This past year was my first season duck hunting on public land. I wanted to know what the off-season looked like for y'all.

What time of year do you scout new locations? And what do you look for when evaluating a new spot?

Wanted to put in some work this off-season so that I have a successful duck season next year.

Thanks in advance!

Honestly on public half the game is finding spots that are difficult to access. Most Barneys don't want to put in the work.

The best tip I can give you is take note of water levels when you scout. Then depending on how dry or wet of a year we have those spots you scouted could be dry ground or to deep to hunt come season.

Scouting in the offseason is more about just familiarizing your self with the area so when you cam back to it you have some idea of how to setup.

Other than that your not going to know if the area will hold birds or not.

Save all this energy for the season when it gets here. Go fishing....you can check out areas while slinging slabs. Water levels like mentioned above.

I got a log in excel going back to 2007, 466 entries/days on the water, 24 different lakes. I can filter on lake, water level, spots hunted or scouted, ducks seen/shot...date which is important you can look at pix on that date... If I want to hunt Lake X, I filter on that lake, then filter on current lake level, and I get all days on water with spots and notes.... Its critical data when you hunt public.