How does everyone duck hunt?

[Bushwacker]

Being that we are creeping up on our duck/goose season, and the fact that I watched Shawn Stahl's new "Fowl Pursuit" dvd last night, I got to thinking, how does everyone duck hunt. Do you have lay down blinds, just hunker down in cover, lay out big spreads, small spreads, call a lot, call a little, hunt in boats, hunt in permanent blinds?
I'll start off. Although we have a bunch of duck boats, we generally just hunker down in cover around ponds. We usually put out about a dozen dekes and sit and wait. We generally spread ourselves out, not like the videos, but we also don't get the close-up shots the guys in the video get either.

[Guest]

I used to hunt a lot of small lakes, ponds but have gotten into more big water recently.
For this, I/we usually use 6-10 dozen dekes depending on the situation (have used almost 20 dozen a few times, but that was under unique circumstances, dealing with a few thousand birds in a raft that we were trying to and succsessfully did draw groups from), usually with 3 to 4 guys in a 16' deep hull Lund. We normally put half on one side half on the other and hunt the pocket with the wind to our backs, but have hunted cross winds before if the cover dictates. (even hunted upwind from our dekes once and shot at em as they flew overhead from behind..worked quite well, but that was because there was zero cover where the wind was coming from).
It all depends on where the birds want to go and then adapt to the wind and cover.

[Dean Schellinger]

Well although I attend a duck hunting club near Belgrade many weekends a year for ducks I am always open to adapting to where the ducks are. I live in Sartell and we hunt in about every situation possible. We hunt the river with big or smalls spreads consisting of divers, puddlers, and geese decoys, sometime we use goose shells on sand bars etc. We hunt fields with big or small spreads. We hunt small ponds, large lakes, and creeks. We pretty much follow the ducks. Although hunkering down near a small pothole is tough to beat as far as in your face action, I love hunting the big water with huge spreads late in the year. Goose shells on the ice sheets, breaking ice so our dekes wont get swept down the river and watching ducks from all directions work the spread, has to be my favorite kind of duck hunting. We had some great hunts this year because we moved to where the ducks and geese where. We even dug a pit in a field so the resident canadas would come in extra close. Sometimes we hunt with waders if possible but we use our 14' duck boat quite often as well. I will be playin college basketball at SCSU this fall so hopefully I will still be able to get out several times if I can work that into my schedule. It is shaping up to be a great year. Doves, then early goose season, geese then ducks and then late goose cant get any better than that. OH YEA

[FOOT]

The situation can be very different from day to day and where you hunt. I hunt out of a boat with a nice blind, hunker down in the cattails and weeds, field hunt where I lay down etc.
My favorite is to hunt some small pot holes in NW Minnesota or North Dakota and just put out a few deeks and then stand in the cattails.
It's easy on me and easy on the dog. Plus I've got a good opportunity to bag a pheasant or sharptail (depending).
They're all fun especially when hunting with your kids, grandkids or just good friends. The days have passed where I "need" to shoot a limit to prove myself. More then once I've taken 1 - 2 nice ducks for supper and then just sat there and watched.
I've had mink, muskrats, beaver, coyotes, shorebirds, deer, grouse, turkey and even an elk (NW MN) within feet of me when I watch rather then hunt. Fantastic.

[Chipn' Star]

Ill hunt any way I have to in order to get birds. Boats on big water, farm ponds, small sloughs, flooded timber or field hunting in Finishers. Pretty much have done it all. My favorite is field hunting in corn stubble with a few hundred full bodies out for honkers and mallards....nothing better in my book. Like to let the first few birds land and then lay into em. Flowage, Ill have to get in touch with ya. I go to SCSU as well, finally a senior, hunt up here quite a bit, but usually by myself. Good luck getting out though. I ran track my freshman year and didnt have a whole lot of time for anything, unfortunatley when ya are in a college sport, that is pretty much your life it seems.

[outdoor ran]

I have a boat blind out in a small patch of marsh that has alot of open water in front of it. Its like 2 rows of fence connected at the front with camo on it. Just drive the boat in and stand up and hunt. Its easy to put up and I'm not to upset when the ice takes it away. Then I have a land blind that works good for barbecues and when I have kids along. Then its laying on the beach on the big lake. This year I hope to add a layout boat. These cold windy mornings are getting me excited all ready.

[Seabass77]

Last year was my first year hunting with my own gear, my own strategies. I don't have a dog and just got a canoe this spring. Anyway, last year I hunted small slews with a max of 24 dekes. Just me and my waders. I had moderate success but with the weird weather last fall, ducks were difficult. Most of the shooting I heard came from bigger water. I learned that good cover is key. I usually just used weeds and cattails last year and was fine in the early season but as the year went on and the cover deteriorated, I struggled. I plan on picking up fabric and having a strategy for a blind if needed.

I also learned to only call with tips and tails, calling minimally. Especially with the savy mallard. I had good success with the robo duck early, but later in the season it seamed to spook em.

Now that I have a canoe, I plan on hunting a little bit bigger water, something that won't freeze as early.

I really enjoy the strategy of putting a good hunt together. I learned alot last year and hope to have better success this season.

Cut em,

Joe

[Thunderchicken]

Over here in South Dakota it isn't real hard to hunt waterfowl. Just go where there is water and put out a couple dekes and you should have an alright time. I'm originaly from Appleton Minnesota and if you know were that is than you know about Lac Qui Parle and Marsh lakes and how good and bad those lake are. I have done just about everything that I could think of to get the birds out there and some times it works and others it don't. I usually put out about 3 to 6 doz. ducks and 18 geese for the spread. Then if I'm on a lake hunting off of a point on an island I will put my dekes in rows going out in a few directions from the point so when the wind shifts I don't have to go out and redue things. On a pond it's the ol' horse shoe shape out in front of the guys. I always hunt from shore no matter what. It's just a thing with me I don't know why but it is. I guess I have never had to hunt anyother way other than from shore. I have also used the ( roto duck ) before and from what I have seen it isn't even fair to the birds to use it. Don't get me wrong we all have needed an advantage here and there but unless we really need it it dosen't go out in the water. Man all this talking is getting me thirsty better get a Captin Coke to quench it. Later fellas!

[SgtCaesarfishinguy]

Well we usually surround a small slough with our hunting party. Myself, my brother and cousin have waders, and wade through the weeds jumping the ducks holding tight to the cover, after that initial jump we habg around for a while waiting for more to come in and land. After that we move on to another slough and do the same thing. A lot of work for us with the waders, but we get most of the ducks too! Only problem is when it is 70 degrees on opener and you trudge through the water and mud, it is easy to dehydrate! Drink lots of water and little beer the night before!

[Sartell Angler]

ditto to Flowage Tamer (we're bros / hunting partners)

S.A.

[BLACKJACK]

I own a few ponds so my favorate method nowadays is to use my chest waders, carry 6-8 decoys, my chair, and gun down to a spot where I've seen the ducks, throw out the dekes, sit in the cattails with my lab, and partake in the early hunting. Then its off to go pheasant hunting. With the few decoys, it doesn't take long to pack up and go. I have a hard time sitting in a duck blind for hours on end.

[snowgoose]

As my name says. I love to hunt geese. There is a group of 5 of us that own all our gear. When snow hunting we have put out up to 800 decoys at a time. Mostly texas rags. When Canada hunting we put out 12 dozen Big foots and lay in Final Approach blinds.
I sold my duck boat last year. I would rather field hunt. Easier to chase down birds on land.
I can't wait. The first trip to Sask is only 10 weeks away. weeeee haaaa!!!!!

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Hunt Snow Geese, Save the tundra

[Roosterslayer05]

I mostly just get along the refuge edge and pass shoot geese and ducks, sometimes I will put out a spread of 10 decoys and it works great. a mix between standard, mag, and super mag, all mallerd with one bluebill. I dont call much. when I hunt by my cabin I jump shoot mostly or ill set out the same spread of decoys and stand in some cattails, I will sometimes add a dozen divers if there are some around.

[outdoor ran]

snowgoose that sounds awesome. Theres really know where around here to do that kind of hunting. The only field I have tried is trying to sneak up on birds already there.

[Guest]

Have you watched to where the birds have gone when jumped up? Maybe you could do this and then hit that spot, or maybe talk to the other hunters before they go in and see if they would mind doing a joint jumpshoot effort instead of doing what you described.
Just some ideas.

[Caesarfishinguytoo]

Tom,

As far as where they fly - it is far far away. But the combine effort on the jump shoot thing would be worth a try. Thanks!

[Caesarfishinguytoo]

Well my brother Sgt above posted how we hunt. But I do have a question that I posted awhile back and got little not response, so I wil try again. We are mainly jump shooters and rarely throw out deeks, but have on occassion and with the earlier opening time this year are considering doing for the firt time on opener, but anyway onto my question. This does apply to opening day only. We hunt a small slough in western mn (public). There are usually our party and maybe 2 or 3 additional parties that hunt the slough. That is about at full status and no additional hunters could hunt it without being elbow to elbow. But the other 2 or 3 parties without fail will start heading in with there canoes and small boats anywhere from 7:00am to 9:00am and the sight we see next just kills us. The slough rises with usually at least 200+ mallards amounst other ducks. Now I don't want anybody telling me they come back because they don't, so my question is WHY? why go out and secure the spot when the best hunt of the day just flew away or your SPOT now sucks anyway. We usually still do okay with teal and woodies of course they come back and there will be the mallards that don't fly off or other that might fly in after they secure their "spot" but it just sickens us to see this. The slough is pretty close to the road, so their spot is secured by their car. Wait until 11:45am, 8:45am this year and sneak on down. at Noon, 9:00am this year walk in or man your post and wait for the flurry. Then maybe if you feel like it set up decoys for the rest of the day hunt. So anybody got a logical answer that will convince me "WHY" other than to secure your "Spot" that is already secured by you parking on the road.

One good thing last year, due to drought the slew was almost dried up and couldn't get a boat through it, so we had the whole thing to ourselves and that first jump was the best!!

[snowgoose]

Outdoor Ran
If you see geese in a field, more than likly they will be back there again the next day. Instead of jump shooting them. Get there early the next morning before they do and hide. You don't need very many decoys if they want to come to the field. Some of my best hunt have been over less than a dozen decoys.
Just food for thought.

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Hunt Snow Geese, Save the tundra