Getting Ducks/Geese to Finish

[ida homer]

I also feel the ratio of motion decoys to the total spread size is important.

3 moving decoys in a spread of 8 dozen is fishy. Just my opinion.

 

[SO7mm]

A lot of good advise on cover and motion in the water. We use the spinner all year but with a remote. It get turns off quickly once we get there attention. I like to call ducks so it never stops but you have to pay attention to what they want from day to day. Somedays it's really light and some days it's aggressive and keeping them excited. Weather changes things and having new birds show up changes things. It's not the case everywhere but calling makes a huge difference getting their attention and getting them to finish where we hunt. Get a good call with range and work on it in the off-season. You'll start figuring it out.

 

[Johnny44]

I also feel the ratio of motion decoys to the total spread size is important.

3 moving decoys in a spread of 8 dozen is fishy. Just my opinion.

What ratio do you recommend?

 

[Birddog916]

I'd agree to disagree on that but were talking about different birds in different flyaways over 1000 miles apart. So you could be spot on out there, different here for sure.

Different strokes for different folks. I grew up hunting in Illinois and Indiana and learned to call there... My style works in the Sacramento River Valley just as well as it does Illinois River Valley. Bottom line is figure out what works best for you and pay attention to the little things like cover, decoys, and what the birds are doing and how they are responding to the calls. If they come to your calls keep calling.

 

[Nick87]

Different strokes for different folks. I grew up hunting in Illinois and Indiana and learned to call there... My style works in the Sacramento River Valley just as well as it does Illinois River Valley. Bottom line is figure out what works best for you and pay attention to the little things like cover, decoys, and what the birds are doing and how they are responding to the calls. If they come to your calls keep calling.

I always like to keep quiet when there close, keeps attention off the hide imo. Ymmv.

 

[ida homer]

What ratio do you recommend?

The more quality movement the better. If we're doing a really small spread of a dozen floaters, 3 on a jerk rig
is probably good.

If we're doing a big spread, we'll use the big jerk rig (9 decoys), small jerk rig (3), mojo before sunrise, motorized goose
flapper when they're far and 2 butts up feeding mallards. The battery ones that bob and squirt water.

@Duck-Slayer attached real goose wings to his flapper and upgraded the battery. I think it helps.

 

[EYJONAS!]

I haven't read the thread in its entirety but some points some things that have helped me over the years and things I've picked up on. when your hunting rivers.....

1. Scout, Scout, Scout
2.While Scouting watch birds and see what they're looking for, see how they approach an area to land and just because they're sitting in slack somewhere doesn't mean they land there. You need to pay attention to where they are targeting to land vs. sitting mid day.
3 10% Rule..... meaning if your hunting with 3 guys looking to take a 3 man mallard limit (15) you need to find a pocket of birds that is going to hold or have in it about 150 birds. When they jump not all will come back, maybe half, then theres the ones you don't see coming, missed shots ect. ect. SO you need to have birds to work with, if you jump 25 ducks chances are 250 aint coming to that hole.....This time of the year and even mid season your not gonna traffic that many birds on rivers unless your in the midst of an over night migration.
4. DON'T SHOOT EVENING ROOSTS
5. DON'T MIX Decoys, your either hunting ducks or your hunting geese not in between. Spinners and flappers are your worst enemy IMO come mid season on. Birds have seen every damn spinner out there, yours isn't more special than the others.
6. Dont setup on your spread, this also eliminates the being "seen" factor. Birds are focus on the decoys about 40 or 50 yards above you not you and your crew and pooches.
7. Less is more when it comes to calling, a simple suttle Quack is more the sufficient. Way to many blow there guts out of their calls and wonder WTF why isn't this working...... well because you sound like F&$CKIN Ozzy Osborne screaming into a mic at a concert that's why. They like subtle calling (most of the time)

Fields
1. Scout
2. Have a decent variating spread, FB, Motion FB, Shells, Socks and Silos work awesome for having bigger spreads and they don't make a guy go bankrupt. You don't need 300 FBs to make it work either.
3. Cover and locations in fields, geese a lot of times will setup way out in the middle and walk towards the edges of fields or ditches they typically don't land by ditches. Lot of people mistake that. If your using blinds make sure they look like where they are sitting......
4. 10% Rule which this is usually way easier to come by then on water
5. Buy legit whites if your hunting in snow
6. Calling for geese is a lot more forgiving then ducks, but practice. Simple clucks and moans work wonders you don't need to be Tim Grounds out there.


Its waterfowl hunting and while everyone thinks you just setup and shoot, that's clearly not it. I have literally done some of the DUMBEST SHIT hunting birds, putting people and dogs at risk with weather temps, ran jet boats at -25 hunted fields at -15 on and on. Your gonna get your ass kicked I don't care who you are everyone does in that sport. Some people I know have got their asses kicked for years until it comes together. Its a lot of fun when you figure things out but it is an absolute shit load of work. Being a waterfowler is a lot different hunting IMO it goes beyond the day in the field or on the river. Some people think they want to be a waterfowler but the truth is most cant or wont ever be.....

Above all have fun out there and send some goose jerky!

 

[Nick87]

I haven't read the thread in its entirety but some points some things that have helped me over the years and things I've picked up on. when your hunting rivers.....

1. Scout, Scout, Scout
2.While Scouting watch birds and see what they're looking for, see how they approach an area to land and just because they're sitting in slack somewhere doesn't mean they land there. You need to pay attention to where they are targeting to land vs. sitting mid day.
3 10% Rule..... meaning if your hunting with 3 guys looking to take a 3 man mallard limit (15) you need to find a pocket of birds that is going to hold or have in it about 150 birds. When they jump not all will come back, maybe half, then theres the ones you don't see coming, missed shots ect. ect. SO you need to have birds to work with, if you jump 25 ducks chances are 250 aint coming to that hole.....This time of the year and even mid season your not gonna traffic that many birds on rivers unless your in the midst of an over night migration.
4. DON'T SHOOT EVENING ROOSTS
5. DON'T MIX Decoys, your either hunting ducks or your hunting geese not in between. Spinners and flappers are your worst enemy IMO come mid season on. Birds have seen every damn spinner out there, yours isn't more special than the others.
6. Dont setup on your spread, this also eliminates the being "seen" factor. Birds are focus on the decoys about 40 or 50 yards above you not you and your crew and pooches.
7. Less is more when it comes to calling, a simple suttle Quack is more the sufficient. Way to many blow there guts out of their calls and wonder WTF why isn't this working...... well because you sound like F&$CKIN Ozzy Osborne screaming into a mic at a concert that's why. They like subtle calling (most of the time)

Fields
1. Scout
2. Have a decent variating spread, FB, Motion FB, Shells, Socks and Silos work awesome for having bigger spreads and they don't make a guy go bankrupt. You don't need 300 FBs to make it work either.
3. Cover and locations in fields, geese a lot of times will setup way out in the middle and walk towards the edges of fields or ditches they typically don't land by ditches. Lot of people mistake that. If your using blinds make sure they look like where they are sitting......
4. 10% Rule which this is usually way easier to come by then on water
5. Buy legit whites if your hunting in snow
6. Calling for geese is a lot more forgiving then ducks, but practice. Simple clucks and moans work wonders you don't need to be Tim Grounds out there.


Its waterfowl hunting and while everyone thinks you just setup and shoot, that's clearly not it. I have literally done some of the DUMBEST SHIT hunting birds, putting people and dogs at risk with weather temps, ran jet boats at -25 hunted fields at -15 on and on. Your gonna get your ass kicked I don't care who you are everyone does in that sport. Some people I know have got their asses kicked for years until it comes together. Its a lot of fun when you figure things out but it is an absolute shit load of work. Being a waterfowler is a lot different hunting IMO it goes beyond the day in the field or on the river. Some people think they want to be a waterfowler but the truth is most cant or wont ever be.....

Above all have fun out there and send some goose jerky!

Mic drop!

 

[EYJONAS!]

Forgot to add have about 3 or 4 different backup plans always for different winds and other hunters as well.

 

[Jeremyc_1999]

A few things I have learned over the years

It never hurts to have more decoys

make sure your decoys are clean and well painted. Waterfowl live in the water. They don't live with mud on them, so make sure to keep your decoys clean

I like to set up 20 or so yards away from the decoys.

Concealment is key. Make sure your hide is good. Think jungle sniper ghille suit good and then try to do better. Think about shadows that your hide might cast.

Not moving is key. As tempting as it is don't turn your head to watch birds circling. We all like to watch them, but you can kill more birds if you don't move and you shoot them when they are locked up

I think that people think they can talk loudly and move with waterfowl. In no other hunting practice is the accepted so I am not sure why it is with waterfowl when we are trying to trick live birds that get hunted into coming into decoys

Silence is sometime better than calling. I like to call to get the birds to look at me, but if they will come in without me coaxing them in all they way, I will let them. Sometimes that is not possible and they need to be called in all the way to the decoys.

 

[Johnny44]

The more quality movement the better. If we're doing a really small spread of a dozen floaters, 3 on a jerk rig
is probably good.

If we're doing a big spread, we'll use the big jerk rig (9 decoys), small jerk rig (3), mojo before sunrise, motorized goose
flapper when they're far and 2 butts up feeding mallards. The battery ones that bob and squirt water.

@Duck-Slayer attached real goose wings to his flapper and upgraded the battery. I think it helps.

I've been looking into the butt up feeders that move. Any recommendations?

 

[JLS]

Spend money on a few really good decoys. I could see some guys hunting the other day. The shine off their decoys gave them away instantly.

 

[Johnny44]

You guys keep adding some great stuff for me to consider. Once again, thank you. Wish I had done this earlier.

 

[ida homer]

Higdon XS Pulsator, not overly cheap. If I could, I’d have 10 of those.

As mentioned above, above all else is scouting. Scout, scout, scout. @EYJONAS! nailed it. Forget all the gear talk, if you can find where 300+ birds want to be or are routinely flying over, you can get away with some mediocre setups.

 

[AlaskaHunter]

On another note: When hunting waterfowl a lot of guys set up with the wind at their back. Pretty normal right?

I suggest you try this different approach if you can make it work in the area you hunt.(see below)

As birds approach decoys they are looking at the decoys and beyond the decoys on the bank for danger. If you can get those decoys 50 yards away from where you are hiding and let the birds get between you and the decoys not only do the birds 95% of the time flare back towards you closer into range but when you call the shot typically you are shooting at their back. This really works well for geese because they have exposed all of that spine and goodies to you....

I have killed literally hundreds of birds with a setup that looks just like this picture I drew below. The birds almost always flare from the decoys and come right back into my arms....(Which allows for precise shooting with a shotgun because you literally have 4-5 seconds to get three shots off) I have tripled dozens of times with this setup and still could have shot one or two more because the birds were still in range of where I was hiding. (This particular setup I would hide my boat between the 2 X's on the right bank. Its a big cut river bank and the birds pass 5 feet over the blind on their approach (Self control is necessary at times...)

I dont care much for lake duck hunting I am always hunting rivers or vast cattail marshes. This tactic obviously doesn't work real well on a lake, but it does work well on a pond also.

Bottom line is not to be afraid to get onto the downwind side of your decoys 50 yards. The eyes will likely not be on your and you can get away with being a little more comfortable and It can be a real slaughter.

FYI Those decoys in the picture are 50 yards away from our blind and the wind if blowing directly in our faces.. The birds were landing in the clear water at 30 yards (Right where I like birds finishing when they are upwind of me...) right on the ice flow line. When the shooting started they came right towards us. We had a limit of ducks and geese in 1 hour and then got out of there to let the birds come in there to rest. That is the typical sized spread I use for river duck hunting. I keep it small and fast. I want to shoot my limit and get out of there as soon as possible. Rest, rinse, repeat....all...season....long.



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That is an excellent setup since birds working into the wind do not see anything that would make them flare...they are not looking directly at a blind with hunters. Also birds landing well outside the dekes,or cruising the channel are in range.
Excellent!

 

[AlaskaHunter]

Higdon XS Pulsator, not overly cheap. If I could, I’d have 10 of those.

As mentioned above, above all else is scouting. Scout, scout, scout. @EYJONAS! nailed it. Forget all the gear talk, if you can find where 300+ birds want to be or are routinely flying over, you can get away with some mediocre setups.

Good point! I often will only put out a few motion decoys (for ripples on water) and WATCH where the ducks want to land.
Then move to setup where the ducks really want to be and invest the time of putting out all the dekes.

 

[MarvB]

^^^This! +1.
I do my damnedest to be in the “right spot” initially but as the morning progresses I’ve found it more cost effective to take 20-25 mins to reposition to where THEY want to go rather than me trying to change their collective minds!

 

[Doublecluck]

Idk I pretty much never want to be shooting birds in the arse, a good side shoot is fun and always necessary a few times a year and in certain situations but there’s nothing like landing birds in the decoys right on top of you. I prefer shootin em in the face. Don’t matter if I’m hunting Canada in August or the salton sea in January on birds that been shot at all season, still requires the same thing to do it consistently- solid scouting/recon, quality decoys, a great hide, playing the wind, setting decoys realistically to that spot, and basic calling. Pay attention to those things and you will put birds in range.