Bought this property up in Fannin county a couple years ago. One of the attractions for me was the potential to be able to "catch water" to flood a field to duck hunt. Most of the pressing projects are done or almost done, so now I can start on some of my hunting projects. This is the 1st of 3 potential flooded field projects.

Outlined in red is the area I plan to flood.

This shows how much water can move through the area. This was about a 1" rain and the ground was previously saturated so getting run off.

Plan to put a board gate in this area to back up water but also so I can drain and plant the area.

Where in Fannin county are you at?

I go up to my buddies place outside Honey Grove to hunt

Looks good! We are doing the same thing in the off season. Putting a corn field in that I am going to flood. Its going to be about 40 acres.....

You are up in my neck of the woods. We are 6 miles southeast of Honeygrove.

As long as you can remove the water when need be to plant or reseed. And add water before season. You'll do great. Food is the key. You have it, they will be there all season.

Either this season or next, we are going to expand our levy about another 5 acres to wrap around 5 acres of large oak trees that set right behind our spot now. That will give us 10 acres under water with 5 being solid millet, and 5 being acorn trees which we will throw millet in there as well.

This is what we are about to do in the next year or so.

I'm just east of Savoy.

This first phase of this project will be right at 3 acres. I need to pull out approximately 3' of dirt.

looks like some great projects sinkey and tm. open to any suggestions yall might have.

the green in the ditch is millet i had planted in the fall. the green in the field itself is wheat.

Once it dries out again, I should be able to start making a dent in phase 1. My plan is to have 3 possible flooded areas (2 fields and 1 wooded area). each area should end up around 5 acres or so each.

My advice......rent a dozer! I started with a tractor and it was a beating! You can move way more dirt with a dozer. Once you have your levy's done, you can maintain and plant with a tractor. I normally pull boards and draw down in May. By July I have about 50% of my spot that reseeds itself. The other 50% I plow and reseed with millet. Smartweed didnt grow well in my place but the millet does. Just sucks that since I plant, I cant touch it or cut it or anything. Also noticed Jap millet grew in certain spots, but not everywhere I planted. Wild Millet did ALOT better. Came in super thick. Which makes for lots of food. So thats what Ive been sticking with. You're going to have alot of trial and error with it.

We also have a well that pumps water back in. I dont start kicking it on til September. Dont really care about Teal season. I'd rather keep my food for big ducks!

I've looked at renting a dozer but just can't justify it yet. Mainly due to frequency of working on it. When it's wet I would probably bury a dozer. Maybe this summer when its drier but in mean time I'm pretty proficient with tractor. I would really like to find a small case dozer to buy, but in today's market you can't find them and when you do they want a mint.

Once I get it setup i will see about the need for a well. I'm sure there will be years that it would be useful but it is amazing the amount of water that runs through that ditch to the creek. Everything of the east side of the hill my barndo is on goes through that ditch.

You need a tracked skid steer. A lot better for most chores and projects than a dozer.
What HP are you pulling that 4 bottom plow with?

It’s 75hp and 4x4.

Awesome looking project, curious how much dirt you are moving in a day. We are looking at expanding a slough we hunt on and only have access to a 75hp front end loader.

That first stripping in that area (starting next stripping w/ plow) I did in a couple of hours and was about 10" in depth. I've gotten decently proficient at pushing dirt with box blade. Right now I am just moving pushed dirt close to build a berm around the area, but when I have to start taking excess to other areas I will become much slower. Might have to rent a dump trailer.

Haven’t been able to work on project due to being wet when I’m up there. So I bit the bullet and rented a skid steer w toothed bucket for a month. Btw myself and family, hope to keep it working 4 days or so a week. Will post up a pic of the 6 hrs I got done yesterday.

Lookin Good!

Little more work done today