Legal way to create open water in rice field?

Nutria on a leash tied to a steak

If you figure a way please let us know. The nutria on a leash might be the only option

According to all I've heard, if it's unharvested you can't manipulate it at all. If it's on second crop, maybe you can roll it down. We've used a 6' long pipe (bollard) drug behind a 4 wheeler before to roll down the stubble. Of course that's after harvest.

Anything done that would not be considered a normal agricultural practice for rice production or crawfish production in flooded rice fields would put you jeopardy with the law. For example, if you were creating open area trapping lanes to place crawfish traps in flooded rice field of un-cut rice by using a wheeled crawfish combine to lay down the rice that would be considered by crawfish aquaculture experts a “normal” or common practice for crawfish production, although most trappers would rather cut trapping lanes prior to flooding. I wouldn’t be willing to potentially go to court over it if LDWF enforcement didn’t see it that way.

Buffalo/Snake Charmer/Roller-Crimper/whatever you want to call it.

If it’s unharvested, you’ll just have to figure out a way to do it without making a noticeable footprint and claim it lodged or wind did it. A friend with a helicopter would come in handy as shite.

Long story short, you're out of luck.

Last year when everything was going on with soybeans, I had a guy contact me asking for advice on a soybean field that had been plowed under for insurance purposes. The agent he talked to informed him that it would be considered baiting because it was not a normal agricultural practice.

It looks like rice that gets squashed though normal bird retrieval, decoy deployment etc. is acceptable. I guess I can ride around putting decoys out for an hour or so.