Rice Field Hunters

I wanted to do a little survey from the rice field hunters out there...As many of you know, I found a rice field lease this year after losing my marsh lease. I am kinda skeptical about rice fields, and as I thought, I am not having much success. To be honest, I have had to work on many of the better hunting days, but I have been able to make seven hunts so far this year. We killed 7 ducks total out of my blind so far. I have resorted to using MOJO's, which I am not a big fan of, because I am surrounded by them in the adjacent fields, but they don't do much if there aren't any ducks to see them. This past hunt, I only say maybe 10 ducks the whole morning. It seems like the ducks hang out in the rice fields until they get shot at. You have one weekend to make a good hunt, then after the opener, they are gone. In the marsh, I always seemed to see ducks in the area, even if they didn't come to my pond. It is only the first week of the second split and I am not seeing any ducks already. Then I get on here and read the reports about how they are killing them at the wax and the marsh and SE LA....Just wondering, how are you other rice field hunters doing out there?

im hunting rice feilds in bunkie...and it sucks big time...where are you hunting at?

We hunt south of rayne and on average we kill 8-10 birds a day. We have one large pond open water on one side and a plowed field to our backs. Depending on the wind and weather we may not use mojos and other times we use as many as 5, juss depends on what the birds wanna see. We do better on mornings when there are more ppl hunting in the area keeps the birds moving around . But last year hunting the same blind we only killed 7 the whole season ,this year our first split we killed 115 birds.

I am hunting between Ville Platte and Whiteville. Seems like the opening weekend, I watch flocks and flocks dive into the open water fields with mojos....last couple of hunts just not even seeing ducks anymore...I'll keep at it and maybe have a good trip before the season ends.

Guy L are you hunting at Cazan's Lake?

Ever stop to wonder why the guys who were leasing the blind last year didn't lease the blind again this year?

a couple years ago i leased a blind in a rice field and killed two ducks the whole year.

this year i leased a rice field blind and would bring the farmer the money for next season tomorrow!

Yep. Cazan Lake.

I have been hunting there for 15 years, my blind is in Open Lake. We limited out the first 3 days of the the season and have been struggling since. The problem is ove the past few years there have been more and more 4 wheeler traffic around there and this causes the birds to leave. We have had years where we killed over 400 birds a year but not in the past few years. We try to hunt the incoming fronts and seem to do better for a couple of days with new birds. Late season always gets better. I try to follow the surveys done and when there are good concentrations of birds on Catahoula Lake we get more birds.

We have a ricefield leased northeast of you. We took 100 ducks the first split and 31 on the first weekend of the 2nd split. We use a large decoy spread w. 3-4 Mojos & 1 Vortex. I am of the opinion hunting front-in days + 1-2 following present the best opportunities concerning best results. When the birds are flying high we are very aggressive when calling.

There are a lot of factors that make some rice fields better than others.

1st is the fields near any of the local flyways?
Location,Location,Location

2nd How did the farmer leave the fields after harvest? If he bush hogged the stubble ,plowed or disced or rolled it flat most of the feed is burried so deep the ducks can't get to it. any of the above will deminish how many ducks are using the fields. If all you are killing is new birds this is probably the case.

3rd if the above is true the ducks have already been imprinted on which fields to avoid.

4th how well are the pitblinds hidden? If the tops are open the ducks see the hole in the ground and will flare every time.

These are just a few factors off the top of my head to consider.

not all rice fields are great spots but can be made so.
runingunin

Went again this morning and came home with 0 ducks. Walked the levees and shot a few poule d'eaus for fun.

As far as the field I am hunting, the farmer left the second head rice standing and I had a 60yd by 100yd pond opened up to hunt at the start of the season. Figured the ducks would love the feast, but only shot a few while most of the ducks piled into the next field over with no stubble at all, just open water. Now the rice is starting to die back and the water is opening up on my field, but there are no ducks to be seen. I am new to the lease, so I don't know where the ducks like to fly in this area, just have to take a few lumps the first couple of years until I learn it a little better I guess.

The farmer won't allow pit blinds on the levees so he can maintain the levees. Our blind is in the field and standing above the rice. Brushed pretty well, but starting to need a touch up. Before you say my blind is the problem, I watched ducks pile into a similar blind just 300 yards away, so I don't think that spooked them totally. But if I can find a way to sink a blind, I certainly would like to try..

Thanks again for the input....Keep it comin!

Yea it just seems like you cant pressure a rice field as much as the marsh..its amazing how marsh hunting holds up even when you go every day

Looks like some new ducks are in town with the cold front. Shot 7 spoonies this morning and could have had two limits, but we are a little rusty with the little bit of shooting we have been doing this season. Looks like the ticket to the rice fields is hunting the weather.

Good to see yawl are back on the birds. We hunt marsh and low water has been killin us.

Guy, Been hunting the Whiteville area since 84'. We were one of the first to have a pit blind up there. During the 80's and 90's the hunting was nothing short of incredible. Slowly word got out and more and more people began leasing up there to the point where the farmers had a blind in every other cut. The difference now is with all of the pressure we no longer hold birds. If you notice before the season and during the split the numbers of ducks in the area are staggering and then a day or two after the openings they are gone. We lease 5 blinds up there now and have some success, but greenheads and pintail have been replaced by spoonies and teal. I think for the most part many other areas have experienced the same thing; Kaplan, Gueydan, Welsh, ect. Once an area becomes commercialized its pretty much over. Rice fields are so open and accessible that the ducks have no where to go to get away from pressure so they just leave. Best advise I can give you is hunt during the week (south wind is best up there), put away the robos and mud your pond every morning and keep your blind brushed.

I think you are right Cajunfan. I have a friend that hunted Whiteville many years ago and always talked about the number of ducks. I also hunted Gueydan/Kaplan area for 4 years and saw first hand the number of blinds in the rice fields. There are lots of people willing to pay for a blind, and the landowners are willing to squeeze as many as they can get into their fields. End result is lots of pressure and fewer birds. Not sure what to do about it, unless you are wealthy enought to lease a large tract that you can manage on your own. I'd imagine not many of us can do that, so we just have to enjoy the good days we get and accept the slow days.

I agree, Rice Fields are Good the first weekend but it will get slow when pressure is applied, we hunt the Pine Island area in rice field 600 acres and its been a horrible season/lease and very disappointing to say the least, Next year we are looking to go back closer to marsh where the birds are consistent. We were told this particular lease in Pine Island was as good as any in State of La and by the price we had to pay we beleive the salesman, live and learn, Good luck and I hope you all have safe, sucessful hunts for remaining of year.

The best year we ever had in Concordia was when the owner decided to rotate corn in stead of beans or rice. I think when you when your field is planted in a different crop than all the others is the best situation you can hope for. The entire season the farm killed way over 1000 birds. The next year rice was planted and our kills went to around 300 birds. Down even further the next year. The farmer next to our farm planted corn and we killed even less. That's hard to take when your not shooting any thing and the farm next door is warring them out. When you hunt ag fields you get what u get. When you hunt marsh you get what mother nature gives you. Either way it's a crap shoot. With that being said I'll take the marsh. Walking the rice fields will make a old man out of fast.

I've hunted rice fields 2 years in the past. Seems like they are good for the opener and peter off from there but get better after fronts. Never the less it was nice to have a place of your own to hunt. If anyone knows of some rice fields coming up for lease in the 2011-12 season please let me know. I'd love to have one to complain about.

Here is the reason I think Marsh is better.

When you lease a rice field blind for ducks it is generally not naturally flooded. Surrounding the flooded field how many other flooded fields are there? Probably not many. So where do the ducks go when they get shot off of this water hole? To the next one, which might be another rice field that has a coon ass in it.......repeat until they get to the marsh and find a pothole where there is no coon ass with a bazooka shotgun.

A good marsh always has a resting place for the ducks to stay in, therefore they will always be there. Don't get me wrong, rice fields have their days, but mostly the ducks roost in them and feed at night.

The right scenario for me to lease a rice field blind would be if there was no hunters within a 1/2 to full mile.....400-500 hundred acres of fields flooded up, some rice, other just bushogged and flooded. Hunt only in one or two places on the lease. We have a lease like this just south of Crowley that has held ducks all season.

You right a marsh can be pounded every day almost as long as there are a few places boats cant get to for ducks to rest..not to mention the price of a rice field 5000 bucks gimme a break thats unreal for a bird.

Hey man I have a half down payment on a rice field lease around the same area as you are talking about before I put the other half down what are some things I should ask for in a lease agreement seeing as how the landowner isn’t that interesting in making a lease agreement I’m trying to cover my end to not get screwed I haven’t leased land before little help thanks!

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