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Post by koonce on Jan 27, 2014 18:44:22 GMT -6
Well I have been beating idea after idea round in my head. After looking through my logs of the past I have yet to find a spread that sticks out in being the one to harvest more ducks over the other.
Couple questions for you guys.
what do you chase more, diver, mallards or puddlers in general? In the past I have been an opportunist, I chase what I see for the most part, but the last 2 or 3 season I have been on a mallard fix spree and have been greatly disappointed. I just don't feel we get enough mallards to justify trying to kill mult limits of them day in and out. If you look back at past years surveys we hardly ever get over 10k mallards, usually under 5k range. Now the areas I speak of is the river. I cant say for inner WI as I have never had the chance to gun it. Maybe its me being hard headed and not wanting to accept the fact that our flyway or area I hunt is a mallard mecca such as that of the Missouri river where they will stage hundreds of thousands of mallards.
So what do you all chase?
This also leeds me into spreads. The usual spread I see from start of season to the finish is 2 to 6 doz mallards and a doz or less geese. Somtimes you see a guy with pintails or some mixed species. For divers its almost always and all drake can spread which hardly ever ranges over 2 doz when I see diver spreads.
What do you guys do to set a realistic spread but to also be different. I usually run a pile of geese and ducks but am in the market to try some new things. I think I am gonna still run the pile of geese but cut the ducks back to a doz or less. Anyone try a spread like this? or have some tactics in the bag that seem to produce when the traditional stuff isn't working.
Lay it out there, lets get some conversation going,
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Post by jtg1551 on Jan 27, 2014 20:05:42 GMT -6
Last year was my first season, so I just shoot what fly's by (no I don't mean I can't identify birds) I mean I didn't pick what I wanted to shoot, just got what I could get. For me last year, I usually ran really small spreads 12-18 decoys, with a spinner. But at the end I was running 4 doz, with 2 spinners, and seemed to do pretty decent.
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Post by Tanner Wildes on Jan 27, 2014 20:06:02 GMT -6
Koonce,
For decoys I run as many as I can fit in my boat, the less people that come with me the more decoys I can run. I usually never run less that 100 decoys, sometimes its all ducks, and sometimes I will run 3-4 dozen geese too, depending on how many geese are around, the more that are around the more I will run.
For decoys I run about half puddlers and half divers for a spread that will work for both. For puddlers I run 18 black ducks, dozen super mag G&H pintails, a dozen widgeon, and about 2-3 dozen mallards. For the divers I run 6 redhead, 2 dozen canvasback, mix of hens and drakes, and about 2-3 dozen ringers or bluebills.
If I am running a spread in shallow water just for puddlers, I will run the same puddlers I do on the bigger water, but I won't run divers and I will add 2 dozen wood ducks and 3 dozen blue and green wing teal, and always at least a dozen goose floaters as well. And if the spot is right a dozen full body mallards.
I really believe in safety in numbers with ducks that is why I run as many as I possibly can.
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Post by Tanner Wildes on Jan 27, 2014 20:09:01 GMT -6
Oh yeah I forgot, we really never get any real mallard shoots going on. I used to get on them at times when I lived up north, but in the southern and central part of the state it seems there is more of a mixed bag and the mallards are more spread out maybe. But up north you would find spots that would have hundreds of mallards there and no hunters so they would decoy really well for a couple of days. But down here seems like a ton more gadwall and widgeon in the puddler spreads.
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Post by koonce on Jan 27, 2014 20:15:07 GMT -6
I love big spreads. May need to invest in more scrap duck decoys vs running 100+ mallards.
I just order 12 gaddies, 6 pinners , 6 teal, 6 buffies and 18 more mallards from don mintz to try out. I think I'm gonna add a couple more doz goose floaters to the spread. Really putting some thought into this huge goose spread and under a doz duck floaters.
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Post by vandyvan on Jan 28, 2014 14:17:56 GMT -6
I have small handful of areas where I primarily hunt. In each case my use of decoys is very limited, because the water is small. You'd probably laugh at some of the sets I've put out there. I only own somewhere between 1-1/2 to 2 doz dekes and I don't think I've ever put them all out at once. The idea of a 100+ decoy spread is mind boggling to me and something I definitely want to experience.
Our main hunting spot is a narrow channel and what we get is mostly fly-bys and fly-overs. RARELY do birds ever try to alight in our decoys. I've never seen huge rafts of birds in our spots, except maybe in spring, so I don't use large spreads. Although maybe It would help. There is one area we hunt where we use no decoys at all because we are trying to get woodies as they come down a sort of chute along a river in the morning.
I have hunted in the confluence area of the Illinois and Missouri river on a property that butts up to the big river, but the way they set it up is they create pockets and different areas to attract birds. They flood corn, and have various sloughs and ponds etc dotting the property that they hunt. They also have a large resting lake on the property. It's a dream set up, the kind of place a hardcore duck hunter would create if they had a prime piece of property and basically unlimited funds. The place was set up as a duck club in 1898 and the family I hunted with bought it out from the rest of the members almost 100 years ago. Again, the decoy sets were generally on the small side. No more then 4 or 5 dozen on any spot, sometimes much less. A kind of mish-mash of whatever they happen to be seeing at the time, but always some mallards of course. There the birds would actually come into the dekes unlike the way I have to hunt around here.
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Post by koonce on Jan 28, 2014 15:50:45 GMT -6
If ya have birds that are not pressured you can get away with a lot, or so that is my small turd of an opinion. I would love to have a duck mecca and if I was to ever win this lottery game I would make it a reality.
Every situation is different. I have only experience hunting off the Miss a few times. I cut my teeth on this river, use to beat around in two small canoes with my brother when we were boys. Couldn't have been 12 years old when we started heading out on our own. It wasn't that long ago but things seem different back then, it was nothing for our pops to let us load up the guns and go out hunting on our own. Now a days kids barely leave the side of there ipads and video games. To many scare stories to freak out the modern day parent.
When I was off at college I hunted prairie pot hole country. It was fun but tough work. There were lots of places to hunt and the potholes were almost always to small to where it was a one group only size pond, most just weren't big enough to allow mult groups to gun. So I would drive until I found one with ducks, drag my canoe thru endless cattails or hike my butt in. I usually only ran one bag of deeks as that was all I could carry, few times I tried carrying two and I am pretty positive I left one half way. I shot plenty of ducks and shot limits from time to time.
The river just seems to be something different. Birds are wise in there ways due to the heavy daily constant pressure. I have learned, witness what have you that they more often then not feed at night and loaf during the day. They fly out right after shooting time ends and pile into the rice and celery mats. If you get out there early enough with a good light you will witness mass feeding frenzy in these areas, and then come legal shooting time most of them are back to the safety of the refuge.
I started running big spreads to try to mimic safety and to also look different than every 2 to 6 doz decoy spread out there with 1 or 2 spinners. Always a learning curve from year to year. Maybe someday I will figure the ultimate kill set out.
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Post by vandyvan on Jan 28, 2014 16:27:10 GMT -6
I have the same issue you used to have in that I only have a canoe and sometimes I don't even take that. When you are dragging a canoe, or just walking in, you are limited in how much you can carry. For me it's usually one bag of decoys.
I try to make em look "natural" as best I can. Or my idea of natural. I don't know if we over think this stuff or under think it or what. But I know this, it's amazing how people who have never hunted ducks think it's so easy. It's not easy, unless you have one of those "meccas" you spoke about. And even then there are never any guarantees. Even when you have a great day you never really know for sure what made them act that way on that day. Cause the next day might be skunksville.
Pressure is something it seems like everyone here has to deal with and I think that is what really makes the difference. It's just hard to find something that works, especially on a consistent basis. Contrary to popular belief ducks aren't stupid to begin with, and when they are being hunted heavy they are that much smarter. Even on that dude ranch I hunted in MO the birds get educated, it doesn't take long before even those guys are praying for new birds to come through. And that's when they have 5-10 thousand of them sitting on the resting lake right on their own property.
I've had people point to city ducks and ducks that live in parks and stuff as proof of how stupid ducks are. You can walk right up to them, feed them bread, etc. I tell em, that doesn't prove how dumb they are, it proves how smart they are.
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Post by koonce on Jan 28, 2014 16:39:50 GMT -6
and the stupid ones are always the first to sacrifice for the great "natural selection" as we cull out the dumb ones we promote a smarter future. Well maybe
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Post by vandyvan on Jan 28, 2014 16:48:14 GMT -6
It's possible. I've often wondered myself if somehow they don't get smarter genetically or something. Probably not but they are certainly capable of learning on some levels. A bird that has survived a time or two up and down the flyway has got to learn something form it. Do they remember from year to year? Can they impart that knowledge to other birds?I have no idea.
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Post by jtg1551 on Jan 28, 2014 16:59:57 GMT -6
Well my extremely small bit of knowledge and my tiny 2ยข would have to say that if there is a duck up front slightly leading the group. If he does remember something from last year, would he potentially try and lead the others around those potential danger zones???
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Post by vandyvan on Jan 29, 2014 11:49:10 GMT -6
Here was my set up on the last day of the 2013 season lol  |
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Post by koonce on Jan 29, 2014 12:43:34 GMT -6
^^ More deeks than what I ran. I ran 2 sleeper full bodies and one rester full body on the ice shelf around a spring. Killed one green head and a hen buffie.
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Post by vandyvan on Jan 29, 2014 13:12:25 GMT -6
Two birds is two better than I did. I went there the day before to break ice thinking it would be an inch or two thick, only took a hatchet with me. I spent about two hours hacking through the ice which turned about to be 5 inches think. It was crazy, I don't think hacking through concrete would have been any more difficult than that ice. I only cleared small area so when I came back the next day I brought my auger and doubled the size of the hole in about 15 minutes. But it was all in vain. Obviously nothing had been using the pond, and the little area I cleared wasn't open long enough for anything to find it. So that's how my season ended. I hope it freezes up that early and that fast next year, I'll get out earlier and make a proper opening.   It was kinda fun hacking that hole open, but it didn't payoff this time. |
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Post by koonce on Jan 29, 2014 14:05:32 GMT -6
I got sick of busting ice as well so I started going to the springs and creeks I knew of that would have open water. But even those didn't really hold much for birds, and if it did those birds didn't come back after I kicked them off. At that point I was ready to start ice fishing
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