As I impatiently wait for something with hair to enter my arena by PK Lake, I have a larger stock tank about 100 yds from my blind I plan to go hate on a bit after deer season is over. Bumper acorn drop has really put the hurt on visible deer and hogs.

I’ve never seen a pond/tank get such a wide variety of birds before in quantity. Woodies, Hoodies, Widgeon, Gadwall, Ringers and occasionally a Mallard or two (no Teal oddly enough). I can only see about 1/4 of it from here, but the above seems to encompass the regular visitors I watch through a spotting scope as they swim around.

Most of my duck hunting was in S. La., have done some here with my boys before they decided they didn’t want to hunt. My experience has been you mostly got a single breed with occasional other visitors, depending on where you were.

Is the proximity to a large lake the reason for the variety?

Charlie

A lot of variables at play, but region/flyaway, water condition, food source will be your reasoning for species of ducks you have. Being close to a lake is good. But I can hunt a lake, one area of the lake could hold nothing but mallards, another area could be nothing put pintail, another area could be nothing but wood ducks, another area could be nothing but teal, and another area could be a variety, all on a single lake....

Where I hunt in north Texas I just don’t see many widgeon, but I been on some lakes out west, 90% widgeon.

It’s my first time ever seeing a Woodie and a Ringneck, saw my first Canvasback last year, none this go around. I guess I’ve lead a sheltered life... I do want a Woodie for a home office mount, bringing my layout with me next trip.

Charlie

Any time you have divers...ring-necks, bluebills, redheads, cans, mergansers, and even coots...you will virtually always also have widgeon...they make their living off the hard work of other ducks...sort of like a specific political party's members...Acorns washing into or falling into tanks = wood ducks + mallards...just my experience on stock tanks and soil conservation lakes here in Central Texas...

Having a variety of ducks is great, and one of the things about hunting Texas that I really like. If you have woodies on your place I'm assuming you have a creek or river near by that ducks frequent. This exposes the ducks to your pond but they will stay for a couple reasons. The first and most obvious is a food source. Check the edges of the bank and see if there is anything with seed growing around or in the pond. If there is no food source they could just be loafing or roosting on the pond to escape pressure.

Have you noticed if the ducks fly to the pond each morning? Or are they already on the pond when you get to the stand in the morning? If its the latter I'd hunt in the evening and not throw out any decoys. Woodies are extremely decoy shy, and they will be landing on the pond regardless. If it's the first you probably have a feed hole and are in for a couple good shoots.Good luck and let us know how it goes.

You just like to slap the trigger and shoot anything things that flies.

At my place it’s primarily Wood Ducks,Gadwalls, Ringers, and Hood Mergansers. Less common, but generally get a few Widgeon also every year. Really never see anything outside of these ducks (with Teal also being non existent!). However, for the 1st time ever l did see 4 Mallards (1 Drake and 3 hens). I wish they were not Unicorns in my neck of the woods. I will probably have to wait another 20 years before that happens again

Definitely not a racist when it comes to ducks. I just hunt the stupid ones..