Decoy spread

[Sheldon]

Does anybody out there throw in a dozen widgeon into their set up. I just ordered a dozen green head gear widgeon decoys to add to my mallard blocks.

Wondering if this has helped others, making the ducks commit more to thier spread later in the year when ducks get stale.


Sheldon

[Bow Walker]

It used to work for me and my brothers. We always added widgeon to our mallards and pintails. Seemed to make the skittish ducks a lot more comfortable with the idea of setting down and getting a load of #6 shot sent their way.

We didn't "ground sluice" them, but all the different types of ducks sure brought the rest in with wings cupped.

[Blacktail]

I have found that if you have only mallard deke out there the widgeons don't seem to want to land but if you add a few and maybe throw a couple pintails in there off to the side as well then the ducks will be more likely to land

[Dano]

I've put a few widgeon in my spread too but only because I have them left over from my dad's old decoys.
My advice is to get rid of any decoys in bad shape or that aren't of decent quality, the "better than nothing" attitude will only get you so far, especially later in the season.
I don't know about out by the ocean, but I have found mallard decoys work well on all the species out here.
Widgeon and Gadwal decoy well and often land in our decoys (my partner is picky when the shooting is good choosing only mallards). Pintail are a little more wary, more decoys in the spread usually helps but in my area we don't shoot a lot of Pintails so my spread isn't tailored to suit them.
Last season we bought a Mojo duck rotating wing decoy from Cabelas and without a doubt it made the biggest difference in our spread. A lot of times I only put out 15-18 decoys and we had excellent shooting all season. Cabelas has them on sale for $119usd if you don't buy the case with it. I just bought a plastic container with locking top at Canadian Tire for $12 and trimmed the white styrofoam used int he shipping box to fit and it works well.
Saw lots of mallards out on the Pitt River last weekend, should be a good opener Thanksgiving weekend.
Dano

[Ddog]

the best thing to use in your decoy spread is a blue heron decoy, just place it on the outside of the decoy's , it makes the ducks come in hard and fast.

[Dano]

I've seen the heron decoys used and there was a guy in the marsh many years ago that had a seagull he would put up. I imagine coot decoys would work well where I hunt because there are lots of coots in the area and we often see mallards mixed in with them. I can't see myself buying coot dekes though .
Dano