As the title states, I am looking for some advice on approaching the land owner to the North of our place to ask permission to duck hunt on his tanks for next season. From what I can tell, he does not hunt at all for anything or currently leases out to other hunters. The tanks are what they are without any improvements. I am not looking to hunt all the time, probably 4-5 times next year if that. I do not know the exact acreage of the tanks, but they are not very big. Mid January there were a lot of ducks in my very novice opinion (40 per / the two tanks), but I do not know if that is the norm. I'm thinking that being the SiL of the land owner to the south might help my cause. He knows I am not going to screw with the place and if anything upsets him he can find me. If it comes down to $$$ what is a fair price for the year or by hunter? The place is in Eastland Co. near Carbon. Thanks in advance.

Just go introduce yourself and ask him if you can hunt it. Trade him hunting for any work around his place or money that you see fit. Most of the ones i've worked with, like the work.

Worst he can tell you is no...

Keep in mind that the reason why it may not be leased is that the landowner isn't concerned about making a buck. Find a good time to approach him and see what he has to say. Be courteous and respectful and you may have a place to hunt for free. Good Luck!

I already asked him. Its mine

This^^

Thanks beaversnipe - hopefully you asked for two guns. Thanks for replies. That was my plan. Since I'm obviously new to this, what is a fair price if he wants $$$.

Without specifics, for a hole in the ground without blinds or improvements you could pay as little as $1000 to $2000 for a single small tank to $4000 to $8000 if there are a several tanks tanks that are spread out across a larger type ranch. Larger bodies of water would cost more. That is a broad range, but without much more information, that should get you close.

Offer 150 with a deal to double if you and him agree on you hunting the 2nd year. Consider it a tral run for the both of you.

I lease a place that's 100 acres and has 4 ponds on it. None of them are real big, but all of them have ducks. I started paying $200/year. Then someone tried to lease it out from under me because of all of the shooting that they heard me doing, so the guy said he would take $300/year from now on since he knows I take care of the place and look after it. I was introduced to this gentleman through mutual friends, so I had that going for me. So far he has let me put up an electric fence around one of the ponds so that I can drain and plant it and he has given me permission to build permanent blinds because he knows if I build them, they will be built right and not be left to deteriorate and become an eye sore. Good luck with your conversation and start low on price and feel him out.

Oh, and the place I have is located within 30 minutes of Frisco.

If he is your neighbor I would go introduce myself and be neighborly. I would spend some time getting to know him (you’ve got 9 months) and after you develop a friendship I would just ask him if he minds if you coming over a few times and hunt his pond.

If it was my land and you were my neighbor and I had not met you yet and the only reason you wanted to introduce yourself to me was to hunt my land I would most likely say no. IMO

I found a good 4 acre pond the last week of this season nearby. Was out scouting after a morning hunt with a buddy and saw 4 Honkers and lots of ducks there. We don't get very many Honkers around here. I decided to go ask the houses on/near the property for hunting permission and information.
After visiting two houses we only got a name. He has cattle and an active Pump-jack working, and isn't home much due to working in the oilfield (according to his neighbors who only Hog hunt on his property.)I don't suspect that he needs or wants the $$$ for someone hunting his place.
We never made contact with the owner in time this Yr. but there is a contact for my friends who will visit him throughout the time leading up to next season. If I was still around, I would turn him into a duck hunter...

Send him a fruit basket

Introduce yourself and ask him what it's going to take to lease it. And you can probably count on someone trying to throw more money at the LO in the future so build a good relationship and get at least a 5 year lease in writing.

Start pulling out cash everyone has a price.

We got a place this year 20 minutes from my apartment in grand prarie, trade work for hunts... and its a honey hole. Nice old man, BUT last wkend of the season I went with some buddys on saturday and hardly any birds showed up, the old man came down to talk to us while we were in the blind hunting at 7:45 and told us he had been blasting the ducks all week and was just tickled...

but it was still worth it prior to that

Let me know if you need help working on the place, Im right around the corner

back in 2010 we had a guy from our dove lease offer us $500 a gun to hunt ducks from our stock tanks....we got 12 ponds scattered across about 2000 acres with some of the ponds having trees around, some with no cover at all...and some years the ducks can be thick other years notta....

Honestly that sounds way off base for what one person would pay. For one pond I'm thinking $150-400 for the entire season for the one person. I've done day hunts at places for $35-50 per gun. The guy says he would hunt it 4 or 5 times during the season which for one spot sounds about right. I know lots of people that have multiple spots and try not to hunt any one spot more than once a week. The numbers you quote would be full access for entire properties that have multiple spots and would allow you to have as many people hunt those spots as the ducks would allow. More of what an outfitter would pay for the right place.