Do yall think you can hunt them to much this early in the season. I don't think it will matter much because the birds aren't staying anyways. Its been loaded up the last week and a half and its been hard not to hunt it. Any experiences with this....thanks in advance.

This is something I have been wondering to. How much pressure can a large private lake take? Say around a 5 acre puddle. I have been wanting to hunt it but, I wanna wait for the timing to be right. Also, on these ponds and lakes, what is it most of you would look for to assess whether or not that pond could potentially hold ducks or not?

How big is the lake? As long as you have fresh migrations it's like anything else meaning you should be fine. However if the weather gets stagnate and birds become locals then you can very easily hunt a spot too many times and ruin it at least until the next push of birds comes in. If it is a massive piece of water then just switch up hunting different places on it and you should be fine.good. luck.

look for food for the birds. mine is about choked out with grass right now and it seems like we cant keep the teal and grey ducks off of it and it's continually holding 3-4 hundred.

Just look for birds. That's the best way to tell if it'll hold birds... plain and simple ...you'll see them.

I have hunted some private lakes in mills co. For 15 years and we hit them hard once a week at least and they do fine. Hope this helps the ponds are from one to 15 acres.

thanks guys ya this will be the third time we hit this lake since the opener and its right around 10-11 acres

If there's birds there and you wanna kill em go do it! Like the others said, the worst that can happen is they clear out till the next front pushes new birds down. Cappy hunts his spot almost daily and still has good birds all year it seems.

didnt think about that looks like we are gonna hit it in the morning. have a good weekend gentlemen

Ya man you should be fine

Cappy works on his ponds practically all year, even when he hunts it 3-4 d a week, he is only 1 or 2 hunters on it shooting less than 10 times, and im sure he is out of his blind at 8 30 most of the time. His ponds are full of water with tons of water, and he is just north east enough. I would run his place just like he is running it

I hunt on over 100acres and anymore than one day a week you can tell the difference in the birds... to many other places for them to go if they need to this year

Sweet deal. Thanks for the help all. Seems like all the ducks I have been killing on the lakes have been in around 6-10 inches of water. Seems the ducks act a little different on these tanks though. Like they don't mind as much how deep the water is. I know the puddlers only feed as far as they can tip up but, what are yall's thoughts on water depths for hunting ponds and private lakes?

deep water is there safe zone... they want to be in the shallows... if your hunting one big enough that can lead to the problem once you start shooting... the ones there will pile out in the deep and then its hard to draw birds into a spread when the real thing is out in the open..i try to find a middle ground...like the mouth of a slu or something like that

but these birds for the most part are leaving on the next front so I might as well hit them while I can right? or am i wrong

That is a good question. It seems like some ducks localize regardless of a cold front coming through or not.

So I would be doing well to find a middle ground where I wanna set up but put my decoys in some sort of pattern to resemble ducks feeding? So that I would still have quality shooting opportunities if they light in the deeper water? That is how I have been doing things lately and last season but, I had not hunted many ponds until moving to Texas five years ago. So hunting these ponds and what not is pretty new to me.

And, it seems that on scouting trips in the afternoons, I see birds holding some place on the lake and go hunt the next morning and they are nowhere to be found and no visible source of food. What gives? Are they just staging prior to heading to roost or just full up from grass and bugs from earlier in the day?

Best thing about private lakes is you can scout where the birds go and hunt it. Just take some binos go out and see where the x is and get on it. That's all you have to do.

Ya birds will assemble and loaf and socialize. Birds don't always have to be feeding and such though most flocks you will see at least a few birds nibbling around. Some birds will stage on a place before a front. Some will rest on a place for a few days after they migrate down.

I hit my private spots 2-3 times a week, with hardly any difference in birds unless hunting back to back days. If the birds are there I'd hunt em.

When they stage on a place before a front and after they migrate down, I would assume there would need to be food present for them to hang out? To either refuel after making to long flight or to prepare for the upcoming flight correct? Again, thanks for all the help fellas.

They'll be feeding somewhere either there or close by. If it gets loaded with ducks, there's feed around.

I hunt one private pond twice a week (Sat & Wed) the other I hunt on Sunday. The key to my places keeping birds is 1) new fronts coming in 2) leaving by 8am 3) keeping the empty hulls cleaned up

Keeping the hulls cleaned up definitely makes sense. That red and gold are bright. I don't know what color the black cloud hulls are, I am not a high roller like most of you guys on here so I have to shoot the XPERT's....