For those that venture out onto large lakes to duck hunt instead of backwater marshes or rivers, the game is a little bit different. I'm talking about where to look the first time you scout a lake. The first few times you hunt a lake, you are probably best served seeking out one of the following places to hunt:
1. A place where the lake necks down between bays, next to an island, or some other obstruction that makes the ducks change their flight path to a much smaller swath. You are in essence hunting a "funnel" and it concentrates whatever birds are flying on that part of the lake into a much smaller space where you can intercept them.
2. Any piece of structure that puts me as close to the center of the lake as possible. There is an old adage that new ducks always go to the center of the lake, and I am a big proponent as I have seen this phenomenon over and over again. Ideal spots you are looking for here are long points or islands of cattails/reeds, or actual islands (meaning land).
If you concentrate on these areas intiially you will increase your chances of bagging ducks. While you are duck hunting these spots you can observe if the ducks favor another part of the lake and narrow down future spots to hunt.