Decoys: Quantity, or variety?

TheCoachZed

TheCoachZed

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
40   0   0
Location
Southern NB, aka "Canada's Bible Belt"
I've got a spread of a dozen mallard floaters, two magnum mallard shells, three goose floaters, one whistler, and 4 black ducks. I'm getting more decoys and I am trying to figure which is better:

A dozen more mallard decoys?

Or, a half dozen teal or shovelers or something, and maybe throw in some feeders?

Almost all my hunting is mallards, blacks, and teal. I see some buffleheads and wood ducks as well. I use decoys especially for blacks, and from what I can tell, most of the black ducks here have never been decoyed before.

I just don't know if I'm better off diversifying my spread, or keeping with mallards. The only other guy I hunt with who uses decoys has a really wide variety and it seems to work well for him.....but he hunts the Saint John river early season. I hunt it all season long, and I also hunt the Fundy coast, which makes a bit of a difference in what kind of ducks I see.
 
Is it common to see 24 mallards packed in to a section of water where you hunt? If it doesn't happen in nature then why bother spending the money on more mallards. I would just go for some long scouting and see what you see on the river/ small water you hunt. That should help you dictate what you may need to add to your spread. Just a thought and I am by no means and expert.
 
Pretty much all I see on the coast is blacks (I usually just walk 'em up when I hunt on the St. John River marshes) but it's pretty hard to find black decoys, period. Wal-Mart had them on for $4 this fall and I should have bought a dozen then.

Especially this time of year, it's not unusual to see groups of a dozen blacks huddled together.
 
Either more black duck decoys or get some scaup and whistler decoys. Sussex outfitters had some ghg Black decoys a month ago, they may have sold.
Early in the year and in some locations I run 90% black duck decoys with a few mallards and a wood duck thrown in, after november 1st I add about 13 scaup seperated from the black ducks, if hunting open water. Sadly the season is over now but last time I was out we had aproximately 20 black duck decoys on a grassy point and another string of about 25 whistlers and scaup running in a string along the shore line.
 
JamesM said:
Either more black duck decoys or get some scaup and whistler decoys. Sussex outfitters had some ghg Black decoys a month ago, they may have sold.
Early in the year and in some locations I run 90% black duck decoys with a few mallards and a wood duck thrown in, after november 1st I add about 13 scaup seperated from the black ducks, if hunting open water. Sadly the season is over now but last time I was out we had aproximately 20 black duck decoys on a grassy point and another string of about 25 whistlers and scaup running in a string along the shore line.
Click to expand...

6 of these work better tan 20 of others
100_0223.jpg
 
Get 12 Higdon Foam Filled Magnum Black Ducks, I have hunted the St.Lawrence with 12 of these, they are very visible on the water and look really good up close. Having a bunch or random mixed decoys sort of goes against how ducks work.

Quality over quantity and variety.
 
invest in quality decoys and setups. If you have 24 mallards, you will want to arrange them in the water to create a landing zone. It's common to see a dozen plus ducks in small water if there's lots of food there. Bunching them up will make a flock _not_ want to land there since there's already competition for food. A flock of mallards, a _small_ flock of geese and another flock of mallards can work well if you create a good landing zone. Mixing up magnum mallards and lots of small birds can work to your disadvantage. It looks unnatural.

Study how birds flock up on the water and where they want to land when there's other birds there and try to recreate that.
 
I agree with the comment about investing in quality rather than quantity and just about everything decoys to mallards. For variety I would consider some teal decoys and set them a little apart from the mallards in the early season.
 
I don't hunt freshwater divers yet, so I won't be putting out a 2-300 bird spread. I think I'm going to pick up some other gear for now and order some oldsqaw decoys from Bass Pro for sea ducks next year.

And re: my magnum shell decoys - I didn't buy them, and I don't like them either. I prefer some Canadas mixed in. That way, if you actually see Canadas, you attract them (nobody around here has Canada decoys that I've seen) and also, they don't look strange to the other ducks.
 
Around here we don't see any big flocks of mallards until just before freeze up, mostly family size groups. Might see hundreds of birds pile into a field or waterhole but they all come i small groups early in the season. I'll use a dozen decoys and a robo duck and call. A good quality call and proper use is more important than decoy spreads and quantities of decoys in my opinion. Learning to call well can make all the difference between a so-so and a great hunt. When I lived in Ontario we used to use hen mallard decoys for black ducks, just black out the white patch on the wings.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom