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Early season decoy spread?

5K views 7 replies 7 participants last post by  JuniorPre 360 
#1 ·
I am curious as to the ratio of drakes to hens (mallards) y'all use and a big spread or small spread for open waters? Any advise is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Jeremy
 
#2 ·
Open water wise, using mallards, i use almost all drakes. In my opinion, I believe the birds work towards ones they can recognize (hence decoys getting so detailed), that look real to them. I have had good luck that way, im sure many will have other options/opinions. Beyond mallards, using other species, I use all drakes as well (using the hens as fillers to be honest) for decoying. I believe proper placement of the dekes,keeping in mind of the wind factor, esp. in northern California, is key to a good hunt (provided there is a decent amount of bird movement in the area).
 
#3 ·
Thanks Petri! I use all GHG Pro Grades for my spreads! I have Mallards, (of course) Widgeon, and Green Wing Teal. I also have some Final Approach Life Size Mallards to throw and a few GHG Gadwalls! I am going to wait to see what others say and you might be the only response I get LOL! I have heard the opposite though to use a lot of hens for early season! I am down to try anything as long as ducks are in the area I will continue to try to get them over my decoys!

Thanks again,

Jeremy
 
#4 ·
I set out about 2 dozen decoys yesterday and the birds seemed to like it. Had about a dozen mallards with only 1 drake and then a dozen mixed blue and green teal. I put them in one group because I have been seeing the teal landing with the mallards in my goose decoys during early season goose. I also threw out 4 canadian geese and had a couple groups landing in them.
 
#5 ·
This year I plan on running mostly hen mallard decoys along with the GHG pro grade mallard/black hybrids early in the year. To me, they look enough like an eclipse drake mallard (what we shoot for the first few weeks here in central WI) that I believe it warrants using them. Opener is on Saturday and I am thinking 2 dozen mallard (probably 4, no more than 6 drake decoys) along with teal and woodies.
 
#6 ·
Personally I will use more hens than drakes in the first week or two.. til I start seeing more colored up birds. I think more importantly make sure you are representing the species that are around early on. For me I will mostly be using my mallards and wood ducks.
 
#7 ·
My early season spread is two dozen ducks, eight Mallards with two drakes painted eclipsed ( heads dry brushed with primer gray and bodies dry brushed with flat brown) four Gadwall hens and a dozen hen Teal decoys. I will add a half dozen woodies if they are in the area.
 
#8 ·
This might sound dumb, but I hunt right in the middle of the Pacific Flyway. The area I hunt is a main stop in the middle of the migration. I see a lot of different species of ducks and a lot of them already have their colors. I've always heard about using more hens than drakes in early season. I do apply this tactic when hunting small local ponds and fields and it does work. But in a place where migrating birds frequent, I throw out large groups of whatever I have and a lot of it is drakes. I'd check to see if you are killing local ducks or not. Again, that might sound a little dumb, but it's true.
 
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