Duck Lease

Speaking of a duck lease anyone know of any around Temple? I'd want one were I could drive to the morning of so I guess it would need to be about an hour or less from Temple.

Texas Defender, It would probably be just myself and maybe one other. I'm just getting into the duck hunting again, so still trying to find out who has a lease, and who I would care to hunt with.

Marcstar, I'm looking in your area as well. Its alot closer to the house, but I don't mind traveling for a weekend hunt.
Thanks

Here are some pictures from my game cam over the food plot on the lake.






The lake is in the middle of two big hills. It has oak trees on the one side, as you can tell in the pictures, the area where the camera and foodplot is in is usually flooded. I plan on digging a few trenches before it comes back up. There are no duck blinds. The lake was covered in cattails last year but we took most of them out except for a few up by the dam and at the top of the lake. I've gotten a few replies on what kind of ducks are on it and from what I can tell there are, mallards, teal, and the usual ducks like gadwall and widgeons. Like I said before I'm not a duck hunter so I don't know the difference between some ducks and there are no geese but that could change next year because they are in the area and they should come to the food plot. The last time I tried to count all the ducks I stopped at 300 and that wasn't even half way through! I'll get better pictures of the lake and ducks when I get to my home computer.

TreeBass...I hear you on the travel thing. It's pretty common for most deer leases to have a cabin or trailer for hunters...but then again those leases are around $1000. Having a place to stay makes it ok to go the night before. But as far as I know, most duck leases the set up isnt like that and obviously the cost is much lower.

In fact I only know two people personally that have "duck" leases...most people will have a deer lease and also be able to hunt pretty much anything else including duck if they have tanks.

Ducks are all over this area so I don't see why I'd go more than an hour away to a duck lease. However if I wanted a duck/goose lease that might be a different story.

TexasDefender,

Do you lease your land for other kind of hunting? Just wondering because I guess that would be good to know...if you are hunting ducks you might piss off some deer hunters by shooting so much in the morning.

Also you could also consider doing a day lease kind of thing. I did one of those this year for one duck hunt. I think the going rate for those types of things is from $25-50/gun (nonguided). Although...that would be a lot more work for you and you might have more people coming and going on your land than you'd want to bother with. On the plus side, you could make more money that way.

You could also get together with a seasoned duck hunter and have him do guided hunts on your land...you'd obviously charge much more per gun for that. As a guided duck hunt could range from $100-200 per gun.

Lots of options, just depends on how much time you want to put into it. But from the pictures it's obvious you pond holds ducks. I can't tell what kind they are from the pictures but there are a lot of them on the water.

The ranch is 250 acres but I would only lease the lake since it shouldn't be hard to limit out imo. This would be my first time to lease the place and I am the only one deer hunting and I'm really just managing since I haven't killed a deer there in two years. I'm thinking a group of 5 would be a good amount of people to hunt maybe more. There is a possibility of putting a camper on the place but there is a nice hotel 5 min away with T.V. shower and good food in town. I don't really want the hassle of running hunts, I'm just looking for a good group too be responsible and enjoy the place.

It really depends on the number of birds, where the birds ar coming from going etc. A 20 acre lake can only be hunted one or two times a week and that is pushing it unless the ducks just really want in there. Ducks are way to pressure sensitive to be hunted hard on a place like what you are describing.I would lease it to 1 guy with guest privledges (within reason.) I personally wouldnt pay more than 500 bucks for it unless something phenominal was drawing the ducks in there. My 2 cents

The other thing to consider is that that corn feeder would have to be moved. I believe that that would be considered baiting even if the ducks never ate a bite. I will go look for the regs.

*** Edit here is the distance rule***

Distance
How close to bait can you hunt without breaking the law? There is no set distance. The law prohibits hunting if bait is present that could lure or attract birds to, on, or over areas where hunters are attempting to take them. Distance will vary depending on the circumstances and such factors as topography, weather, and waterfowl flight patterns. Therefore, this question can only be answered on a case-by-case basis.

I dont think the wardens would be very understanding.

I mentioned that in the Lease section. When you have pics of ducks flying from the feeder, that is baiting. I would not hunt it unless I knew it had been empty for a long time. Law is you cannot hunt a place until 10 days after all bait has been removed. There is no law on distance, but a good rule of thumb is to not have a feeder by a lake and want to hunt the lake.

hey defender pm sent! are you getting my messages?

Defender - PM sent.

That is a small lake and will not take much pressure! You hammer the place a few days in a row and bye bye ducks. More might push in with every new front but I would guide hunts not lease. Hit it two times a week and let it rest. If you need a person to guide some hunts let me know.
ejriggs501@sbcglobal.net

Thanks for all the replies and keep them coming. The feeder will be moved if needed. I have not seen ducks under the feeder just on the food plot. A guy that looks over the place has hunted it several times and there has been no difference in the amount of ducks. I have read most of the pm's it just takes a while to respond to them. Again the people that are wanting to lease it, I will get back to you in the order you responded when I come up with a price. From what I can tell the ducks are flooding in here, I have duck hunted a few places with people that are serious duck hunters and I've never seen anything like this before so this is definately an above average lake.

Deleted phone pictures better pictures below.
The usual lake level would be to the oak trees, all of the broken up ground would be underwater.

I forgot to mention there is a second lake, about 3 acres, behind the big lake. It is surrounded by cattails at the moment but won't be by the summer.

View of second lake from the big lakes dam.

I'd be interested if you can PM me some more info about the place, details...

A little more information about the place:

There are no cattle or other livestock on the property right know, there will be a few cows and horses but they'll be on another part away from the lake.
There is not a steep drop off from the banks, very gradual.
There is a place to launch a boat, as well as two docks.
The roads are in good shape and access is easy.
Any other questions about the lake or lease let me know.

Here are some better pictures of the lake: