Lily pads

[Cheetah]

I do most of my waterfowl hunting at my parent's house near Hugo on a small lake. Our shoreline has a lot of lily pads this year, more than in the past. About half of it is somewhat sparse, maybe 30 yards wide before going to the edge of the woods where the dock is located, and that is where I spread my decoys. The left half is very thick with lily pads, and goes another 30 yards before curving into a bay where it thins out again. The rest of the lake is rather clear of weed growth along the shores. Lots of wooded shoreline.

I have been considering trimming out some of the thicker lily pads to make it look more appealing to ducks coming in to land. I also want them to actually be able to see the decoys, right now they blend into the pads a bit. I'm curious what you folks think about this idea. When you place your decoys, do you prefer a more clear area, or thicker weed growth.

[bassman222]

I highly doubt the lily pads will deter birds from landing.

[Jimmy from Cottage Grove]

I hunted a bay covered in lily pads for the opener. My buddy was concerned there were too many for his dog to retrieve the downed birds. We threw out a dozen dekes. And we had wood ducks and teal coming in like crazy.

[Shoot2Kill]

Before the season started I went out to the pond where I hunt and cleard out a nice big ol landing pad free of lilly pads...nearly sunk my boat after just popping the tops off the pads and putting them in my boat for 3 hours. I thought I just created a perfect invite for any duck passing over. All weekend of the opener the ducks would fly right past my nice clear opening and land right in the lilly pads about 75 yards to my right. I'm not that smart but I moved my set up on day 3 and havn't moved back and have limited out nearly every day in the lilly pads.

[Cheetah]

Thanks for the input guys. I'll leave em be and see about even shifting into them more to see if it helps.