By: texas_quackwakker

If you are like me, you have a couple of decoys that have been the victim of a few (or maybe more than a few) stray bb's and sink or don't float correctly. Drill holes in the bottom about an inch away from the keel with about a 1/2 inch drill bit and fill them up with that nifty foam insulation that comes in a spray can at your local hardware store. I tried this one day and could not believe how well it works. If you overfill the decoy it just comes out of one of the holes and you can cut it off flush with the finish.

By the way....I have hit the ones that I have filled with foam by some stray shot and they float like there is no tomorrow. Best thing I have done to save money to date...besides stay at home and not hunt....which kinda sucks anyway.

By: KrzyKjun

I always carry a couple of hot-glue gun sticks and a lighter in my bag. That way if I develop a leak in my waders or find a decoy with a couple of holes in it, I just use the lighter to melt the end of the glue stick and smear it over the decoy hole or wader hole.

Wader repair is temporary but will last you the hunt until you can get home and affect permanent repairs to them.

By: ks_waterfowler

Late in the season, we set our decoys up so the birds will slowly cross in front of us instead of coming into our face. That way the birds aren't looking directly at you during their final approach. It isn't traditional in yo face duck hunting, but it definitely kills birds.

By: Chris Hustad

There's no doubt that spinning wing decoys work, but in recent years it isn't as effective as it used to be. We use spinners a lot when field hunting mallards, and have found that birds will be less likely to flare, or bail at a high altitude if it's not high in the air on the stake. My old hunting friend calls it "Robo Low", where we run our spinners just a foot off the ground. Although many feel it hurts your visibility, I'm determined that when ducks are flying they will see it whether it's 10 feet in the air or 10 inches. But it does matter when they're working the landing zone. Keep it low.

By: greenster

One of my favorite and most used confidence decoys and strategies is the coot decoy. Yes the black water chicken creature that just appears out of the fog, and seems to draw all duck action. Coots are one of those ignored and non-utilized confident decoys. Placing a small row of six or group of a dozen will greatly influence your ducks decision to join the crowd. I recommend a dozen for the low coot population areas and as many as Three dozen for high population areas.

By: Chris Hustad

No matter how many pairs of gloves I purchase, there is no substitute for using your duck call with your bare hands. One of my favorite little inventions was the shakable hand warmers. You know, the little “bag” that looks like a huge Skoal Bandit? While the product isn't new, I have seen very few people using them through the years while they complain about cold hands. I never wear gloves when waterfowl hunting, at least not when we're actually hunting and not setting up or taking down. The trick is simply to get one of those hand warmers (often called chest packs) that hangs around your waist, and throw one of those portable hand warmers inside the pouch. That way the inside of my hand warmer is like a sauna and worrying about cold hands is the last thing on my mind all morning. Give it a try.

By: Greg Wile

If using water keel decoys and would rather have weighted keels use hot glue gun to plug off one end of the keel then weight the keel with sand and seal up the other end with the glue gun.

By: Chris Hustad

This is one of my favorite ways to clean waterfowl, and I learned it around 15 years ago. It's typically best for cleaning ducks, smaller Canada geese, snow geese and upland game birds. I do not recommend this method on big Canada geese, give it a try once and you'll know what I mean. But for smaller birds, they can be cleaned in just a couple minutes. This method is especially useful when you're cleaning a large bag. I'm demonstrating this method using a snow goose. I can do a 20-bird limit in under an hour. The end result will be the full breast with both wings. If you want the feet you can simply clip them off with a game sheer.

To see this step-by-step method - Wild Game Bird Cleaning Tips

By: macdaddy

Cleaning your goose or duck call reed w/ a dollar bill is a good idea; if only the average dollar bill hadn't passed through roughly several hundred million potentially dirty, diseased hands. Remember - the call is on your mouth. How many times have you inhaled through it? Carry a piece of clean paper or paper towel, it is much more sanitary. We get precious few days out there in the field, why put yourself at risk for colds, infections, and the flu.

By: h2ofwlr

Do not store decoys in the garage attic/ceiling where there is high heat, this can damage your decoys. It's best to have them stored on the garage floor, basement, or a well ventilated storage shed works too that is out of the hot sun.

As for full bodies like BigFoots, do not stack them more than 3 high as their weight, with the warm weather, will make dimples on the body to the decoys at the bottom of the pile. These dimples may not readily pop out being it was dimpled all summer long. So keep it in mind so you will have many years of trouble free decoy use.

By: Chris Hustad

One of the first things I noticed when I first started flocking my Canada goose decoys was they would get pretty scuffed up during transport. I started covering my heads with black socks and they hold up so much better then without them. If you try to use white socks, you'll end up with heads full of white lint – so make sure to get black.

By: Chris Hustad

One of the most simple, but forgotten item to bring along in your decoy trailer or the back of your truck is a good rake. I can't count the time spent accumulating stubble by hand to stuff my blind. It can be very time consuming. I keep a couple rakes so 2 guys are piling up stubble while the other guys stuff. A great way to get a good stuffing FAST. Next time you're out the door for a weekend of hunting, make sure to remember to throw a rake in!

By: Chris Hustad

Something that is always in my decoy trailer when we get into mid-fall and after is Christmas tree flocking spray. Don't be fooled by the expensive snow spray you'll see designed for hunting, we've used various generic brands and it all comes clean off the blind when we're done. The absolute best time to get your spray is immediately after Christmas. I've paid as little as 24 cents per can and at that price you might as well buy a couple cases. Typically one can will do 1 blind to perfection.