New Duck/Goose hunter with questions???

[rubberdown]

Okay, I have duck hunted a couple times last year when away on our Moose hunting trip, but only recently have I found some private land close to home to duck/goose hunt on so I'm taking it muck more seriously because it is sooooo much fun.

The area is a swampy area with a flooded creek and lots of tall grass clumps with a few little ponds scattered around. It is not a spot that is hunted regularly since it is on private land so the first few trips out seemed to have a lot of flocks of Mallards and Wood ducks coming and going. Now after being out there 4 or 5 times over the last couple of weeks, the bird #'s are dwindling. I was told this area is a "roosting" area so we may be spooking the flying residents causing them to find a new home, does this sound about right?

Next, how does the weather change their patterns, meaning, if its really really windy, will we see more or less birds, we noticed a lot less last time out (really windy) so it could be either the weather, or possibly the roosting and spooking them away thing?

What about rainy weather?

What about when the ponds and creek freeze over, are we done for the season at this point?

Now lets hear about calling, I can do the basic quack, and a decent hail call to get themto turn around and come back in (we call them in) but the feeder call, forget about it, I cant do that to save my life. Are there any sorts of calls or series of notes that work for certain applications that I should keep in my back of tricks?

Decoys, I have somebrand new floating goose decoys, and some old used rough looking duck decoys, can they all be in the water at the same time? And if the duck decoys are faded and rough looking, are they more harmful than good when the ducks get close enough to see them?

Sorry for all the questions, but this is the most fun type of hunting I have ever done and I want to get better at it.

 

[Jay]

You can over shoot a roost with local birds... If the migration is on & you hit it right, you could likely hunt the spot regularly with little effect...

Decoys, if it's a roost shoot, then most of the shooting is in the last 30 mins & you can likely get away with rough decoys... Also, in my experience, ducks will not land over geese... So, place your decoys accordingly so that the ducks arriving into your decoy spread don't have to fly over the geese to land...

Calling... The basic quack is fine, but if the birds are coming or turned to your quack, STOP & let them come... For the feeding call, try practising the call by saying tick tick tick quickly into the call, it doesn't take much air.

Have fun!

Cheers
Jay

 

[xeon]

If the birds are only coming in at night, its a roost. You can over hunt them yes.

You'll notice that during cold fronts and the days following might be some good times to hunt as there will either be birds coming down with the new weather, or they have flown in. Your spot will work better with different weather than others, its up to you to see what works best at what time of year.

If things start freezing up in your area, you could try busting the ice to keep it open if its close by, otherwise unless you field hunt, its game over.

Less calling is more. If they're using the area as a roosting spot they're going to come in regardless if you're calling or not. If you're actually calling too much or the wrong way you have a higher chance of spooking them off than if you were quiet. Try just tossing out a few decoys, staying extremely well hidden and sit back and get ready for the action.

I personally will put goose decoys on areas that I want to keep the ducks from landing. So if there is a far spot thats also a good landing spot just out of gun range, I'll toss a pair of geese floaters there. Every once in awhile you will get a couple birds joining the geese though, but they like other ducks more.

 

[FLHTCUI]

Windy Days on BIG water generally means they will be moving to inland farm fields where I live.
They dont like getting tossed around much and would rather dabble in a semi flooded pumpkin field at this time of the year.
Tight Groups,
Rob

 

[killswitch]

I hope your taking notes, these fellers are giving up some steller tips. Be careful not to shoot your roost to hard, if you bust it your fubared. I would add/suggest only 1 morning and evening shoot per weekend and make sure to alternate your shooting locations. The key is not to educate your birds, they're smarter than most people think. Don't be afraid to change your decoy spread or blind location on the fly if needed.

I don't do a lot of water hunting so it may be different on the water but I almost always have ducks land in my goose dekes when in the Feild. I put 2 duck mojo's in my spread to get there attention and they don't seem to have an issue landing among my goose dekes. Worked again this morning check out the pic of my spread.

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And the rewards

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remember not to get stuck in a rut, don't be afraid to try new things.

 

[the spank]

The best I can offer if this is a roosting area, is as I have explained to others for many years. To ducks and geese the roost is the human equivalent of home.

Watering holes prior to and after feeding generally are not the roost, birds usually do not water at home, they head for the bar or restaurant just like we do.

Burn down the home, aka "blast the roost" and you have nowhere to live so you find a new home and in the case of ducks and geese that may mean leaving the area all together and heading out for good.

You can shoot the bar or restaurant and they will find another. As long as their house is standing they will just find a new restaurant in the local area.

Feed call? If you can master the hail call the feed chuckle should be a cake walk. Try saying the word "ticket" into the call over and over very quickly making certain to start with a good sharp "T" with the centre your tongue touching the roof of your mouth and the tip against the back side of your top row of teeth, drop your tongue down for the "icke" portion and cut off the last "T" sharply by returning the centre of your tongue to the roof of your mouth and tip to the back of the top row of teeth once again(starting point). Mix in the odd quack once you have the feed chuckle down and you're good to go.

Yes mixing goose and duck decoys together is absolutely ok. The larger goose blocks are visible from a long ways off making a great drawing card to passing ducks and if geese should come by you're ready for them.

After 35 seasons of waterfowling I have come to the conclusion that by the time the birds can pick out imperfections in your decoys they are close enough to kill!! That being said bare plastic spots will shine in sunlight but faded paint does not. If there are bare spots paint them with decoy paint and go hunt.

 

[rubberdown]

Thanks guys for ALL the advice, I'm taking notes and looking for more spots to hunt so we dont over shoot this little honey hole.