Latest / Bird Dogs and Big Game / (EP.42) Decoying Tips for Waterfowl Hunting

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(EP.42) Decoying Tips for Waterfowl Hunting · Bird Dogs and Big Game

• 0:18
  Speaker: Hey everyone.
• 0:19
  Speaker: Welcome to the podcast.
• 0:20
  Speaker: My name is Tyce Erickson.
• 0:22
  Speaker: I am the host of the show.
• 0:24
  Speaker: And, uh, just wanted to thank you for joining us today and, uh, hope we, uh, can share some information with you.
• 0:30
  Speaker: That will be beneficial.
• 0:32
  Speaker: So, um, in this episode today I wanted to talk about decoys and decoy placement.
• 0:39
  Speaker: So, um, I just recently returned back from a three day trip outta state.
• 0:45
  Speaker: Uh, had a great hunt.
• 0:46
  Speaker: We had eight, eight guys with us and, um, we ended up.
• 0:52
  Speaker: Uh, I think the final count was about 125 ducks and 21 geese.
• 0:56
  Speaker: So, uh, had a great hunt.
• 0:59
  Speaker: Um, was, was, uh, fortunate enough to be pretty successful, which in return, uh, equaled a lot of good dog work.
• 1:07
  Speaker: And that's why it's fun to hunt some big groups.
• 1:10
  Speaker: Uh,'cause you can get a lot of birds and in return you get a lot of good dog work.
• 1:15
  Speaker: So.
• 1:17
  Speaker: And that's why I really enjoy, um, you know, sometimes having bigger groups, um, is you just get lots of retrieves.
• 1:24
  Speaker: So, um, uh, we hunted a river system, uh, two days of the hunt.
• 1:31
  Speaker: And, uh, we hunted a private little lake.
• 1:34
  Speaker: Um, the third day of the hunt, um, well not in that order, but the second day we hunted a kind of a pa, a big pond, small lake, and then hunted the river.
• 1:44
  Speaker: Um.
• 1:46
  Speaker: To the other two days.
• 1:47
  Speaker: So, um, uh, if, if, uh, if you're a waterfowl, you've been waterfowling for a long time, you know that, um, playing with the decoys you're always kind of tweaking'em.
• 2:00
  Speaker: You're trying to make it right and when you do tweak'em and the birds.
• 2:04
  Speaker: Love what they're seeing.
• 2:06
  Speaker: It's just awesome when they decoy just perfect in.
• 2:10
  Speaker: And then there's times when the birds just don't seem to like the decoys.
• 2:15
  Speaker: They don't like to see, they don't like the spread and what they're seeing.
• 2:18
  Speaker: And so then you tweak the spread and then all of a sudden now they're liking it.
• 2:23
  Speaker: And um, so kind of the tips I wanna share today is just from years of waterfalling, ever since I was a little kid and kind of the decoy.
• 2:34
  Speaker: Set up that I prefer.
• 2:36
  Speaker: That seems to, um, consistently work.
• 2:38
  Speaker: And again, it changes, it seems like every hunt.
• 2:42
  Speaker: But, as things evolved over my hunting career, it just, it just seems like, uh, there's a consistent pattern that I like to use that seems to draw.
• 2:52
  Speaker: And the bird's in.
• 2:54
  Speaker: So, and, uh, I'm gonna share that with you guys today.
• 2:58
  Speaker: So let's talk about amount of decoys to be used.
• 3:02
  Speaker: Um, I think you can never probably have too many decoys is what I would say.
• 3:10
  Speaker: It seems like you, I've put out giant spreads and that never seems to be, it never seems to hurt to have too many decoys.
• 3:18
  Speaker: Now, I don't think you necessarily need.
• 3:22
  Speaker: Tons and tons of decoys, um, depending on how you're hunting and where you're at.
• 3:26
  Speaker: But I would probably, at least if you're hunting on water or land, um, I'd probably, I prefer at least three to four dozen, uh, decoys probably at the minimum.
• 3:38
  Speaker: Um, and, uh, but if you're hunting, you know, you're wanting to cover your layout blinds or something like that, you could obviously surround yourself with more decoys and break things up.
• 3:49
  Speaker: And that's, I don't feel like is ever a bad thing.
• 3:54
  Speaker: So, uh, go ahead and buy some more decoys.
• 3:59
  Speaker: Um, let's talk about decoys on water.
• 4:04
  Speaker: So inland, I guess we'll talk about.
• 4:08
  Speaker: So what I typically like to do with my spreads and I found to be successful is I like to do family groups.
• 4:14
  Speaker: So, um, so I'll typically.
• 4:18
  Speaker: If I have a bunch of decoys, I'll take some family groups and I'll put, I'll put anywhere from two decoys to, you know, eight decoys, kind of a typical family group size.
• 4:33
  Speaker: You think of a, uh, you know, a pair of mallards and they're babies.
• 4:37
  Speaker: You usually have, you know, obviously, you know, a pair of mallards.
• 4:41
  Speaker: And then they'll usually have.
• 4:43
  Speaker: Anywhere from three to seven babies, depending what make it through.
• 4:48
  Speaker: And so that kind of creates your family group.
• 4:50
  Speaker: So, um, I'll do these family groups and then I'll just leave and, and I put'em fairly tight together.
• 4:57
  Speaker: Um, and so it's just not decoys just spread out everywhere, but I'll put'em kind of in a group pretty tight together.
• 5:03
  Speaker: And then I'll just make a bunch of those groups basically and spread it out so there's landing zones around those family groups.
• 5:13
  Speaker: Um, it just, the reason I like that is it gives you, it gives the birds options.
• 5:20
  Speaker: So instead of just having, you know, a big, you know, U-shape or something like that, where you have a, a, a, a design landing zone, um, uh, and let's say the wind shifts, then you have to move that whole setup around.
• 5:39
  Speaker: So I will.
• 5:41
  Speaker: Kind of create a landing zone still, but then I'll do those family groups to kind of, um, give them space to land.
• 5:49
  Speaker: And then if the wind shifts, you know, you have a, a north wind and all sudden it comes from the northwest or whatever, you don't have to change your spread around that much.
• 5:59
  Speaker: So it just, with those landing zones, with family groups, if the wind shifts a little bit, you're not having to redo your whole decoy spread.
• 6:09
  Speaker: So.
• 6:10
  Speaker: Um, so that's kind of how I like to set up.
• 6:13
  Speaker: I will have kind of a main area we're trying to traffic the birds into, um, like a landing zone and, and that could be, you know, like your typical kind of U shape.
• 6:23
  Speaker: Um, um, and then, you know, and then your landing zone and then your, uh, sorry, your family group's kind of making up that U shape.
• 6:34
  Speaker: But then.
• 6:35
  Speaker: Just a bunch of different pockets essentially.
• 6:37
  Speaker: So those birds can land in those pockets and I've found that seems to be successful.
• 6:43
  Speaker: So, um, I will, um, most of the time use mojo decoy, so some spinners.
• 6:51
  Speaker: Um, I've tried both where.
• 6:55
  Speaker: You can put, you know, if you're running two or three or four of'em, um, you know, I've put'em right by each other.
• 7:02
  Speaker: So it looks like there's a pair of birds landing.
• 7:04
  Speaker: I've spread'em out in the decoys.
• 7:06
  Speaker: So there's, you know, one on the left and one on the right.
• 7:09
  Speaker: And.
• 7:11
  Speaker: I haven't seen, uh, an equation that's like, that's what is the only way to do it, like two birds together.
• 7:18
  Speaker: I usually don't put'em side by side.
• 7:20
  Speaker: That kind of naturally, that looks unnatural to my personal eye.
• 7:24
  Speaker: So I will put one bird out in the front and one bird kind of back off the left side.
• 7:30
  Speaker: And it seems like when birds are.
• 7:32
  Speaker: Landing in the wild.
• 7:33
  Speaker: They don't just land in perfect unison.
• 7:36
  Speaker: And so I will stagger'em always if I do have'em close together, like one's ahead of the, the other mate.
• 7:43
  Speaker: Just a little bit kinda leading.
• 7:45
  Speaker: And then the other one's coming in.
• 7:47
  Speaker: You know, from the side.
• 7:48
  Speaker: So, um, and then if you spread'em out, I think that's just more like not two birds per se landing.
• 7:54
  Speaker: It just kind of creates movement in the field.
• 7:57
  Speaker: And, um, and that seems to, seems to work at times too.
• 8:02
  Speaker: So I haven't seen a perfect equation.
• 8:03
  Speaker: If you guys have any tips or, or anything like that, I'd love to hear about'em.
• 8:07
  Speaker: Um, your thoughts on motion decoys on, you know, spinners.
• 8:11
  Speaker: So, um, sometimes I will.
• 8:14
  Speaker: Pull the spinners out, or not even put'em in the, the decoy spread.
• 8:20
  Speaker: Um, if the bird's been hunted a lot and they, um, seem to not like'em, I'll pull, I'll pull'em out.
• 8:27
  Speaker: And that's, that is the fun thing about waterfowl hunting is just tricking the birds, right?
• 8:32
  Speaker: Finding something that they just eat up that seems like to their eye, looks natural, looks real, and.
• 8:41
  Speaker: They just decoy it and it's awesome when they do that.
• 8:43
  Speaker: So, um, that would kind of be my, my take on, um, the spinners, um, you know, the, the mojos or spinner decoys, um, where the wings spin and flap, if you guys know what I'm talking about.
• 8:57
  Speaker: Um.
• 8:58
  Speaker: Something I've used recently and they seem to work pretty good, are the flicker tails, the mojo flicker tails.
• 9:04
  Speaker: They're a little tail that just kind of spins and they turn off and on.
• 9:07
  Speaker: Um, I'll take those and kind of stick those in the family groups.
• 9:11
  Speaker: Um, I've just recently this year started hunting with those, um.
• 9:15
  Speaker: They seem to seem to help with the movement.
• 9:19
  Speaker: And you know, as those birds are flying above and they're looking around at the decoys and they see a little flicker, you know, a little movement in those family groups and that catches their attention and they, and they seem to like that.
• 9:32
  Speaker: So, um, so those, those, uh.
• 9:36
  Speaker: Could be an so an something you could add to your arsenal.
• 9:40
  Speaker: Um, some other stuff we were using on this recent trip, uh, we just got back from, uh, we were using some puls.
• 9:47
  Speaker: Those are the ones that look like a.
• 9:49
  Speaker: They have a, a tube and when the the tube sprays, it pushes the butt of the duck back and it looks like some feet.
• 9:57
  Speaker: It looks like a feeding duck.
• 9:58
  Speaker: Um, those are probably my favorite for calm water.
• 10:03
  Speaker: They just look really natural.
• 10:05
  Speaker: Looks like there's birds feeding, you know, in the spread.
• 10:09
  Speaker: Um.
• 10:10
  Speaker: But it looks like they're, they're birds feeding, bobbing up and down, uh, getting food off the bottom and it creates good movement, good ripple.
• 10:19
  Speaker: Um, and those, those look awesome.
• 10:22
  Speaker: Um, the higdon, uh, pulsated is, I think the one we were using my friend had that we've been hunting with quite a bit together this year, and those seem to have a good battery life.
• 10:33
  Speaker: Um, I do have some swimmers.
• 10:35
  Speaker: Those look really good too.
• 10:37
  Speaker: Um, the swimmers, they'll have a little jet, the pulsate, and it'll just push the bird and then they will, um, then it'll stop and then it'll push'em.
• 10:48
  Speaker: And it just like, like swimming birds.
• 10:50
  Speaker: Um, those have been good.
• 10:51
  Speaker: I think I have the lucky ducks, but they don't, the batteries.
• 10:55
  Speaker: I haven't been super impressed the battery life.
• 10:58
  Speaker: Um, so.
• 11:02
  Speaker: Uh, I, yeah, I would check out maybe, um, maybe a, possibly a different brand on those.
• 11:08
  Speaker: But the Higdon's have been, uh, a good one.
• 11:10
  Speaker: Seems like the battery lives have lasted a pretty long time.
• 11:14
  Speaker: The downfall, I don't, the thing I don't like about the swimmers is it seems like when they're swimming, they go back and forth and around.
• 11:20
  Speaker: It seems like your cable will get wrapped quite often, or it'll maybe get wrapped in, you know, if you have it close to other decoys, it'll kind ofs.
• 11:29
  Speaker: Push and wrap into the other decoys and get twisted up.
• 11:33
  Speaker: So I do like the pulsated where the, they're just kind of going up and down and squirting water.
• 11:37
  Speaker: And that just makes, it just creates a nice, a nice, uh, movement in the spread.
• 11:44
  Speaker: And, you know, when you're duck hunting, you want to imagine you're duck looking down.
• 11:48
  Speaker: And if you're seeing like a little flicker of movement in the decoys you have, it looks like there's three or four or five of those.
• 11:57
  Speaker: Um, you know.
• 11:59
  Speaker: The, the pulsated diving and making movement in the water, it just looks, just looks natural.
• 12:05
  Speaker: Right?
• 12:06
  Speaker: Especially on calm days.
• 12:08
  Speaker: So that's something if you don't have any movement in your decoys.
• 12:12
  Speaker: On calm days, you're gonna struggle to draw birds in.
• 12:15
  Speaker: So if you've ever been up on a cliff or high elevation and you look down at ducks swimming, there's ripples, you know behind them as they're swimming around, there's movement.
• 12:26
  Speaker: And so if you can imagine if you're duck flying over your spread and it's just stale and there's just ducks sitting there and like no movement at all.
• 12:34
  Speaker: You're gonna have problem, a problem drawing those ducks in.
• 12:37
  Speaker: So, but if you imagine being that bird and you're above your decoys and you see, you know, these wings beating, you see flickers within little movement within the decoy spread.
• 12:49
  Speaker: And you know, the, the looks like there's birds diving, there's ripples.
• 12:55
  Speaker: Well, there's a chance that those birds are gonna, oh hey, those are some real birds and they're gonna come investigate.
• 13:00
  Speaker: So, um, I would probably say.
• 13:05
  Speaker: The mojo does seem the, the spinners, I'm gonna go back to this.
• 13:09
  Speaker: When those first came out and we just had regular decoys and we just sit'em out there on, I'm sure a stale day or whatever it was, I remember three to one.
• 13:18
  Speaker: No doubt we'd kill more birds.
• 13:20
  Speaker: Um.
• 13:21
  Speaker: With, with the, the spinners when they first came out, I mean, the bird just loved them.
• 13:26
  Speaker: They'd never seen them and they would just bomb in and we would hammer'em on the spinners.
• 13:30
  Speaker: When they first came out, we were blown away, um, about their let without how lethal they were.
• 13:36
  Speaker: So, um, I go back and forth some days.
• 13:40
  Speaker: I think, um, if you're trying to match it real natural spread, you know, um, if you have like the puls, you have some flickers, you have swimmers.
• 13:50
  Speaker: You have the ones, I can't remember the names.
• 13:52
  Speaker: They shake, vibrators, whatever you wanna call'em.
• 13:55
  Speaker: Um, they shake on the water.
• 13:57
  Speaker: Uh, there's some, there's some just a movement in the water.
• 14:01
  Speaker: I think that's probably just as big a deal as your, uh, spinners.
• 14:08
  Speaker: I think the movement in the water looks even that much more natural.
• 14:12
  Speaker: So, but the best thing is, is add a little bit.
• 14:16
  Speaker: To it.
• 14:16
  Speaker: And if everything, if you get a lot of movement going on, it looks realistic, those birds are gonna come in, you're gonna have, um, high success.
• 14:24
  Speaker: So, um, one thing, if you're new to using spinners or mojo decoys, you wanna make sure they're landing, they're, they're pointing into the wind.
• 14:34
  Speaker: So when a bird naturally comes into your decoys, they're gonna swing and they're gonna use those current, that current of wind as it's coming towards them.
• 14:42
  Speaker: They're gonna come right down in.
• 14:44
  Speaker: Into the, um, into the decoys that way.
• 14:48
  Speaker: And so if you have those spinners facing not into the wind, you know that's gonna be unnatural.
• 14:55
  Speaker: The birds gonna be like, why?
• 14:56
  Speaker: You know it's gonna throw'em off.
• 14:57
  Speaker: Why are those birds look like they're landing that way?
• 15:00
  Speaker: But naturally, we should be landing.
• 15:02
  Speaker: You know, into the wind and they're la you know, they're landing cross crossways into the wind.
• 15:06
  Speaker: So that is one thing that's also kind of a downfall.
• 15:10
  Speaker: Uh, two spinners.
• 15:11
  Speaker: If your wind direction changes, you need to go out there and tweak those spinners and, and move them.
• 15:16
  Speaker: So they are always facing into the wind.
• 15:19
  Speaker: Otherwise, that's gonna cause more issues.
• 15:21
  Speaker: So if you pull the spinners and you just have a lot of movement decoys within your decoys, you're gonna.
• 15:28
  Speaker: You know, you're, you're, you're not gonna have to worry about moving that, especially if you're using family groups and you got open landing pockets and you got a bunch of movement going on.
• 15:38
  Speaker: Well, the wind shifts a little bit.
• 15:40
  Speaker: It's not gonna make a difference.
• 15:41
  Speaker: So, um, so that's pretty cool, uh, to, to think about there.
• 15:48
  Speaker: So, um, what decoy brands to use, uh, you can use.
• 15:55
  Speaker: Whatever you can get your hands on.
• 15:57
  Speaker: Um, you know, there's the, do I buy flocked heads?
• 16:00
  Speaker: Do I buy not flocked heads?
• 16:02
  Speaker: If you don't know what a flocked head is, they put basically a, um, like a coat, like a, like a flocked Christmas tree.
• 16:08
  Speaker: It's like a fuzzy material, so it just looks more natural.
• 16:11
  Speaker: There's, I think, less glare on the decoys.
• 16:13
  Speaker: They are definitely more expensive.
• 16:16
  Speaker: Um, the flocking can wear off.
• 16:18
  Speaker: I don't do run a lot of flocked stuff.
• 16:20
  Speaker: Um, maybe it's'cause I'm cheaper and I haven't found, I'd rather have more, more de I'd just rather have more decoys than some, you know, flocked heads and, um, brands we use tangle Free a lot.
• 16:31
  Speaker: They help us out.
• 16:33
  Speaker: Um, and so I, I use those Higdon.
• 16:36
  Speaker: Um, we use those.
• 16:38
  Speaker: Uh, I mean, I've used Northern Flight decoys, uh, from Cabela's, and so kind of a smorgasboard, a little bit of decoys.
• 16:47
  Speaker: But, um, I've really enjoyed, we've hunted in our field hunts this year.
• 16:52
  Speaker: We've done a lot of the tangle free.
• 16:53
  Speaker: Um, and those have worked great, the non flocked heads.
• 16:57
  Speaker: Um, but again, I think if you have, um, again, that movement within your spread.
• 17:03
  Speaker: The duck decoys don't have to be perfect.
• 17:05
  Speaker: And, and especially the movement's gonna help the most when it on those calm days, right?
• 17:10
  Speaker: So, um, when it's windy, you don't need the best decoys.
• 17:15
  Speaker: You know, you don't even need your, a lot of your, uh, you know, motion decoys.
• 17:21
  Speaker: The birds are moving because the wind and the birds want to just get down out of, out of.
• 17:26
  Speaker: Off the lake into a protected area.
• 17:28
  Speaker: And when they see a bunch of decoys, they tend to decoy pretty easy when you got real high winds.
• 17:33
  Speaker: But that's, let's be honest, that's not every time you go out hunting.
• 17:38
  Speaker: So, um, another tip I would say when it comes to decoys is, uh, storage of decoys.
• 17:44
  Speaker: So try to keep your decoy.
• 17:46
  Speaker: Um, we used to tangle free, you know, your, like Okay.
• 17:50
  Speaker: Another tip I would say is when it comes to, uh, storing decoys and you know, we use the tangle free lines for your decoys, the carabiner.
• 17:59
  Speaker: I think most days that's what is kind of out on the market.
• 18:03
  Speaker: I think if you're gonna be.
• 18:04
  Speaker: You're gonna have less tangles if you use kind of the same lengths.
• 18:09
  Speaker: So, um, and then if you don't have the same length, uh, get the different color coded lines.
• 18:15
  Speaker: So get like some greens.
• 18:17
  Speaker: I don't know what they make.
• 18:18
  Speaker: Honestly, I haven't looked in all the.
• 18:20
  Speaker: The different, uh, colors.
• 18:22
  Speaker: But if you have the same length, that's going to be easier to, um, and you're gonna have less tangles when it comes to storing your decoys.
• 18:30
  Speaker: So it's kind of a problem I'm run into over the years.
• 18:32
  Speaker: I have some shorter ones.
• 18:33
  Speaker: I have some longer ones, and you're on a hunt and you just start kind of mixing'em together and they seem to just get tangled easier.
• 18:39
  Speaker: So that's something I need to go back through is just get.
• 18:42
  Speaker: Um, some color coating lines and get those all the same lengths and, and, uh, so you can easily grab'em.
• 18:50
  Speaker: These go together.
• 18:51
  Speaker: These go together instead of, you know, taking a long time to sit there and grab your decoy lines.
• 18:57
  Speaker: You look at it, okay, that's a long one.
• 18:59
  Speaker: That's a short one.
• 19:00
  Speaker: And that just takes time.
• 19:02
  Speaker: And it's just waste your day when you're trying to organize'em.
• 19:05
  Speaker: So, you know, for me personally, I need to just get.
• 19:10
  Speaker: All my spread and probably just upgrade it and get the go with the same length of line.
• 19:14
  Speaker: So I'd rather err on the longer side, like go at least four eight inches.
• 19:19
  Speaker: Um,'cause even in shallow water, those will still work, right?
• 19:23
  Speaker: So, um, that's something to consider, um, when it comes to, you know, storing your decoys.
• 19:31
  Speaker: Um, the next thing I would talk about.
• 19:32
  Speaker: With decoys I'd like to talk about is, uh, you know, if you have weather and, um, if you start getting snow on the back of your decoys, I think that definitely can look unnatural.
• 19:42
  Speaker: So you're gonna need to go ahead and brush that snow off.
• 19:45
  Speaker: Uh, don't leave that snow out there, you may.
• 19:48
  Speaker: Yeah, if you're fortunate enough to be hunting in the middle of a good snow storm, which is really fun, that can pile up on the backs of the birds and that can also look unnatural.
• 19:56
  Speaker: So you gonna need to go out there, kick some water on'em, uh, dunk'em real quick to get that snow, um, off'em.
• 20:03
  Speaker: And that's gonna again, uh, look, you know, more natural when they don't have, you know, a bunch of white on their back.
• 20:10
  Speaker: So, uh, when it comes to decoys to decoy birds, um.
• 20:15
  Speaker: You definitely want to put the time into scouting.
• 20:19
  Speaker: Um, if you just put out decoys and think you're gonna call birds in, you can traffic some birds that are just randomly flying around the lake, um, to come into your decoys.
• 20:30
  Speaker: But really, if you want to be successful and get a high number of birds.
• 20:34
  Speaker: You need to go out the day before or um, and scout.
• 20:39
  Speaker: What I'll usually do, I'll usually drive my boat around if I'm going out the day before, see where a lot of birds are hanging out, and then I'll go back and, and I'll mark it on my Onyx maps.
• 20:49
  Speaker: Then I'll go back and I'll set up in that same location.
• 20:51
  Speaker: 'cause the birds wanna be there, right?
• 20:53
  Speaker: So it's a lot easier to get birds to decoy when they already want to be there.
• 20:58
  Speaker: And so when you go back and you just set up there.
• 21:01
  Speaker: That's where they naturally want to come and, and want to be.
• 21:06
  Speaker: And so, um, so definitely take your time to do the scouting if possible.
• 21:11
  Speaker: Now on a, now lots of times that's not something you can always do.
• 21:16
  Speaker: So again, so what I would do is I'd drive around and I see a lot of birds and I just go basically to push the birds off, go set up right there.
• 21:24
  Speaker: I generally don't try to shoot at the birds or anything like that to really educate'em.
• 21:28
  Speaker: I'd rather push'em off.
• 21:30
  Speaker: And then set up, uh, in that same area, and then the birds will just trickle back to that area and your decoys are there and you're gonna have, you should have a good hunt.
• 21:39
  Speaker: So definitely pay attention to where the birds are hanging out, and that's gonna increase your odds.
• 21:44
  Speaker: So.
• 21:45
  Speaker: Uh, in this last, uh, hunting trip, we were hunting ducks and geese.
• 21:50
  Speaker: Uh, we did have spinners out and we were able to harvest some geese during the trip.
• 21:55
  Speaker: Um.
• 21:57
  Speaker: Some people will say geese don't like spinners.
• 22:00
  Speaker: I would probably agree with that overall.
• 22:02
  Speaker: Um, but we again, we're in an area where the birds wanted to be and so we still brought birds in, geese close enough to range where we were able, we were able to, you know, take some of those birds.
• 22:14
  Speaker: So, um, if you're hunting a lot of geese, I would probably more stick with the motion birds.
• 22:20
  Speaker: Uh, like on the ground and not have your spinners out.
• 22:24
  Speaker: And I think you're gonna still be successful if you have other type of motion in your decoys.
• 22:28
  Speaker: Um, but, uh, one thing we did have one of our spreads, it was interesting.
• 22:34
  Speaker: We had a group of geese and we stuck'em off to the side of our decoys, um, not right in the middle of the ducks.
• 22:42
  Speaker: And the ducks were really focusing in.
• 22:46
  Speaker: On the goose decoys and landing by them.
• 22:50
  Speaker: I'm not sure if they were bigger and darker, so they just, it just kind of sucked them in more like a raft of birds.
• 22:56
  Speaker: And so once we started noticing that we actually took the, the goose decoys and kind of in our landing zone.
• 23:04
  Speaker: Area.
• 23:05
  Speaker: We actually put those right in there and then put a couple goose decoys out, probably 10 yards from that looking like they just landed and they were kind of swimming up to the other goose decoys.
• 23:17
  Speaker: And the birds just bombed in after that and came right into our landing zone.
• 23:21
  Speaker: And we had some really good decoy.
• 23:23
  Speaker: I mean, you know, 20 yards out, feet down into our decoys.
• 23:27
  Speaker: So, um, so sometimes if you're hunting geese, um, I, I don't do a lot of water.
• 23:36
  Speaker: Goose hunts per se.
• 23:39
  Speaker: Um, just not a lot of areas I'm hunting seemed to be that way.
• 23:43
  Speaker: But, uh, this hunt we had like, we're on a private lake and there were geese in the area that would come and, and visit that lake.
• 23:50
  Speaker: And so, um, it was kind of.
• 23:52
  Speaker: Cool to me to see, to change that up, to see the birds, how they were actually attracted to the geese.
• 23:58
  Speaker: You, you'd think they would kind of almost avoid'em.
• 24:00
  Speaker: I mean, you see ducks and geese mixed together, so I don't think there's these, this hard feeling between the species per se, but it actually, those goose decoys actually seemed to attract the ducks in the spread, and we had.
• 24:13
  Speaker: Uh, in this spread we had probably six or seven dozen duck decoys out.
• 24:19
  Speaker: We had, uh, two pulsate, one swimmer, uh, eight flicker tails and two spinners.
• 24:27
  Speaker: So we had quite a bit of movement within the decoys.
• 24:30
  Speaker: And then we had the, you know, a dozen floater, goose decoys, and those bird, they really just seemed to like focus in on those.
• 24:37
  Speaker: And, um.
• 24:38
  Speaker: One of my trainers, he actually, he noticed that, well, I was noticing him.
• 24:42
  Speaker: He says, yeah, and he hunts more with floating geese and me.
• 24:45
  Speaker: He's like, yeah, ducks seemed to really, to kind of focus in on the geese.
• 24:49
  Speaker: And so sure enough, we, we moved those, we adjusted the spread and it, and it helped it draw the ducks more in instead of, they were kinda lining on the outside of the goose decoys.
• 25:00
  Speaker: Um, something I'll do too with the, uh, with decoys is I will not put'em.
• 25:07
  Speaker: Ultra close to, um, like my weed line.
• 25:11
  Speaker: Um, I'll put some for sure, but I like to kind of put some further out almost on the edge of like shotgun range to kind of draw the birds kind of down and like from a distance.
• 25:24
  Speaker: And then, and then hopefully they flutter in work into the decoy spread.
• 25:29
  Speaker: Um, I feel like a lot of times.
• 25:32
  Speaker: As hunters we're hunting, we like put the decoys right close to the weed line and I feel like a lot of time the birds just kind of.
• 25:39
  Speaker: They notice that, I think they know that as hunters we're like hiding in the bushes right out there and they learn over time that, you know, if I see a spread really close to the bushes all in kind of a tight group, that's a tall tale sign of a a hunter with that's hunting over decoys.
• 25:56
  Speaker: And so that's why I like to really spread out those family groups so your spread looks bigger.
• 26:01
  Speaker: Kind of have a main landing zone and then I'll put some pretty far out, away from the, the bushes, you know, maybe.
• 26:08
  Speaker: A hundred yards, maybe 80, a hundred yards, and, and you know, just a, some small, you know, maybe a pear or something like that or something.
• 26:18
  Speaker: Just kind of draw'em like, oh, those birds aren't right next to the weed line.
• 26:21
  Speaker: And then they come down like thinking, oh, that's, you know, a real bird.
• 26:26
  Speaker: And then they see the whole spread and then they kind of flutter over into the spread.
• 26:30
  Speaker: So.
• 26:31
  Speaker: I think in the wild, it's very common that ducks will kind of land out in the open where it's safe, right?
• 26:36
  Speaker: And then they'll swim over to the, to the, you know, the bushes or the weed line or whatever it is.
• 26:43
  Speaker: Um, the cattail line to feed.
• 26:45
  Speaker: There might be more feed there, but they don't want to just tuck right into there or right on the edge.
• 26:50
  Speaker: So if you can kind of do something that kind of draws'em down and then.
• 26:53
  Speaker: You know, and then they feel a little safer being further away and then draws'em into those decoys that can help.
• 27:00
  Speaker: Um, again, that's probably more if you're just kind of trafficking birds a little bit more.
• 27:06
  Speaker: Where if, if you have a pocket that's surrounded by reeds and you know, you go over there and.
• 27:12
  Speaker: 500 birds fly out.
• 27:13
  Speaker: Well, they, they want to be there.
• 27:14
  Speaker: So if you just set up in there, they're probably just gonna dive bomb down into that.
• 27:18
  Speaker: But I have found if you kind of spread those decoys out, looks like some birds are kind of swimming over to the spread, that kind of can draw'em down and across, um, and kind of bring'em into your spread.
• 27:31
  Speaker: So, um, I'm trying to think if there's anything else that I could share with you guys when it comes to decoys.
• 27:37
  Speaker: Uh.
• 27:38
  Speaker: And, um, and being successful with them.
• 27:41
  Speaker: I think that's probably, those are gonna hit your main points.
• 27:45
  Speaker: Um, talking about decoys and how to use them, you know, that I can think of that.
• 27:50
  Speaker: I'm, I'm trying to think of my, um, years of experience of hunting with decoys.
• 27:55
  Speaker: Um, you know, back in the day this, we were talking about this the other day, you know, we have these now, these new.
• 28:01
  Speaker: You know, tingle free cord, you just hook'em on a carabiner.
• 28:04
  Speaker: You can have a lot more decoys.
• 28:07
  Speaker: They're so slick.
• 28:08
  Speaker: When I was young growing up, you know, they'd have this kind of a para court or decoy line and you had to wrap'em.
• 28:14
  Speaker: And then they have these big, long lead weights that you'd bend around the duck's neck and it just, it was so cold it,'cause you had to grab'em, then you had to grab the wet line and you had to wrap it.
• 28:25
  Speaker: You know, obviously if you had gloves, gloves, that would help.
• 28:28
  Speaker: But, uh, you'd have to wrap it up and these things, you just now grab the duck.
• 28:32
  Speaker: You lift them up, the weight slides down.
• 28:34
  Speaker: It pulls the loop up by your hand.
• 28:36
  Speaker: You just click it on the carabiner.
• 28:38
  Speaker: It's so slick.
• 28:39
  Speaker: It just makes picking up decoys way faster and way easier.
• 28:44
  Speaker: So that's, that's an invention that's, uh, that's changed the decoy game, you know?
• 28:50
  Speaker: No doubt.
• 28:51
  Speaker: So, pretty awesome.
• 28:53
  Speaker: If you guys haven't decoy ducks, you know, if your duck, if you're a duck hunter, you probably have, but, um.
• 29:02
  Speaker: If you haven't, uh, you know, decoy ducks, there's nothing better.
• 29:05
  Speaker: It's so fun when they're wing locked and they just come flying down in and, uh, right into the spot you wanted them to land.
• 29:14
  Speaker: And, uh, you get nice, good clean kills, nice good dog work, and there's really nothing better.
• 29:20
  Speaker: So, anyhow, thanks for bearing with me guys.
• 29:23
  Speaker: It's early morning.
• 29:25
  Speaker: My voice is still waking up here this morning.
• 29:27
  Speaker: Uh, it's Saturday, but I want to get out this podcast for you guys for the weekend.
• 29:32
  Speaker: Uh, share some little tips again.
• 29:34
  Speaker: Um, these tips I'm giving you are from, you know, years of experience of hunting with dogs and hunting ducks and, uh.
• 29:43
  Speaker: And these seem to work for me.
• 29:46
  Speaker: And, uh, you know, again, we just returned back from this trip.
• 29:49
  Speaker: We killed over a hundred birds, and so this is how we did it.
• 29:54
  Speaker: So hopefully it helps you guys out.
• 29:56
  Speaker: Hopefully it gives you some ideas, something you can try, maybe some new decoys, some new arsenal to add to your spread that you can be.
• 30:04
  Speaker: More successful out in the field.
• 30:07
  Speaker: And, uh, remember, train for those hunts.
• 30:08
  Speaker: Have a good time with your dog.
• 30:10
  Speaker: Be patient, uh, be a good leader.
• 30:12
  Speaker: And, uh, hope you guys are successful.
• 30:15
  Speaker: As we're, we're wrapping up this season.
• 30:17
  Speaker: I can't believe we only have roughly a month, month and a half left of hunting waterfowl, uh, hopefully in your area.
• 30:26
  Speaker: It's, uh, it's getting better.
• 30:28
  Speaker: It's been an interesting year.
• 30:30
  Speaker: I feel like every year I say that I feel like our.
• 30:34
  Speaker: Our weather and our migrations and um, just aren't as you know, yesterday it was like 50 something degrees here in Utah, so, um, for being mid-December, that's pretty crazy.
• 30:47
  Speaker: So, uh, we need some weather, we need a good frost line to push those bird, those birds heavy down this way.
• 30:54
  Speaker: But it just seems like with our, uh, our world climate, we just don't get that as much as we, as we used to.
• 31:01
  Speaker: But that being said, I'm not trying to be negative.
• 31:04
  Speaker: Uh, there's still plenty of birds to be had.
• 31:07
  Speaker: You can still go out there, but you do need to scout.
• 31:10
  Speaker: Take a little time, find the X, find where the birds want to be and you'll be successful.
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: And, uh, if you guys are interested in following us, which man, we really appreciate it, if you can help us out on social media, follow us on Instagram, uh, follow us on, um, Facebook, uh, all those different platforms and you can follow us.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: Our training, our training website is Utah bird dog training.com.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: Uh, we also, uh, breed, um, high-end golden retrievers and laboratory retrievers.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: Uh, field Bread, golden Retrievers is our website there.
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: Same thing on Instagram, also Utah Bird Dog training on Instagram, post cool videos, uh, from Hunts and try to post some tips here and there on that.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: So when you get on there, give us a follow.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: Um, and.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: Subscribe or whatever, just click the button thing and that'll, that'll help us out.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: Um, also, if you're looking for a really nice dog caught into, go in your dog run area, or for your dog to hang out on, check out nda, um, nda.com, uh, K-U-R-A-N-D-A.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: And, uh, there's a link in our show notes if you click on that link and you buy one of those cots, if you need to buy one of'em anyways, if you click on that and go through there and buy one, um, it helps us out a little bit.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: And, uh, all our other links we'll put in there.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: Um, appreciate you guys helping to support the show and, uh, again, give us a follow and that really helps us out.
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: So thanks guys, and we'll see you in the next episode.