How many decoys are needed and what kind are best

drh1175 · 09-02-2003, 09:16 AM

I hunt ND and havn' t had the luck I should be having. Is there any tricks that would help me. For instance how many decoys do I need, and what kind work the best. Standard, magnum, or a combination of both. I was told no more than a dozen are needed, but like I said, I havn' t had as much luck as I thought I would last year.

jlb66 · 09-02-2003, 05:55 PM

Depends on time of year for how many dekes work the best. In the begining part of the season you should put out as many as you can doesn' t really matter what sizes. The only thing the mags do is give a bit more visibility at farther distances and also with the magnums you shouldn' t need to put out as many. The later in the year you should put out about half or even less than half of what you' ve put out in the earlier part of the season. Somtimes later in the year I' ll bring along only 6-8 dekes and that works just fine this is the time that mags work great. Also there are a number of partterns you can put your decoys out in to make the ducks land wher you want them to. This is a whole different topic in it' s self and would take about 5 pages to explain them all and how to put them out. Putting out dekes with regars to what the ducks want, wind direction, area hunting and so forth is a bit of science and it takes alot of experimenting and practice to get it to work every time. Somtimes the ducks like one pattern adn somtimes they like others you have to experiment. I hope this was of some help to you. Types of decoys as in species should be like the ducks in the area. I found that if you area hunting puddlers in an area with alot of mallards and gadwalls and you put out some mallards and 3-5 pintail decoys in an area where there aren' t that many pintails that the other ducks especially mallards won' t even look at your spread or they wil look and flare well before they are in range but take the pintails out and they' ll suck right in. The only time this isn' t to much of a factor is when hunting the really big water for diver' s they' re so stupid they' ll suck into a milk jug painted black and white which is somthing I use later in the season for visiblility sake. Like I said experiment and find what works and remember what you did right or didn' t do right and how the ducks reacted to your spreads.

kbstern · 09-02-2003, 08:52 PM

We stick with the standards. Talked to some guys who were using mags and they said that they would get the birds flying in until they got close and saw the mags and would flare. This could also have to do with their set up or movement on their part. There are so many different kinds, just pick one you like. We have some Flambeaus and Hidgon, a mix of geese and mallards, all standards.
Question .. what are you hunting and is anything getting close to your spread and how many guys do you hunt with?
I think calling is important too. Think about this.... it you have a bunch of dekes out there and there isn' t any or much noise coming from them,depending on the size of the spread, it will probably tend to look and sound a little funny to the birds.

Ya just have to try different things to see what works and what doesn' t. I however am a firm believer that you don' t have to go out and throw down lots of $$$ to try the different things. A buddy has a saying " the more redneck it looks/seems, the more likely it probably is to work." Case in point .. we have black, and white material flags to wave at geese that are way out there to draw attention to our spread....guess what .... they' ve worked for us. go figure

ARMallardSlayer · 09-12-2003, 08:08 AM

Never seen duck flare from Mags..........

bearlot · 09-17-2003, 02:14 PM

I am from Alabama and we use mags. I have hunted over as few a 6 and over as many as 10 dozen. It is just according to what the situation calls for. The place that you hunt also has alot to do with it. If you are hunting a small creek then you will not need many dekes but if you are on open water you will need more.

bearlot · 09-17-2003, 02:16 PM

Oh yea , I think some of the best dekes on the market are the G&H. They are kind of high priced but they are well worth the money.