Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk AL Wingshooters Making a new duck hole from scratch

I am wanting to put a duck hole in on my property. I see them flying over regularly and also hear shooting within earshot on the neighboring properties. The area I want to put the duck hole stays wet during the winter but dries out during the summer. It is rain dependent as to whether it holds water or not. I could make the hole anywhere from 1 to 3 acres. My thought was to get a dozer in there to push a bunch of dirt out and build a dam to help hold water in. I’ve Never built a duck hole before so any advice is greatly appreciated.

It's a lot of work and investment for little to no reward. IF you get it done, it will take a while for ducks to imprint on it. Considering you are in Alabama, it will probably be just wood ducks. IF you get a few ducks, you will only be able to shoot it once, maybe twice a year and that's not until after you give them a couple years to imprint. You are not going to build a place that you can go shoot consistently unless you're bordering the refuge and can plant several acres of cropland to flood. I tell you this because I've been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Just trying to save you some time and money.

As driveby mentioned if you are just wanting to do it I’d take a dozier and belly out an area big as possible and plant corn or millet. Don’t shoot the hole or pressure ducks in any way for a couple years. Then just shoot it once or twice a year when ducks are there. Still then be in and out.

It is going to cost a lot of time and $$$$$$ to set up a duck hole. The rewards are not guaranteed and ducks respond to pressure by flying to the next state or country. It would be much simpler to book a guided trip twice a year. You will kill more ducks and it will be significantly cheaper.

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If you try such a long shot don't let your dozier man push all your topsoil up into dikes like a lot of fields I have tried to plant

If you have birds in the area your already got that going. We built two holes in the mid 90s and the early 2000s. Planted both in corn and no the wee at least 6acres in size along with timber on the south and eastern portion of the hole. We also planted wheat on the open she’s of the holes and believe it o not woodies would feed on the wheat more than the big birds. Used to see them dry feed the wheat fields in arkie many years ago when things froze up.

The bigger the better.

What part of the state is the property.

Plant Milo. Reseed it a few times in October and November let it rest Then give er hell 1-2 times in December then again last of January. Birds need a place to rest never over hunt a hole. Leave any acorn trees you can.

The key to the whole shebang that hunters with limited opportunities wrestle with on a constant basis. It is like gaining/losing weight...it is really easy to put it on (shoot em up when they're there) and really hard to take it off (let em rest to build numbers).

Iv done both and honestly I don’t think you can save a hole to shoot later. I also don’t believe you can blast away every day.

Here’s my belief cause it served us well for years but things have changed so I’m not so sure any longer.

We’ve saved holes and lost the birds for some reason. I’ve also scouted a hole and see nothing and go anyways and smash them.

But then the years I think then biggest problem these days is blasting the hole all day long. A long day for us used to be 8am. Wed joke about leaving after the 8 O’clock flight. Lots of times we’d leave before 8. We sometimes didn’t kill a limit and that was ok.

These days heck these days folks stay out all day long. Constant pressure has changed everything.

Back in the good old days we confuse ducks in the afternoon off a hole and grab a seat. Within 15 minutes we’d start picking off the drakes. Flush m these days and they may leave the county.

A bigger limit and longer season have to exaggerated the pressure.

Like mentioned on another thread. Weather, I’ve killed them in tshirts while swatting mosquitoes and sweating
The biggest change I’ve personally seen is how much pressure and how constant the pressure is. Nothing likes being pressured, specifically hunting pressure.

Thanks for all of the replies. I appreciate the advice. Doesn’t sound like many of you are super optimistic…I’m not gonna say y’all have talked me out of it but I will say I’m rethinking it.

May wait until the next time we have a dozer in there and just have them clear out the area and push as much dirt up as they can. Dig the hole out a little bit more so that it will hold more water and just see what happens. Don’t want to sink a ton of money into something that won’t be any good

Clear out an area as big as possible, leave all the acorn dropping trees, dam it up and leave a spot for risers you can put in at different levels and remove after season. Have an area where you can plant and flood whatever you can, corn, millet, ect. If you can get smartweed going in another area or button bush plants along with some acorn trees ducks will imprint on it year round if you have a small area that will hold water year round then build the risers up closer to season to flood the area you plant crop on. Another thing that will help is if you can get an area holding water year round is to put some wood duck boxes out. And it is legal to bait you just can’t hunt over it so if you can get some ducks using it and can hold out on shooting them for a year or two then dump a couple hundred pounds of corn out and let them get in there really good and get comfortable and they will remember it and even if you do hunt it load it up with deer corn after season.

That’s it. I’ve been planting oaks and cypress that do well in wet soil. Buying from mossy oak nursery. I’ve planted Tupelo and others that like moist soils and also pulling up pin oak seedlings in the flower beds. They’re all doing well. Some of these trees are producing now but it’ll be a few more years before I get a great crop.

We are going to try to hold water this year. Fixing to drain some fields but not the wetter ones. No water means no ducks in my area

I did what you’re talking about and have had good success. I’ll PM you my phone number. I would definitely do it.

You could also just buy your poultry from the grocery store, or even have a restaurant cook it for you. That would be even cheaper and easier!

Having a place of your own where you get to call the shots (literally) and mess around and make mistakes and learn and then take friends is a lot more fun, in my opinion.

There are lots of places far from the Mississippi River that kill plenty of ducks and may even do so more consistently than the alluvial flood plain known as the MS delta.

Yep a big flock of Roen ducks in the backyard is probably the best!


I own a few beaver sloughs in a local swamp. When I first purchased them, we killed 50-100 ducks a year. Neighbor changed the natural sloughs further down the swamp and changed the local flyway.. That hole hasn't produced since they came in and did a lot of dirt work to "improve the duck hole". The ducks flocked to the natural sloughs for whatever reason and since manipulatiing it they simply went elsewhere.

Couldn't count the number of times I have hunted a spot and killed ducks only to have an identical spot not fire a shot. Hard to say why but convincing ducks to use a new area is a crap shoot.

I know this. Putting in a clemson leveler and working like a dog to establish millet made no difference since the change. The best thing I did was to quit hunting those areas. Now I hunt them once to three times a year. Last year killed 9 and the hunting was much improved.

This is the way. Manage/set it up as a moist soils type habitat and enjoy it as a relaxing hobby. If you shoot some ducks, from time to time, that’s gravy.

Useless when there aren't any ducks anymore

One buddy declined having a duck hole made in his place. I went out and we laid it out. Dozer was on site and he just decided he wasn’t gonna put in an effort. He’s been duck hunting longer than myself and we met duck hunting. Said it’s not worth it for the disappointment.