Areas to Scout Wood Ducks?

Strong first post

Plenty in sherburne. Venture away from 120

Wood ducks in the slough off powerline in sherburne. Longer the hike, better the shooting. Slough can get deep in parts

There is also a little pond slough on river side of the road that isnt hunted and holds pretty well

Fresh water next to the edges of some thick shite. Don’t worry about wind direction unless it is blowing 20ish miles an hour.

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Nothing like shooting wood ducks on a cloudy evening coming into the roost at dark thirty

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St James boat club. Paddle under the bridge. Those sloughs have been good to me.

Pass shooting is all I’ve been doing, so as long as they are in the general area I feel like I can find where they are flying. Having them land would be a bonus

It is dependent on river level and rain how much water gets in there.

They have a line of wood duck boxes but I've been in there when water was so deep u couldnt wade it.

I've seen more wood ducks this year than the last 5 combined. Probablt have 3 to 400 roosting on my place. Awesome to watch at dark

I usually make a woodie hunt before my woodcock hunts. This year has been the fewest I have seen in 20 years.

North farm and south farm holding next to NO ducks this year.

Many areas of sherburne are starting to get salvinia which has drastically reduced the number of woodies there. the demise of the green tree area has also hampered the amount of birds held there. Go scout evenings and find spots where they are going go hunt those areas in the am. If you suck at shooting and it takes you a lot of shots to kill 3 - someone will home in on your spot and it will be toast.


another issue for sherburne is a huge increase in pressure this year. especially people riding on levees at night has been pushing many that used to roost in sloughs along levee out. if it's less than a 20 minute walk - it probably isn't worth it. even the restricted area off little alabama isn't holding ducks this year.

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starting to get salvinia

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This seems to be a common problem.

I Googled "salvinia," and this is in the Wiki page:

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From a human point of view, when their growth is robust the plants pose a particular hindrance on lakes. For example, they choked off much of the water in Lake Bistineau near Doyline in Webster Parish, Louisiana and affected a second Webster Parish site, Caney Lakes Recreation Area.[4]

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Giant salvinia (Salvinia molesta) is a commonly introduced invasive weed in warm climates. It grows rapidly and forms dense mats over still waters. It is native to South America. A tiny weevil, Cyrtobagous salviniae, has been used successfully to control giant salvinia.

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One proposed use takes advantage of the hydrophobic trichomes, which do not repel oil. This makes them candidates for mopping up oil spills, as they become saturated with oil in thirty seconds. S. molesta trichomes served as a model for a similarly hydrophobic synthetic polycarbonate.[6]

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