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Thread: Upper Saluda River

  1. #1
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    Default Upper Saluda River

    Looking at a piece of family property on the saluda river above murray to build a duck pond on. Not looking for advice or trying to rubber head, just wondering if anyone hunted that area and how many big ducks you've seen taken in recent years, before i go spending a pile of money for nothing.

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    I hunt that area a good bit, and to be honest there isn't that many to sink money into a pond
    Quote Originally Posted by JABIII View Post
    Indeed, yet I have killed no Jack Miners today, this month, or this season as our boy DHall has. I am more jealous of his awesome pig of a bird than everyone else combined.

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    If you build it, they will come...
    "A duck call in the hands of the unskilled is conservation's greatest asset."-Nash Buckingham

    "The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."

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    Quote Originally Posted by dhall1693 View Post
    I hunt that area a good bit, and to be honest there isn't that many to sink money into a pond
    well dang...not many big ducks or not good numbers of woodies either? you closer to murray or gwood?

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    Quote Originally Posted by drewb View Post
    well dang...not many big ducks or not good numbers of woodies either? you closer to murray or gwood?
    He just doesn't want you pulling any of his jack minor birds.
    Life's a garden, Dig it.

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    Two years ago, had probably 500 birds on a little 5 acre impoundment south of lake greenwood on the saluda. Mallards, teal, gadwall, ringnecks, probably a few blacks mixed in in the week leading up to opener. Opening day we probably saw 20 ducks. If you have food and are close to the river, you will have ducks. Just remember with it being SC, if you have the birds, hunt. They could be gone the next day. It will take a few years to build up a huntable population. If you want to do it right, build your impoundment, plant, flood and bait for two or three years and obviously don't hunt it at all. It's tough but worth it.
    Last edited by duckman88; 03-17-2017 at 09:59 PM.
    "A duck call in the hands of the unskilled is conservation's greatest asset."-Nash Buckingham

    "The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."

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    Quote Originally Posted by drewb View Post
    well dang...not many big ducks or not good numbers of woodies either? you closer to murray or gwood?
    5 years ago I'd see a considerable number of volleys every hunt. Key word see. Past two years I haven't seen as many big birds, nor diverse species. Black ducks seem to imprint the area I hunt, with a so so amount of woodies.
    Quote Originally Posted by JABIII View Post
    Indeed, yet I have killed no Jack Miners today, this month, or this season as our boy DHall has. I am more jealous of his awesome pig of a bird than everyone else combined.

    First Peter 5:7 "Cast all your care upon God"

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    Quote Originally Posted by duckman88 View Post
    Two years ago, had probably 500 birds on a little 5 acre impoundment south of lake greenwood on the saluda. Mallards, teal, gadwall, ringnecks, probably a few blacks mixed in in the week leading up to opener. Opening day we probably saw 20 ducks. If you have food and are close to the river, you will have ducks. Just remember with it being SC, if you have the birds, hunt. They could be gone the next day. It will take a few years to build up a huntable population. If you want to do it right, build your impoundment, plant, flood and bait for two or three years and obviously don't hunt it at all. It's tough but worth it.
    Agreed...I kinda figured there would be more closer to gwood than murray but i will be closer to murray

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    Quote Originally Posted by dhall1693 View Post
    5 years ago I'd see a considerable number of volleys every hunt. Key word see. Past two years I haven't seen as many big birds, nor diverse species. Black ducks seem to imprint the area I hunt, with a so so amount of woodies.
    I think the past 2 years with the flood and then a lack of winter last year had them all screwed up but maybe they just arent using the saluda as much as they used to

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    Quote Originally Posted by dhall1693 View Post
    5 years ago I'd see a considerable number of volleys every hunt. Key word see. Past two years I haven't seen as many big birds, nor diverse species. Black ducks seem to imprint the area I hunt, with a so so amount of woodies.
    Are you closer to gwood or murray?

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    Quote Originally Posted by drewb View Post
    Agreed...I kinda figured there would be more closer to gwood than murray but i will be closer to murray
    Don't worry about location too much. 99% of the migrating birds that fly past the impoundment I talked about would fly past yours as well. Whether they stop at yours or not, is mostly luck (in the beginning) which turns into habit over time. Most ducks I have ever seen in SC was on a pond on the saluda (not an impoundment) about 10 miles N of where I would consider Lake Murray starting. If you have the means and the desire, build it. It will still be SC but you will have some great hunts.
    "A duck call in the hands of the unskilled is conservation's greatest asset."-Nash Buckingham

    "The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."

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    you could travel to some of the best hunting grounds in NA for years and have some of the best hunts of your life for what that endeavor might cost you. I wish you luck either way.

  13. #13
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    There's a lot of big ducks on the lake but all of them are on the docks eating bread.........
    Not very many at all up that way, not sure how a pond would do.

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    No Food = No Ducks. DJP on the site had a nice tract up the river for sale w/ponds on it and a house.
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    Quote Originally Posted by duckman88 View Post
    Two years ago, had probably 500 birds on a little 5 acre impoundment south of lake greenwood on the saluda. Mallards, teal, gadwall, ringnecks, probably a few blacks mixed in in the week leading up to opener. Opening day we probably saw 20 ducks. If you have food and are close to the river, you will have ducks. Just remember with it being SC, if you have the birds, hunt. They could be gone the next day. It will take a few years to build up a huntable population. If you want to do it right, build your impoundment, plant, flood and bait for two or three years and obviously don't hunt it at all. It's tough but worth it.
    Was that impoundment East or west of 39? I hunted one on the saluda that was east of 39 before that was pretty good but it was a long time ago
    Last edited by drewb; 03-18-2017 at 09:24 AM.

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    I think the upper Saluda is a good flyway. Good friend has a small corn pond not far from Black's Bridge. We've killed many quality ducks there over the years. And if you make the effort to look, it's amazing how often you will see a pair, three or four gadwall, wigeon, or Blacks tucked away in the back of any farm pond in Saluda or Newberry Counties.
    Last edited by GMAC; 03-18-2017 at 12:44 PM.

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    Killed a pile of big ducks up the river back in the 80's and 90's. Now, too many people putting too much pressure on the river. A few ducks still migrate through. But with no food and the pressure, they gone in a day.
    If you can build your impoundment and have lots of food, you will probably hold some birds. Only one way to find out. If I had the land, I would do it.
    E T

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    Back in the 1970s we used to wear the big birds out in sloughs off the river above Murray. I think the last time I hunted that area was in the mid 80s. The reason I didn't hunt it after that was due to the low water level and too many folks. Most of the sloughs we had smacked them down on over the years were just mud. If you found a slough holding a few inches of water every body and their brother would show up. It didn't matter if you were already set up, those idiots would come in there anyway.
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    build it and they will come, if we have weather to the North
    Go Tigers!!!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Chap View Post
    you could travel to some of the best hunting grounds in NA for years and have some of the best hunts of your life for what that endeavor might cost you. I wish you luck either way.
    Depending on budget, he could potentially buy his own piece of land somewhere with more ducks than the middle of SC ... And kill a lot of birds.

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