What is the average cost for a duck lease?

Ducks...who eats ducks...

If you are talking an annual/season long lease I would say it depends on what you are getting. If it's just one pond/lake it might only be a few hundred but if you have multiple spots it could be $300-1000 I guess depending on the number of spots, how good they are, lodging, number of people on the lease, guest rules, etc.

There was a guy with a $400/person lease a while ago and it was pretty much on one lake. It wasnt a bad deal until I learned there were going to be 10 people on it.

You really don't find too many duck leases like you do deer leases but one thing is clear there is not the same premium on a duck lease that there is on a deer lease...mainly I think because waterfowlers will not hunt the same spots over and over because they will get hunted out with too much pressure.

I personally like the idea of a day lease much better. Or just going on a guided hunt. But that's not to say if I found a good lease I wouldnt try to get on it.

It seems like the only ones I can find are A way over hunted where they throw 20 people on a pasture with a couple ponds.

Or 2,000 a gun

If you just want to hunt free and not have to scout just ask people on here for their spots on the local public lands.

ya know, you get what you pay for. And in compairison $2000 is not all that bad. There are a lot of places getting $5000 to $10,000 for a duck lease. Put all things in perspective, and all things are not going to fit for everyone.

I'm thinking those 5-10k leases are either the type that you would turn around and sublease or it would be the type of deal that has awesome hunting in multiple spots plus awesome lodging.

So yeah you do get what you pay for I guess it's always important to compare apples to apples. How many people/lease and much huntable land are the main things. Rules, lodging, etc are important as well.

Marcstar, if you look at clubs in texas I think you will find that the upper end clubs are still not million dollar lodge and no you can not sub-lease with most of them.
What I do not think people are looking at is the cost to lease the ground in the first place. If you would like 500 ac. of surface water you are going to lease probly no less than 2,000 acres of land. Most land owners want you to take all or nothing. if you look at that at the average rate of $20 per acre per year and do the math that is an overhead of $40,000 per year on just land, no planting, no lodging, no water manipulation, JUST THE LAND. If you devide that by 10 members that is 4,000 per member with each member having approx. 50 acres of surface water.

I do not alway like the way the hunting indusry is going in Texas, but it is what it is.


off topic but still a vallid point to the discution is
Guides get the rap that if it was not for them leases would be cheaper, that is insane For every lease that is out there leased by an outfitter there are probly 20 that are private. The land owners are setting the tone for what it costs to hunt in texas.

If I have to pay the land owners $75 for a guy to hunt, then figure out what I have to charge to cover the land plus the gas gear management advertisement insurace and guide wadges. And you still have not made a profit.

What I am getting at is everyone wants to eat steak but most can barley afford chicken!

One last thing, When pricing out something to someone you need to take things in consideration, if you are offering lodging to a member along with hunting people seem to think that the $5000.00 - $10,000 range includes the point hilton. Once again you have to take the cost of having the lodge into consideration.

If having a duck club that is a quality club could be accomplished at membership dues of $500 per man per year, and people get all that they are wanting, it would have happend many times over by now.

well If anyone wants to tell me the locations of some good public land spots just pm me the gps coordinates. Has anyone here done the day lease thing or gone on a guided hunt, how much do those run? I have some pretty good public spots, but you never know who else is gonna be out there turning the place into a frontline warzone. Just for one day it would be nice to not have to compete with a billion other hunters.

Look at how many members and how many different small lakes they have to hunt. Remember One really good size lake might as well be a tank if the wind directions isn't right. 10 members all hoping to get that end of the lake? You might as well hunt public. I don't and wouldn't pay to hunt ducks unless geese were involed.

The best way to find a spot opening day is to see where other people are set up, figure it must bee a good place to hunt, and set up 25 yards away.

Bwahaha

TXPH,
I think a duck club vs just a standard lease is kind of apples and oranges. The duck club will normally include a lot of other things that a standard lease might not. It all comes back to what you said...you get what you pay for...but I would say in some cases people might be paying a lot more than others and for things they might not want.

I have no problem with the price of any lease...it's the free market and a land owner has every right to get as much as he can. If it's too much it won't get leased but if he can charge a lot and it gets leased then that's that. As far as outfitters and guides making lease prices go up...well yeah they do but they are just filling the demand they have from hunters and yeah if they didnt lease it a private party probably would. If they pay more for a lease than they can get from hunters then they would go out of business...so again it's free market and there should be no blame or anger towards any guide or outfitter for offering a service. The anger from hunters just comes from them wanting to hunt everything for free and finding out that they have to pay to play...it's sucks but thats the state of how hunting is these days. There are still plenty of free spots if someone is willing to put in the work (which really means nothing is free).

Marcstar, that was beautiful. I wish I could write that well. I agree with everything you said. Hunting has changed over the years. Now a days hunting for the right lease takes more skill than the actual hunt.

You can get lucky. I found one that is $500 a gun and that includes ducks,dove and great bass fishing.

If you had a lease for 5k on a 72 day season it would cost you $69.4 to hunt every day. If you just hunted on weekends it would cost you $312.50,each time you hunt. It would prolly be cheaper to hire a guide.

Kdub- i will show you some places next year that are good when we have rain and the lakes are up.

Also, for guided hunts... I generally take one once a year and it is around $300 for an afternoon duck and morning goose with lodging and meals.

I'd say $300 for a afternoon duck, lodging, meals, and then a goose hunt is a great deal...where do you go?

I've gone to places where it's about $250 or so just for the one hunt plus lodging and meals.

Stanfields out in Knox City.... Can't say enough good things about them and the way he runs his outfit

First Class all around

DBU Mallard I cant wait! By the way what strings can you pull as far as attendance is concerned? Ill probably be missing quite a few classes when the season starts.

Has everyone given up on knocking on doors or locating the landowner by going to the Tax Appraisal office when they notice ponds on land? There IS free opportunities out there, but it is up to you to do a little hustling. Sure, not all with grant you permission, but there are landowners/farmers that would welcome you with a little assistance in fencework, repair, shredding, who knows what else.

Maybe it's just me, but I seem to stumble upon landowners all the time and with a little talking, get permission to hunt (maybe not all species), fish and trap with a friendly face, good manners, letting them know when I will be out there, locking gates back if locked, keeping gates open if already open and respecting their roads and pastures.

Heck, I've had permission to hunt a ranch with over 3 really nice ponds on one side of the highway (about 400ac) and another 6 on the other side of the highway (over 2000ac) all the way to the Colorado River. All the ponds are stocked, I can hunt any species except for deer, fish all of them and have complete trapping permission for the past 5-6 years and have yet done any. That may very well change if I get off my deer lease after this season. I will hit the ponds this year for ducks since they usually hold good birds each year.