Add? Eliminate? Answers??

[lilman]

I am re-doing my entire duck spread this year for the most part.

So here's the list:

GHG Oversize Mallards (2) Dozen Boxes

Life size Woodie (one box or two? (Budgeted for two))

Green wing Teal

Bluewing teal

The teal are loaded in the 17 ponds I have in Andover the first few weeks, plus I was just thinking of adding a little color into some of my spread.

Life size Mallards (2) dozen boxes

Would it be worth buying some of the Oversized full bodies?

I was also gonna pick up the ffd mallard heads as well.

I already have two robos and besides the one being shot to **** from a buddy, I was gonna touch up the paint some.

So what else would you add or eliminate from them?

I was also thinking of getting a box of coots to mix, plus i like shooting them lil buggers. They dont taste that bad.....

When hunting bigger lakes is it worth mixing in ducks together or no? Do you think it adds or detracts? For me its been fifty fifty.

Give me your thoughts? Ive budgeted about six hundred bucks, this tally has me at 483 before my discount, so there is definatly room to grow or more money to throw into goose decoys.

[Superduty]

I would definitely go with some full body mallards if you are hunting from shore on these ponds. With the low water we have now,or if the shore is bare these things work great. As far a goose decoys are concerned, I would go with at least a dozen or none at all. Seems everybody has 3 or 4 geese in their spread. I like to be different. Personally, I havn't used teal dekes too much. I think the colors are too bright for the early season teal we see in MN. If it were my money I would spend it on more goose decoys than on teal decoys. Just my .02. As far as rigging goes, try the ghg clips and tanglefree weights. No more winding or tangles. Just slide the clips so that the weight is flush with decoy and bag 'em.

[lilman]

Ive got plenty of goose dekes. 48 ffd 3 dozen shells dozen fa and a two sacks full of avery real image silos. But more floaters would not be a bad idea either.

[tealitup]

I like the idea of geese floaters. Also, throw in a blue heron or two.

I like having some pintail decoys to mix in for the white/light color in the bodies. Hen pintails can double in a mallard spread.

[Superduty]

I've had success on pressured ducks with field decoys used at waters edge. Real geese silos and mallard shells and fullbodies on mud/dry land with a few floaters in the water. If you already have ffd fullbody geese I would definitely use them on the ponds if the shoreline cover will allow.

[so haaad]

I was talking to an old timer a couple of years ago that used to be a hardcore duck hunter. His recommendation was to bring five decoys. Why five? I have no idea either!!! He also said that he would bring a flag to wave. Sounds like an early version of the roboduck to me.

Last year I decided to dramatically downsize the number of decoys that I use. I only put out 6 mallards and one goose and couldn't tell a difference. Except for the amount of time and effort it took putting in the deeks.

[Superduty]

Interesting. I know of guys who have shot limits of mallards in fields in SD with only one spinning wing decoy and nothing else!

[Roosterslayer05]

Im with you So Haad, I usually put out 2-16 decoys and it seems like I do just as well as when i throw out 3 dozen. I usually hunt over 4-9 with a wind spinner out there too. On heavly pressured area's taking out the wind spinner with about 4-9 decoys seem's to work best.

[eyehead]

In Late Season it's always nice to have a dozen of widgeon or pintail dekes to add some white to the spread. We also use Coot decoys, we mainly hunt big water with alot of coots on it so I guess it's more of a confidience deke than anything (dont know if it helps or not but it sure looks more natural)

[river huntfish]

Early season i like to use my older decoys because of the color. Ducks aren't that colorful early and its worked for me. I personally like to place a lot of dekes one day and a smaller portion the other and try to get a feel for what the ducks/geese want. Also in the spread I fool around with clumped dekes or random dekes. But that is me I love to experiment with all the presentations and all the other stuff that has go along with that.

[hanson]

For a smaller body of water situation, I would go with...

- 2 to 3 dozen GHG Lifesize Mallards. I'm not too big on Magnum dekes, I think #'s of regular dekes appears more realistic.

- 8 to 12 floating honkers. I've got GHG Oversize Floaters (both Sentry & Resting) but might switch up a little this year to Lifesize Floaters. Not sure yet. Those Oversize are OVERSIZE and take up quite a bit of room in the boat, they also pulled in the honkers like mad last fall.

Thats about all I'd put out, depending on how the birds are acting. Teal will land with just about anything. A few teal dekes wouldn't hurt but I don't think they're necessary.

I found the goose decoys had no effect on the ducks, but probably acted more in confidence than anything. Plus we got to shoot bonus geese as well.

The only other thing I do is put out Bluebill decoys but we hunt where there are lots of divers.

[Roosterslayer05]

Another thing thats worked well for me when im seting up a little larger spread is using all black decoys. I found some old all black deke's in my granpa's garage, ill throw out about 6-10 in my spread, I think they can see them from farther away, or maybe they just look like coots, it works!

[HunterLee]

This year i used about 15 floating geese and bout dozen or so ducks. We used to put out 80 ducks with some geese, but when they are decoying they seem to come no matter what. I got my limit of honkers and geese one day with 6 hokers and a couple ducks, remember location is where its at. I like to have the most geese i can becasue i like to blast them and they come in better with more, and the ducks seem to decoy fine also.

[tacklebox7FF]

that's all pretty much we use in the fields is robo's.. we shot limits just with them in the field with the goose decoys.. we've even shot ducks over a pond with just one robo and goose floaters..

[CrappieAttitude]

If hunting smaller ponds and lakes, you would be fine with the standard size decoy, but having a few magnums in the mix is a good thing as well. The only downer to the large decoys is the amount of bag space they take up.

If you decide on getting teal dekes, make sure the keels are weighted. We bought some wood duck dekes a few years back, and the first time out it seemed like every little breeze that came through blew the things over. I could only imagine a teal decoy could potentially pose the same problems.

I am totally in favor of using smaller number of decoys while hunting. Not only does it make life easier to haul in, but you can get just as good of shooting in with half the work. The only time that I put out more than two dozen decoys is late season diver hunts. During this time, I have found out the more, the better.

I typically hunt smaller bodies of water and put out 6 honkers. This has seemed to help make my spread a lot more appealing. (making sure that they are seperated from the duck decoys is important)

A buddy of mine recently purchased a couple swans for confidence decoys. We kinda laughed when we heard what he spent on them, but he swears by them. I haven't hunted over them yet, but he sent me pictures and they do look pretty sweet. Anyone else have swans in their spread?

CA

[Sartell Angler]

That is one of my favorite aspects of waterfowling--the spread! I sometimes like to throw out just a small spread and see how that goes, especially when I'm by myself. Other times, especially late in the year, you can't beat getting a bunch of guys together and deploying just about every decoy you own--absolutely awesome hunting over a giant spread and watching the singles bomb in with reckless abandon.

One of our best hunts of the year last year for Flowage and I was a hunt on a day with some flurries and nice NW winds...we knew that birds would be migrating through so we went with this modest spread and had limits easily. We had other flocks of buffies and a couple hen cans come right in as well, all in a spot that normally is devoid of ducks. Off to one side we had a little group of mallard dekes with two bigfoots standing on a piece of ice, and off the point we had 3 drake goldeneye dekes and a pair of bluebill dekes. Pretty sweet! Sorry to those who have seen these pics before but it is a fun hunt to re-live!