. The dog worked brilliantly, my shooting was rusty at best. Did get a left and right (with one barrel?) though, despite the camera only catching one retrieve. The camera was away when the geese came over. Although warm, it was just nice to be on the marsh, listening to the birds, watching the tide race in, and seeing a flight of ducks. A bird in the bag is a bonus.

Middle of last Duck season an old acquaintance invited me out on his pond for an evening duck shoot, it was my first time out at night round a pond and it was an eye opening experience. Thoroughly enjoyed it although I didn't shoot anything, in my opinion there were too many guns and dogs and it got pretty hectic. So back on the farm where I work theres a now disused reed bed system with 3 final settling ponds, always a handful of ducks on there so I sat down there a few times and had some really pleasant nights, just two of us each with a dog and we would get a couple of ducks apiece, not greedy but a few more would have been nice. Due to the orientation of the farm two possibly three guns is all that the ponds would hold which is fine by me! I started feeding with some old barley and teathered a raft in the middle with a feeder on it but think we started feeding way to late in the season. Anyway I have carried on feeding and noted that there are a couple breeding down there now and the food is still being taken. The layout is basically one large pond with two 4' bunds dividing it up, the bunds have chunks out of them to allow water to pass through when the level is up, it is these cut outs that we stand in to shoot. I plan on gravelling the damp areas to give better footing in the hollows of the bund and put some basic benches in to rest on, I will also cut the willow saplings that are starting to get a bit big and maybe fashion a hide out of one by weaving it. I would be grateful for any other advice on how to improve these ponds, without spending a rake of money, I don't intend to stock other than what flies in. It can be quite reedy and they drop off deep very quickly so the edges are covered in vegetation but theres a lot of deep open water. Would some shallow spots be good? am I right to keep feeding, should I put some feeders on the banks as well as on the raft? Any good advice would be gratefully received as Im just guessing at the moment, many thanks