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View Full Version : Goose and Duck decoy setups.



spock
12-14-2008, 08:01 PM
How many decoys do you use for geese and what kind, how many decoys for ducks.

Marc
12-14-2008, 08:06 PM
depends on the area and pressure it's been getting. Sometimes it only takes a dozen decoys to get the birds coming in and other times it may take 3 or 4 dozen. Same goes for ducks. I try to scout the areas I plan on hunting and ajust my spread accordingly to what I've seen.

f350ps
12-14-2008, 09:25 PM
Depends if ya use a Mojo or not for ducks. Today I only put out 5 decoys, and that was being generous. K

Crazy_Farmer
12-14-2008, 09:50 PM
Depends where your hunting ducks. In a field a spinner and some goose shells is all you need really. On the water, a couple dozen floaters and maybe a spinner too. Seems like the later in the year more and more birds wise up to the mojo so a jerk-string or other type are useful. The spinner still helps and attracts but we've noticed late season ducks dont dive bomb the spread like crazy compared to october young and dumb birds.

Goose decoy numbers depend on how many were in the field the day before, if you're on the X(where the geese want to be) or running traffic in a field nearby their flight path. The numbers game can work and alot of guys go that route. 4-10dz+ to either draw their attention to your field if they're not using it everyday, or if your in a field setup right beside another hunters spread. Also if you have to have yoru blinds right in the middle of the field with no real cover, more decoys close to the blinds will break up the looks of those blinds and hide you better. Theres tons of reasons for how many decoys to set up. Even more patterns or shapes to set up spread up in. You can set them up in a J or U pattern. Or how the birds were actually on the ground the day before. You can also throw a bunch of pennies on a table and however they fall thats how you set yoru decoys up. Theres just way too many different things you can do. Some will work some wont.

We have gotten away from the numbers game and taken a different approach, less decoys but more realistic ones.

Multiple hunts in the past couple years we've had great success running between 5-9 fullbody decoys thats it. Some were X fields alot of the time they're trafficing birds.

If we wanted to we could throw out over 10dz but whats the point in all the extra time setting up when you can get it done in 1/4 of the time if that.

branthunter
12-15-2008, 12:15 PM
f350 hit the nail on the head--sometimes the spinner is all I use, but I still like to lay out a spread most days just 'cause for me it's so much a part of hunting to do it. The last two days birds were coming to the spinner right after I set it up and while it was still up after I'd pulled the floaters. I used to set 45---3 strings of 8 and the rest singles--but now with the spinner it's usually only 16-24 .

Qwa-honn
12-15-2008, 01:51 PM
right now on the river I am using 18 mallards six bufflehead and four bluebills.
On land four doz silouettes (geese) and 18 mallards. I am also hoping to get some mallard silouettes soon for when working the fields.
One wing spinner and a floating wing spinner.