Marsh

[Honkers]

I have land about a half mile from a small lake and it holds birds all winter, ducks and geese. the surrounding ponds always have mallards. I was planning on building a marsh on my land but I was wanting some advice on how big and how deep to build it. Plus what should i plant on the bottom to keep birds there during the winter.

Kenny

[Brett Beinke]

I would talk to your local Ag management service. We did the same and we actually get paid for the land that was converted and we also got much needed assistance in the proper building of these ponds. If you are going to do it on your own I would keep it shallow if you can (we have 2 foot overlow tile in our ponds so water will never be over 2 feet)and we put wild rice on the floor of it, just to see if it will take. If not we will be loading it up with Mallard Grass and Sago (sp?). You may also get local wildlife groups to provide you with financial assistance as well.

[migratin25]

Brett, what is good time to plant sunflowers for a Sep 1 season this year? Also, what is mallard grass and sago? any help would be great.

[Brett Beinke]

Again, talk to your local Ag service as to good times for planting any particular species of plant. They are the experts. Mallard Grass and Sago are natural water vegitation that ducks just love. Both are quite common here in MN. Sago is an underwater plant the forms a food mat on the surface and both puddlers and divers cant get enough. Mallard Grass roots in the bottom and grows up to usually a couple of feet above the water line. Puddlers love the stuff. Both plants do well in a shallow marsh environment. In our situation we created three ponds of wich all 3 will be loaded with feed and our intentions are to only hunt the middle pond and leave the other two sit.

[migratin25]

thanks for the info. I've never planted anything or done anything like this. Just found out we got the bid on a new club for next year. We wanted to plant corn and millet. I was also thinking of planting something in the water too. I was thinking planting corn and millet around the blind and maybe some of the under water stuff farther away. I'm a rookie to all this. So it will probably be a monkey humpin a football if ya know what I mean.

[Brett Beinke]

Another idea for you is to plant alfalfa or clover instead of corn or millet. You can probably have a local farmer plant it and cut it for free as long as they get the bales and you will have a much more consistant field for geese the entire season. Honkers love the green stuff. Just make sure they make a cut just before the early goose so you will be able to hunt the field the whole season.

[migratin25]

Brett thanks for the info. We ended up getting a spot with about 80 acres to hunt. It's mostly water up against the river levee. I'm not sure how deep though. It will be tricky this summer trying to guess how long the water will go down for. We'll be definitely planting something.