If they are in your area sure. I dot really consider those security or confidence blocks. If you see them then they should be in your spread, I'm not a huge fan of coot blocks but I run goose floaters a ton with my duck spreads. To me just gives the ducks a more visible decoy to hone in on.

 

If they are in your area sure. I dot really consider those security or confidence blocks. If you see them then they should be in your spread, I'm not a huge fan of coot blocks but I run goose floaters a ton with my duck spreads. To me just gives the ducks a more visible decoy to hone in on.

They are in our area. I was told coots help. I guess a mix spread wont hurt.
Just didn't want all mallards. Do you prefer standing goose on bank
or just floaters?

 

I like both, I run a lot of goose decoys with my ducks. I think coots are a gimmick personally.

 

I run a half dozen geese in my spread and I think they help a lot. I regularly have ducks land with the geese and not in my duck spread. If you are thinking of addingg geese I would say go for it.

I now have access to a Blue Heron decoy that I am going to use and see how it works.

 

I bought 6 coots to add to the spread which didnt help a bit. I'd say if a guy put out 2 doz it may help but after putting out 6-7 doz other decoys coots just seemed to be a waste to pick up. Now if I had a private spot i would defintly add a doz to spread if i didnt have to pick up everyday. The other day we put out 140 duck and goose decoys and birds were swinging the point and didnt come in. We picked everything up and put out one 1 doz divers and shot more over that. Sometimes I think less is more and that may help more than anything. Geese are a definite plus to have in a spread though.

 

Geese are a great confidence addition. So are full body ducks and/or geese along the bank if you can. I have 3 dozen coots that I use when I'm using a huge spread, don't know if it adds confidence, I use them to add more numbers. I put out over 700 decoys a few times between ducks, geese and coots and didn't have to call or anything the ducks just poured into it. I just don't do it regularly b/c its a lot of work!

 

I would say that areas differ. On the refuge I hunt, I had no luck landing ducks with 2 geese on the outside of my spread. I had been watching the birds all season and discovered that all of the geese would stay on one single safe pond. The pond that I hunted were full of coots. They would raft up and swim away from everything that walked along the dike. I made just 6 or 8 coot decoys and they did an amazing job I'd think. I put them in a group all bunched up and I'd have ducks land beside them. Take a look at the birds in your area on your free time and see if there's a couple of geese or coots swimming around with them. Immitate exactly what you see and you should kill ducks.

 

I forgot to add, the pond I hunt was a place where I saw hundreds of ducks land and fall asleep. I bought 6 sleeping mallards and had teal, redheads, and canvasbacks land and fall asleep instantly in the spread. I'd like to get a dozen and paint a few into other species.

 

I would say that areas differ. On the refuge I hunt, I had no luck landing ducks with 2 geese on the outside of my spread. I had been watching the birds all season and discovered that all of the geese would stay on one single safe pond. The pond that I hunted were full of coots. They would raft up and swim away from everything that walked along the dike. I made just 6 or 8 coot decoys and they did an amazing job I'd think. I put them in a group all bunched up and I'd have ducks land beside them. Take a look at the birds in your area on your free time and see if there's a couple of geese or coots swimming around with them. Immitate exactly what you see and you should kill ducks.

probably didnt have your geese far enough away, or enoguh. I've put my geese 40-60yds away from my farthest duck and had good luck using floating geese as confidence decoys, and I use 8-12 geese.

 

Could be. I put a pair about 25 yards from my furthest duck. I'll try it next season now that everything is frozen up.

 

I don't really get putting geese so far away, in my experience ducks wanna be where geese are. If I'm hunting ducks only ill put geese right in the spread, not intermitten with the ducks, although I have before. I see geese land with ducks and ducks land with geese all the time.

 

I don't really get putting geese so far away, in my experience ducks wanna be where geese are. If I'm hunting ducks only ill put geese right in the spread, not intermitten with the ducks, although I have before. I see geese land with ducks and ducks land with geese all the time.

Yeah I put the geese to finish my hook. I've used 40-50 goose and just a few doz duck. Better put the geese within gunning range because the ducks will sit right with them. When it's real cold they group together to keep water open anyway.

 

Pretty interesting thing happened today. A heron flew into my spread, settled in, and began working the edges of the marsh. Within 2-3 minutes ducks were buzzing by,circling, starting to decoy.... then flare. Before the heron, no ducks were interested in anything my spread had to offer; other than EARLY in the morning. After the heron left, I waded 25-30 yards from my layout boat to see if I could see what was flaring them. Realized then, that my camo grass was several shades too light.

Hand mowed several small islands and covered my boat in local grass to alleviate that issue. Unfortunately, I recognized the problem too late in the day.

Story aside, I am now positive that confidence decoys have a place in my spread. Adding one ASAP.

O2Fsh

 

I think coots are a gimmick personally.

So do I.
Look at it this way: what would pull in a flock of pintail best: a dozen pintail decoys and six coots? Or, 18 pintail decoys?
I.e. would a mallard duck come to a coot decoy better than to a mallard decoy?

I see no need to put out a decoy of a bird that I'm not going to shoot.

 

I don't really get putting geese so far away, in my experience ducks wanna be where geese are. If I'm hunting ducks only ill put geese right in the spread, not intermitten with the ducks, although I have before. I see geese land with ducks and ducks land with geese all the time.

SOunds like you see the same thing we do here. The baldpates and gadwall decoy into the goose decoys every time. Teal are the same way. We run a goose spread with a few ducks on open water hunts...for our ducks. We kill a few geese too.