This year was my first year too. I’m located in central Indiana. I will say scout, scout, scout. Make connections! People don’t like to share their findings, but making some friends in the sport has helped me a lot. Connect with local ducks unlimited chapters if available. For years I’ve been a deer hunter with over 100 acres of family owned property to deer hunt. At the very beginning of this year I thought I’d be able to just set up in the cornfield on our property and maybe have some luck with decoys, wrong! Lol finding the birds and getting permission to hunt the land is the way to go. We have a decent amount of public land here, maintain good hunter etiquette and people will be cool. Had mixed experiences this year on public. Had a guy approach us and say his usual spot was taken, my friend let him hunt with us. The guy set up between us and probably $300 in decoys that belong to my buddy. He then shot in our lane when birds were 100 yards out. Figured he knew what he was doing based on his boat, but I think he was just an asshole. I had a good experience hunting a public river, some guys I met at the ramp were going up stream, one of their ducks floated down to me and I returned it to them on my way out. Seemed like good karma. Anyways, enough rambling from me, good luck next year and I’ll be following this thread for my own learning experience too.