Been toying with the idea for a while. This year my work schedule allows me 6 days to sneak away for a duck hunt road trip. Would a DIY trip to the Panhandle be possible or should I direct my attention elsewhere for a DIY trip like this? Are landowners friendly to day use hunting or is it similar to down south where it is very hard to hunt unless you own land/go public? I'll probably go with a guide service one day but everything else would like to do my own scouting/door knocking/hunting if possible.

Pretty much all the water/plays are leased up by outfitters up there. You can get access to fields, but with all the outfitters the land owners are accustomed to receiving $100-$250 a day that they grant access.

Personally I would go to a different state that has more public land access.

I agree, the panhandle will be hard to get access to. Even for the fields, tracking down a land owner is about down right impossible. There's also no duck hunting WMA's up there either.

I've lived here for 30 + years and I would not bet on a landowner letting you hunt, and tracking the landowner down could eat up a couple days.

I would drive up to Oklahoma or Kansas if it was me, especially if you have a boat. Panhandle is tough if you don't have private access. Not much public land to hunt, and fields can be hit or miss even if you do get access. New Mexico has some good lakes as well if your willing to drive a little farther west.

Or work your way down the coast for a week and see what you can get into.

Thanks for the responses. Unfortunately the answers I was sorta expecting. I'll look into a few of our neighboring states but may ultimately end up at the coast as its close

We're going to Kansas in November. We may get frozen out but we're going to combine it with pheasant.