Jump to content

When to start feeding a flight pond


Recommended Posts

Ive been told by a mate who has been shooting for years and years, his old man and him have been running ponds for as long as that and more, feed all year if you can afford it, I reckon this will invoke a few responses like be sure not to make it a day roost, also just be careful how much you put so its fed at night and not sitting around all fay attracting vermin and the wrong sort of feeding, ti makes sense when you think about it. Got to be something in it, as when he invited me over last year they were streaming in!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My grandad always used to stick to starting the CLA gamefair weekend. And it used to work, we always had ducks for the begining of the season and shot some good bags. Personally if I was using a spinner, I'd set it to spin just before dusk so you have the least time possible for moorhens, rats, swans and everything else to find it. A bit of rubbish, chaffy barley is the best as it floats about and leaves an obvious sign to ducks that there is feed in there

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ive been told by a mate who has been shooting for years and years, his old man and him have been running ponds for as long as that and more, feed all year if you can afford it, I reckon this will invoke a few responses like be sure not to make it a day roost, also just be careful how much you put so its fed at night and not sitting around all fay attracting vermin and the wrong sort of feeding, ti makes sense when you think about it. Got to be something in it, as when he invited me over last year they were streaming in!!

I'm really not sure that feeding a pond all year is necessary.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm really not sure that feeding a pond all year is necessary.

 

 

I'm not convinced its necessary, many folks Ive asked say its not, a few do, the few that have said, "feed all year if you can", have had ponds for years, this is my first crack at it, my feeding is a little haphazard and depends on whats available on the farm so it will be interesting to see if the flights are better or worse than last year, the early indications are that its a better year than last!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Will depend on a few things, when do u want to start shooting it? How near an established flight line or already popular ducky area

 

Feeding all year will be a good thing, althou u would not be feeding anything like the same quantity u woulfd thou the winter to try and give any resident ducks the best chance of breeding and bigger broods. Can never be a bad thing to have some resident wild duck on ur pond.

 

If u want to start shooting early sept will obviously have to start feeding earlier, but every pond will be different in how long u have to feed it before duck come in. Also the more years u have been feeding it the more 'local' duck will know about it so numbers will build faster than a pond that's never been fed before. Even if ur near the solway or a river more chance of duck finding it than middle of no where

 

I still dinae trust the auto feeders and just put the food in the shallows once a week/fortnight, works well for us, very few duck sit on ponds throu the day. I'd start by even just throwing a bucket or 2 in shalows as it may take some time for duck to build up, if u spinner is spinning too much wasting feed and it will go fusty in the water, u only want to be feeding wot is being eaten, so set spinner at shortest time and slowly build it up as ducks build

 

I'm not so sure its going to be a god duck season up here, been a poor summer for wild broods and not seen a lot of duck broods surviving that long, to cold for insects, will be different further south with the better climate

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Started feeding one of my ponds last month after releasing some Mallard. I have tried feeding the pond all year round but to be honest the expense did not justify the results. Also the pond contain a lot of Carp which loved the extra Barley/Wheat.

 

I will start feeding another of my ponds next weekend. Its a pond that always produces better as a morning flight due to the fact its opposite a large commercial fishing pool.

 

I have used auto feeders in the past and I set for 30 seconds just before it dropped dark. It worked well but someone decided they would steal mine rather that buy there own :sad1: I may purchase a new one? But money is tight at the minute.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...