Spacing decoys

2139 Views 11 Replies 8 Participants Last post by duckbuster, May 26, 2005

CALLEMQUACKTN

Discussion Starter · May 20, 2005

How far apart do ya'll put your decoys from each other? Also do ya'll do like family groups of each spieces or just mix them all together? In the past all I have had was mallards, but now i have pintails,bwt, & woodys. I would like :smile: to know how ya'll do it.

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98ramtough

· #2 · May 20, 2005

A lot of it depends on weather, wind, size of the body of water you are hunting. For me if the weather is clear, I space the decoys farther apart, I push them further from the blind also. I mix some wood ducks, pintails etc into the spread just for something different, throw some feeder butts out there and some sleepers near the inside of the spread.

If the weather is colder, wind is blowing etc, then I put the decoys closer to each other. Ducks will stick closer together in fowl weather.

On a clear day on small water, I might only throw out a dozen decoys and space them 6-8 feet apart and the ducks will land in between them. Post up some information on what kind of body of water you are hunting.

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SCoutdoorsman

· #3 · May 21, 2005

I agree with 98 just depends on the my mood and the weather really.

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98ramtough

· #4 · May 21, 2005

SC,

Your not kidding on the mood part, some mornings by the time I got all the deeks packed to the river I just threw them out randomly in no order and come daylight I was killing ducks with half of em upside down....

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CALLEMQUACKTN

Discussion Starter · #5 · May 21, 2005

I hunt mostly on a river that is about 30 yrds across. I also hunt some small ponds.

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98ramtough

· #6 · May 21, 2005

Callem,

Are you the only one around or are you hunting in traffic? On a river or pond that mall I would spread the decoys pretty wide, maybe 8-10 feet and try to get the birds to land between them. If you put out a bunch of decoys close together on that small of water it won't look natural. When I used to hunt small ponds where I was the only one around I would use 6 decoys. Now on the large water usually its 9 or 10 dozen decoys.

Mike

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Swamp Puppy

· #7 · May 21, 2005

i have heard...and i don't know how reliable this is...that ducks at rest will tend to sit on a pond in tighter clumps and ducks feeding will be more spread out.

with this in mind...i like to start my day with the dekes spread out all over the place and then bring them in tighter later in the morning / early afternoons. i might still keep a few differnt "pods" out there, but i group them in tighter, more defined groups instead of just tossed out all over the place.

not to mention...a tighter group of dekes is easier to pick up when it's time to leave. he he he.

of course...i really never know EXACTLY what i am going to do until i am standing there with my decoy bag looking at my hunting spot. and even then i usually end up changing the spread a couple of times depending on how the birds are acting. it is a rare event when i actually guess right and get the spread to match what the birds want on the first try.

add to that the changing winds and drastic tides...heck, i am lucky if my dekes stay in one place for more than 2 hours at a time.

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CALLEMQUACKTN

Discussion Starter · #8 · May 22, 2005

Yeah, I usally have the river to my self. :thumbsup: I can count on one hand the times I have seen somebody else hunting the river during the regular season. I will try these idea's out. Thanks for the help.

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AlaskaRedneK

· #9 · May 23, 2005

What if you only have a dozen (6 drakes, 6 hens-all mallards)? Would you space them any differently if you had limited resources like that?

Thanks,
-Stouff

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870

· #10 · May 25, 2005

I have seen when birds are feeling that everything is OK in their world when feeding, they will spread out. Up here when they bunch up, their heads are up and they are looking around something's not right.

Like Swamp puppy I'm looking to see how things are affecting my spread. I'm always moving them; sometimes just moving 1 or 2 will make all the difference.

Sometimes I will pick up and move altogether in the middle of a hunt. Why sit there and lose a whole hunt I call that being in the "right church wrong pew" and this is after scouting.

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Quackcephus

· #11 · May 26, 2005

I just grab ahold of about six decoy line, swing 'em over my head a few times & chunk 'em. Ducks is ducks, I have no faith in 'em so-called decoy patterns... the X, the diamond, the J, etc., well not for Mallards anyway. I have never seem ducks in any of 'em "patterns", either in the wild or captivity. :help:

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duckbuster

· #12 · May 26, 2005

depends where im at if im in one of my sloughs i tend to space them 1 1/2 to 2 feet and only use bout 12-18 decoys. but if im in a bigger area then ill put them closer together and use lot more.

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