Hi All,
I was recently bit pretty hard by the Waterfowling bug. I want to get myself set up with my own gear this off season.
I am looking at picking up around 3 dozen decoys. And I'll be hitting a Cabelas and Bass Pro in Alberta this year.
The vast majority of the reading I have done lately, which is considerable so says my wife, is that adding some sort of motion to your spread is huge, and decoy realism is key. And according to some, unless you have photo image decoys and exact realism, you are missing out.
As a matter of fact, some say you are better with 12 high end decoys then 36 lower quality ones? Don't get me wrong, I don't want shit decoys that fill with water and sink, or paint that flakes off after a couple uses, but can afford to start something like this without having to factor in cost vs quality.
Now, is this just marketing hype? Seems to me that if a duck has time to tell that you are not using photo realistic decoys, or if the decoy proportions are not exact it has time to pick many other aspects of your spread/set up apart. For example, do incoming ducks find the paint on a decoy is off or the proportion is disagreeable, but don't mind the mojo hovering in mid air without landing and don't mind the lack of realistic movement from the rest of the decoy flock?
Would be more important to add variety, meaning not having 36 mallard decoys that don't look exactly the same. Or is being a bit different then everyone else's set up a big factor?
I don't have an endless budget here, so I will not be buying high end decoys
My thoughts are:
12 mallard decoys,
12 Widgeon decoys,
6 Pintails,
6 GW Teal ,
adding some movement, start with a jerk cord and/or a baby mojo.
And two Canada Goose Floaters, to set off my spread as confidence decoys.
Comments???????