Walk In Duck Hunting Trip

[bigbassin]

Tentatively thinking of planning a trip somewhere within say a 12 hour drive of Atlanta for a solo duck hunting trip the week of Christmas. All of my duck hunting to this point has been in Florida out of a boat (used to have a little John boat, but currently boatless). I honestly don’t believe walk-in hunting is even a realistic option anywhere in Florida on public, however there is plenty of it on private.

My questions are:

- Do people actually hunt public walk in and have success? Or is the boat just hiding behind the camera in the videos folks post?

-Anything different you’d do walking in vs a boat? First thought would be number of decoys needs to be cut down a good bit

My biggest concern by far is that I drive 6-12 hours one way and then find out that without a boat duck hunting really isn’t possible (which would be the case everywhere I’ve ever seen in Florida). I do understand the amount of ground I could cover would be significantly reduced vs a boat, that doesn’t bother me but if I can’t even walk in the marsh it would be an issue.

I’ve also considered buying a canoe off of Facebook marketplace for the week then just reselling it at the end of the week, so that would be an option.

 

[BigDuckHunter]

I’m not real familiar with your neck of the woods, but I think you’d likely be disappointed. There certainly are places you can duck hunt without a boat, but one of the unfortunate truths about duck hunting is the more accessible the spot is, the worse the hunting generally is because it gets more pressure. Walk-in public gets more pressure than easy boat in which gets more pressure than shallow marshes that require special boats which gets more pressure than big, scary water.

There are some places that you can find some birds if you’re willing to work (I’m talking wading an hour in thick mud to find a spot) but more spots like that will be a bust than won’t and you still might run into a bunch of pressure when you get there. It seems the young unemployed/semiemployed have all the free time in the world to scout and hunt.

I think your best bet at having a good hunt or two is to spend 5 days of your week off working and then go on a guided hunt for two days.

 

[DuckDawg22]

Walk-on refuge hunting is a staple of California duck hunting. Guys get super creative with their pack rigs but a good rule of thumb is if you can't fit it in a jet sled, it doesn't come. Half dozen decoys is all you need if you're in the right spot, but I have no idea what sort of access you'd have in GA. You don't need a massive spread to kill ducks