Been out a few times, and we seemed to be figuring things out a bit more each time.
Until this past Friday: Me and my buddy who is new to hunting took our brand new, grassed up blinds out for the morning hunt.
The first two times Ive been out this year, We just hid in the grass after giving up on my homemade Aframe blind. Some spotted us, but lots came right into the decoys.
This Friday though, we watched groups of ducks spot the decoys, or maybe hear my calling, come straight in, start to do a bit of a loop, then flare off like we had just shot at them. Probably at about 50 yards. Further than I thought a good idea to start shooting anyways. This must have happened with 50+ ducks. I only came away with a single one because it came close, and flared into the wind and wasn't able to get out of range quickly.
Now I've got a grassed up layout that blended in real nice, and my buddy has a chair blind for deer hunting with a grassed up camo net. I thought they looked pretty good.
So now I'm trying to figure out where we went wrong, and hoping you guys have any input.
I think the large dark hole of my buddies chair blind is a problem, its black on the inside so its quite dark. Are ducks very "hole" averse?
I also think we left my boat a bit too close this time. How far do you keep you boat away from your setup? or do you cover it in camo?
Here's some pics of the last couple times. This is Holly's first year retrieving and shes doing great.
Opening morning was also the first hunt my girlfriend Katie has been on. Excited to finally have her join me, since its been years of trying!