Flooded field project

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

Thursday night rain slowed me down, but at least I know it will catch and hold water. Rain gauge showed 2" rain and I don't have the rise board gate blocking water yet.

You going to draw down soon (I would wait another month- try to hit a gulf event) and shoot for millet, or plant it this year?

Currently not holding back water. Will plant millet late august (try and pick before rain event). Once it up and established will drop boards in hopes of backing up water.

Even more dug out since last pics. But still have more I want to do.

Was able to get about 70% dug out of what I wanted to this past summer. It caught some water from last weeks rain. Basically it's got about 18" of water on it all the way back to tree line. It's currently thick grass but with several open pockes.

Lookin Great! Congrats!

Have you been able to hunt it this year? How has it been?

I have not. Had water right before the season that eventually was absorbed/evaporated. Haven't seen ducks on our other ponds though (smaller ponds). Figured I would hit you up on some info regarding your well (size and such) before next season. But before I have a well drilled, I want to expand that area another 3-4 acres and dig out another area on the property for another duck hole.

Mine is 250 ft. down with a 5 hp pump on a 4" pipe. Pushes out about 100 gallons a minute. Perfect for small habitats. Cost about $13k to put in.

Thanks for the info. Wife is onboard for a well (she likes the idea of a water back up). I figure it makes more sense to get all the duck hole projects dirt work done, then well and how to determine how to get the water to the different areas.

Headed out to Haskell area this weekend for a goose hunt, so at least getting a couple hunts in.

Seeing many ducks at your place? Sure could use some cold weather to push some ducks.

We had to drain and regrade after the first year due to settlement issues. Once dirt settled with that much water setting on it, we got it right.

We hunted twice 1st split due to family/college visits with kids. Shot 2 limits with 2 guns each hunt. Couldve killed way more if I had more guns. But alot of teal. Was able to hunt Saturday last weekend, and I couldnt see my levy or furthest decoy til almot 10. Fog was as thick as Ive ever hunted. Only saw 3 birds and killed 2.

I dont really have guest start coming out til about this time of year and January. So we will see. We also hunt it every other weekend. That way it has time to rest and reload. Seems to really work out there where we are.

Naive question here- when doing projects like these, are yall paying attention to soil type when making levees? I know for stock tanks we've had done they focus on getting down to clay to hold the water. Is that a thought on the moist soil unit type builds or not a big concern when only holding seasonal water?

I really wasn't making a levee as much as I was trying to find places to stack the dirt I was removing. The area naturally would hold water, just not a large enough area to hunt. Therefore I assume the clay content is enough to hold water. I actually plan to come back and cut the berms down because I really need no more depth than what I dug out. It was mostly full from the rains we got several weeks before duck season. Currently its dry but last Friday was the first rain we've had out there since it was full. Once I finish all my dirt work I will look at having a well dug and won't be dependent on seasonal rains.