Duck Decoy Hunting Tips
When hunting ducks the duck decoys have to provide the visual stimulus
needed to attract the duck to a particular location. The more visible
the decoys are, the more effective they are.
Here are some key tips to hunting duck that I hope you find useful.
- There
are five different ways to make a decoy spread highly visible:
location, numbers, size, color and movement. See Basic decoy placement for more detailed information.
- Try to avoid heavily hunted areas or
areas where there are other hunters, too much activity will put stress
on the ducks and they will be too timid to land near your decoys or
blind.
- Look for
little used or hidden duck holes such as farm ponds, beaver
sloughs, oxbows, reservoir backwaters, swamps, creeks and
watershed areas between 2 refuges.
- Keep your decoys looking good, the more real the better. They may need a paint touch up or two. If you have leaking decoys check out this article on Fixing Leaking Decoys.
- Try to hunt after after a heavy rain as rising
water can flood new areas such as agricultural fields that have been
proven to attract ducks.
- On the more slower days
try to use a more quiet, less aggressive calling approach. The more
aggressive style can scare the ducks away. On these days maybe no calling at all may be the answer. Usually a more gentle
raspy call on quiet, calm day has proven to work for me.
- Be sure to use good camouflage as ducks can see colors and on the darker overcast days as there are no shadows
and low flying ducks can see your face, gun, glasses, head and torso inside the duck blind. Also ducks will notice that there are no water movement around your decoys so it's a good idea to use some motion duck decoys. Motion decoys
techniques make the ducks feel right at home.
- It's a good idea to hunt after a
cold weather front has passed through as it often stirs up ducks that aren't decoy shy.
- Make sure your duck blind blends in well with it surrounding and is not sky-lined. Be sure to place it in lower areas and use lots of camouflage netting or vegetation to break the duck blind outline.
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