[mallard26]

And I've never seen ducks consistently avoid goose decoys like Jeremy is explaining; you learn something new every day thats the great thing about waterfowl hunting.

Glad you learned something:lol:

 

[bullcan]

I think we can all agree that the absolute best decoy is a guy standing in the water at the bow of the boat with his pecker hanging out draining his bladder.

 

[Cuvvy]

Glad you learned something:lol:

It was a struggle ill learn quicker next time hopefully :cheers:

 

[mallard26]

I think we can all agree that the absolute best decoy is a guy standing in the water at the bow of the boat with his pecked hanging out draining his bladder.

Mid morning piss flight=guarantee!

Breakfast gets em all the time... but not donuts gotta be something that smells good like spuds eggs and bacon

 

[ringbill]

I am not suggesting this is the way to do things by any means, but if a guy were to set up for a cross wind with honkers trailing, I have seen this work very well:

Set your duck spread umbrella style with the kill hole upwind of the bow of the boat. Set the honkers umbrella style, but very slim in the middle directly out in front of the boat. This is an old timer spread I have seen work, but the primary intention is for honkers.

 

[bullcan]

I am not suggesting this is the way to do things by any means, but if a guy were to set up for a cross wind with honkers trailing, I have seen this work very well:

Set your duck spread umbrella style with the kill hole upwind of the bow of the boat. Set the honkers umbrella style, but very slim in the middle directly out in front of the boat. This is an old timer spread I have seen work, but the primary intention is for honkers.

So if I understand you correctly, the honkers would be the "handle" of the umbrella?

 

[altrocker1]

what you should do is listen to a bunch of blowhards on the net who know everything about duck hunting instead of going out and watching what the birds do...oh wait

some days birds will fly over everything...somedays they don't. i would recommend just watching what the ducks do and watching what the other hunters do. sometimes doing the exact opposite of what someone else is doing will be the hot ticket...just try to learn something every time you go out and remember the x is the best decoy to have

 

[CIMM]

I think we can all agree that the absolute best decoy is a guy standing in the water at the bow of the boat with his pecker hanging out draining his bladder.

Every. Damn. Time.

 

[ringbill]

So if I understand you correctly, the honkers would be the "handle" of the umbrella?

Kind of, but still a gap between the geese and ducks, and still a few honkers in the approach to the kill hole. Ducks will land with the honkers 1/2 the time that way.

 

[bumper]

We had an interesting discovery last year with decoys. We hunt a mud slough in the backwaters of the Mississippi. Every year we get about 3 days where the widgeons are everywhere. IMO they are a very skiddish bird. You better take them on the first pass...if you don't, forget it. Well, the worst thing they do when they are circling is take mallards with them. I've seen this happen all the time. So a day after we saw all these widgeons, my buddy and I decide to change our spread. We put out a dozen drake widgeon decoys....we didn't see any widgeons, but every flock of mallard literally dove right in...seriously, I had never seen anything like this before. We limited out by 8 and stayed until 10 just to watch the mallards pitch in. Understand, there was a small flight on that day and these were new ducks, so we probably would have had a good day with mallard decoys as well...the next day we did the exact same thing.....only saw a dozen bunches of mallards, but they all gave us a serious look...we had good shooting, but they weren't finishing as well....you can bet we will be doing that again. By the way, on one those days when the widgeons were flying around, I went back out in the afternoon and had a good shoot. I swear those widgeons just fly all over the place in the morning (we are probably seeing the same birds over and over.....hunt em in the afternoon when they are tired!!! lol

 

[Jbryan]

and remember the x is the best decoy to have

Agreed! I have a big red one I put right in the kill hole. I line up all the hens downwind in a wavy pattern so it looks like a pirate treasure map. Then I stack as many drake and goose decoys upwind from the red x so they know what treasure they are getting in to. 60% of the time, it works every time!

Cuvvy, I think you and Mallard are pretty much saying the same thing. Leave a hole open for birds to land in. However, talking about the nuances of J-hook versus non to the OP who isn't sure where to put goose decoys in his spread isn't going to help. JMTC...

Just so we're clear, no offense boaterjoe. I am just saying that getting that in-depth with this conversation isn't going to get us anywhere.

 

[mike s]

I've never seen ducks attempting to create letters of the alphabet.

Yeah well you need to get out more. Ducks might not be good spellers but they can read the regulations and every duck I ever saw knew exactly to the minute what time sunset is.

 

[TOYE]

I always thought the myth was geese won't fly over ducks because they were afraid they will jump up fast and cause mid air collisions. This went along with myth #2, ducks don't do the feed call on the water and #3 crowded decoys signal alarmed ducks.

I like hunting cross winds over water, seems the birds are more focused on the decoys than the blind. This also helps to when the wind is out of the North and you don't have to stare into the sun. Most of my goose floaters are upwind mainly because if you set them downwind they tend to always land short. Never had a problem decoying ducks regardless of where the goose decoys are. #2 I use the feed call a lot to finish birds since happy feeding ducks make a lot of feed chatter on the water. #3 Bunch the decoys since again happy feeding ducks are where the food is at.

While field hunting, do you guys have a problem having ducks fly over the goose decoys? Really?

 

[bullcan]

I thought crowded dekes signaled cold ducks that were bunching up to stay warm.

 

[TOYE]

I thought crowded dekes signaled cold ducks that were bunching up to stay warm.

About 15 years ago I had a day off and jumped in with an old local. This guy made the best blinds on the river and he always killed ducks. He was a grumpy SOB but he liked me and that is the only way I got to hunt with him. I think the only reason he liked me was because I respected his spots. lol Anyway we used all his equipment and I helped put out the decoys like he wanted, often times moving mine. We only used 3 dozen mallards which IMO was not near enough. Wind was at our back and he put 6 decoys tightly set off each corner of the blind and 2 dozen Supermags out front set losely 30-40 yards directly in front of the blind. Before anything started flying I asked him what was supposed to happen and why this set up. He told me that the decoys on each side were the feeders and the ones out front had just landed. Ducks coming in will be greedy and pass over the ones that just landed and try to beat them to the best spot. I laughed inside a little. In less than an hour during a time when it was tough we had our 8 drakes and heading in with me scratching my head in amazement. Been using that to some degree ever since. Ironicly he learned that spread from another old fart. USFW changed the rules and he nolonger was able to build his blinds and was forced to hunt out of a boat. He passed away 4 years ago.

 

[bullcan]

About 15 years ago I had a day off and jumped in with an old local. This guy made the best blinds on the river and he always killed ducks. He was a grumpy SOB but he liked me and that is the only way I got to hunt with him. I think the only reason he liked me was because I respected his spots. lol Anyway we used all his equipment and I helped put out the decoys like he wanted, often times moving mine. We only used 3 dozen mallards which IMO was not near enough. Wind was at our back and he put 6 decoys tightly set off each corner of the blind and 2 dozen Supermags out front set losely 30-40 yards directly in front of the blind. Before anything started flying I asked him what was supposed to happen and why this set up. He told me that the decoys on each side were the feeders and the ones out front had just landed. Ducks coming in will be greedy and pass over the ones that just landed and try to beat them to the best spot. I laughed inside a little. In less than an hour during a time when it was tough we had our 8 drakes and heading in with me scratching my head in amazement. Been using that to some degree ever since. Ironicly he learned that spread from another old fart. USFW changed the rules and he nolonger was able to build his blinds and was forced to hunt out of a boat. He passed away 4 years ago.

I'll have to try that sometime. I always group my dekes up tight on cold mornings.

 

[big38]

Toye, Someone actually liked you enough to hunt with you for free? wow! respecting spots? tell me about that. Isn't it first come, first served on the public waters? If that was the case, there would be no one hunting my public sloughs in west central Iowa. They should all know I have been hunting them for 25 years.

 

[TOYE]

Toye, Someone actually liked you enough to hunt with you for free? wow! respecting spots? tell me about that. Isn't it first come, first served on the public waters? If that was the case, there would be no one hunting my public sloughs in west central Iowa. They should all know I have been hunting them for 25 years.

I hunted with him for free. We were allowed to build blinds and this guy built 2 nice ones each year in decent spots of miles and miles of river. He got up early and wasn't one that got there just before shooting time and demanded to hunt his blind. If someone beat him to the spot he went to his 2nd blind. Someone there, he went back to sleep. If he wasn't going to hunt I asked if I could use one. He respected that. He would've pissed on your cornflakes.

 

[ringbill]

About 15 years ago I had a day off and jumped in with an old local. This guy made the best blinds on the river and he always killed ducks. He was a grumpy SOB but he liked me and that is the only way I got to hunt with him. I think the only reason he liked me was because I respected his spots. lol Anyway we used all his equipment and I helped put out the decoys like he wanted, often times moving mine. We only used 3 dozen mallards which IMO was not near enough. Wind was at our back and he put 6 decoys tightly set off each corner of the blind and 2 dozen Supermags out front set losely 30-40 yards directly in front of the blind. Before anything started flying I asked him what was supposed to happen and why this set up. He told me that the decoys on each side were the feeders and the ones out front had just landed. Ducks coming in will be greedy and pass over the ones that just landed and try to beat them to the best spot. I laughed inside a little. In less than an hour during a time when it was tough we had our 8 drakes and heading in with me scratching my head in amazement. Been using that to some degree ever since. Ironicly he learned that spread from another old fart. USFW changed the rules and he nolonger was able to build his blinds and was forced to hunt out of a boat. He passed away 4 years ago.

This normally the way we set a spread also. When in the field, everyone looked at me a little funny when I suggested we sit back 15 yards, and put the spinners low and right the front of a tight spread. We did it this way and haven't stopped since. Them damn greedy mallards try to land ahead of the tight feeding group every time, and the low spinners look like ducks jumping other ducks for feed. The up side is better 2nd and 3rd shots because the first shots are usually only 2 feet off the ground.

 

[largelunge]

I generally put my geese right where I want the ducks to land. As far as ducks its all dependent on your scouting although I usually put pintails on the deeper edge. This is typically on the outside. I usually put my other ducks in small clusters throughout the spread. Widgeons should be nearer to the geese. They don't call them robber ducks for nothing.