need advice

skysail · 11-06-2011, 04:02 PM

Ive been hunting in northern illinois on a river and havent been doing very well. There has been a lot of action but for some reason the ducks wont come close to my spread. I only had 9 mallard decoys but i just bought a dozen more. Is that enough? Is there a certain way to set them up? Would goose decoys help bring in ducks? Im very new to hunting so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

skysail · 11-09-2011, 04:18 PM

Will goose decoys help make ducks more confident? Does anyone mix goose decoys with duck decoys? I have a really small duck boat with pretty good cover so I don't think it's me. They keep just flying past just outside of shooting range.

Doc E · 11-09-2011, 05:40 PM

What kind of pattern are you seting your dekes ?

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skysail · 11-09-2011, 08:17 PM

I have been just throwing them out randomly, don't really have a pattern, just try to make them look natural

westtexducks · 11-10-2011, 09:43 AM

Have you thought about jump shooting that river I know I have been hearing alot of people saying they aren't decoying very well for them, but me and some buddies did extremely well over the weekend jump shooting them. Not conventional, but when conventional methods aren't working use unconventional methods. Good luck next time you go out.

skysail · 11-10-2011, 11:52 AM

What do you mean by jump shooting? Just going out decoyless?

Colorado Luckydog · 11-10-2011, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skysail

What do you mean by jump shooting? Just going out decoyless?

He means sneaking up on them and shooting them on the water. It can be very fun and effective but not near as skillfull as decoying.

Goose decoys are a great confidence decoy and a goose call can really bring in the ducks.

The number of decoys you use can depend on several things. Pressure is maybe the biggest. I shot a limit last year in a couple of minutes with only 10 decoys. I ususlly go smaller on the river and larger on big open water.

Ducks like to land close to other ducks but not on top of them. They also like to land into the wind. Remember those two things when positioning your decoys and your blind. I almost always leave a landing zone. A few dekes on the left, a few dekes on the right with a landing zone set up with the wind in mind.

Don't let them see your face or see you move. They have been shot at for a while and they don't like it!! LMAO!

Good luck.

skysail · 11-12-2011, 10:12 AM

I set up the dekes with a landing zone in the middle and it worked perfectly, two ducks dropped right into it. Thanks!