Set those Decoys Right!

When doing any type of waterfowl hunting you should pay very close attention to your decoy spreads. There are several patterns one can use to set your decoy, whether it is on water or land. If you are hunting south of the Canadian border, you can expect your birds to be decoy educated. I hunt in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Kansas. By the time the fowl have reached me they will have seen every decoy spread imaginable, heard every call a duck call will make and learned to pick up movement on the ground quite well. That’s what makes this sport so exciting. The challenge those waterfowl present will get your adrenalin pumping fast. All is not lost. We do have a chance to limit out. This isn’t as easy as quail hunting where I let my dog loose in the field and he goes and finds the birds for me to shoot, nope, no way. First that duck has to be convinced you aren’t even there, good concealment on your part. Second your decoys have to convince the waterfowl that it is safe to land and there is something there for them, (food). Thus, the sculpture of a perfect decoy spread. I have pulled ducks down with ten dozen decoys and also pulled them in with a single decoy. The weather conditions and environment are going to dictate what is right for the conditions. Hunting flooded timbers or open waters will have a lot to do with your decoy spread. Small ponds are going to take fewer decoys than a large body of water. You can get by with a dozen decoys on a small body of water. If you are hunting timber you will want to find an open body of water and spread your decoys around that opening to create a landing zone right in front of you. I use three dozen in this case. Ducks are going to react differently in a sunny day than they do in a constant down pour. You need to be flexible and change-up your spread if the conditions change during the day. The classic U or J shaped decoy patterns are the most popular. If you choose these patterns, try and set your blind up at the closed end of the U or the hook of the J. Ringnecks, Buffleheads, and Teal will often land and swim into you spread. Be aware how you are presenting your decoys. I have seen so many people get to a great spot and just start chunking decoys in the water without any thought of presentation. The dekes look totally unnatural. These goons can’t figure out why all the birds are flaring away from their decoys. Just because ducks sees your decoys does not mean they will automatically land in them. Remember, you have to give them a reason to land. Mix your decoys types up. I have Mallards, Gadwalls, Pintails, Ringnecks and Teals in my spreads. It works out really well. I put the Pintails and a Mallard decoy I spray painted black in the most visible location for incoming flocks to see. The white on the Pintail and the black duck are much more visible than the other decoys. I do my best to get incoming birds thinking about landing in my spread as soon as possible. You can start out in the morning using all the decoys in your bags. If you are not getting any action, and birds are flaring, then it’s time to change the dekes around. If the birds are doing two or three pass bys and flaring, then something is wrong. Make sure you haven’t had a decoy float off or one upside down. Pull some dekes out of the water or field, change the pattern. The ducks are seeing something they don’t like and you’ve got to determine what that is and correct it. If a decoy does not sit right in the water, get rid of it. Your spread has got to look as natural as possible. I don’t think any new duck hunter needs to be trying to operate a jerk line or motorized decoy until after their first full season. Stick to the basics during that first year. Get good at the basic decoy patterns before you try a jerk line or motorized decoy. Add jerk lines and other special decoys after you get comfortable with your decoy spreads. A good decoy spread will get you quite a ways. Jim, Duckie, Newcomb Shell Shocked Outdoors

Proven Goose Hunting Tactics

Goose season is finally here, the wait is over. Weather you are hunting geese in Pennsylvania or in Arkansas the tactics are basically the same. I have composed some helpful hints that should help your goose hunting adventures. These are my proven procedures used when calling and setting out decoy spreads. Hopefully these tips will make you a little more successful while adding a few more birds in your bag. The first ingredient to a successful goose hunt is making sure you have proper equipment. Your layout blind is one of the most critical pieces of equipment you will need. Address the issues of any tears in your layout blind. Don’t use grey tape to fix the tears where it could be exposed to the sun. That tape will reflect sunlight about as good as a mirror, big no-no. A good goose flag is also important. Assemble the flag and get used to its movement before you go to the field. It is very important to have a good goose call. You must know how to use that call, so practice, practice, and practice a little more. Decoys are essential; they complete the formula for a successful goose hunt. I recommend you invest in dekes somewhere in the middle price range. Geese are tough; they will not fall with a simple glancing blow. A magnum shot load is going to be required to hunt geese, the 3 or 3 ½ inch shells will be standard equipment on your hunts. Practice the early and late season calling patterns. In the early season geese are in family groups, so call sparingly. Call just enough to keep the birds interested and coming your way, a simple honk might be all you need. You are hunting mainly “Home Flocks” in the early season. These are geese that stay in the areas year round. These geese are familiar with the area and often are comfortable with the humans. As a result, an aggressive style of calling will hamper rather than help in early season goose hunting. You will not see large waves of geese in the early season, as you do in the late season. The late season is the time to get aggressive with your calling tactics. I do my best to mimic the patterns being fluted by the geese coming into my decoys. I like to try and pick out one particular goose honking and return calls trying to convince that goose to land in my decoy spread. Do not overcall in any circumstance you are faced with. Geese intrepid overcalling as unnatural and will surely flair before they are in gun range. During the early season it is best to leave your flag decoys at home. You really don’t need it at this time. The late season is a different story, now you want to use your flags. Use your flags at the right time. Start flagging when the geese have a good view of your decoy spread. Lift the flag a few feet off of the ground and flap it 3 times to simulate a goose stretching its wings. Remember, the purpose of the flag is to simulate a goose landing in your decoy spread. Practice with the flag several times before you ever go to the field. Early season decoy spreads are going to differ from late season tactics. We will use up to three dozen decoys in early season. As we have said, geese are still in family groups in the early season. Your decoy spreads should be place accordingly. While you are scouting before the season starts you should make a note of the positioning of the geese in the fields. Remember to leave adequate pockets within your spread for the geese to land. Increase your decoys spread up to ten dozen in the late season. A different strategy is used for decoy placement in the late season. The U or J shaped patterns are the preference for late season decoy patterns. Regardless of which pattern you decide on, remember to space the individual decoys six to ten feet apart. As the season progresses you will want to change your decoy pattern around a little bit. Give the geese a different look, but don’t overdo it. Always face your decoys into the wind. Those big birds have to land into the wind to maintain the proper lift. Place your layout blinds at the closed end of the U pattern or the end of the hook on the J pattern. Of course if you are hunting out of a pit, you will want the landing areas in the pattern to be in your shooting range. Whichever method of concealment you decide to use, make sure you are blending in with the surrounding areas. You must be concealed to hunt geese. As our crew says, “Blend in, or go hungry”. We wish you all good luck in the coming goose season. Kaitlyn Martin Pro-Staff ShellShocked Outdoors

Building a Portable Duck Blind

At a moment’s notice we were given the opportunity to hunt waterfowl in areas we had never hunted before. One of the first things we had to do was to get some duck blinds up in strategic locations around the area we were hunting. Building a Portable Duck Blind in these areas is essential to our success and is relatively simple to do. Duck blinds are some of the oldest tools used by waterfowler's. Having a "concealed area" makes the trip more enjoyable. Building an effective duck blind is not expensive at all. Using the natural resources around you is the cheapest and most effective way to build a portable blind. With a little Wire, posts, limbs and a hatchet, this project can be completed in a half a day. Before you start building your portable duck blind, the hunter must determine the right positioning of the blind. Things to consider are landing patterns, wind direction, speed and the availability of good, clear shots. Ducks land into the wind, take that in consideration when building the blind. Make sure you have that clear shot over the water or corn field you are hunting in. Review the surroundings, look for small tree rows fifteen to twenty feet back from the water. It is ideal to use the tree rows as concealment for waterfowl flying over from the back side. The ultimate situation would be for a tree row to substitute for the back wall of the blind. The perfect tree rows would be those standing eight to twelve feet tall. If you have found a suitable tree row, you simply tie off you side posts to the front posts and then run that side post through the trees and up against the trunk of one of the trees in the tree rows. All is not lost if you do not have access to a tree row. Look for low spots along the shoreline where the ground can act as your back wall The following is my procedure used to build a blind for two to three people. This project can be put together in about two to four hours. If you won't be hunting until the next weekend, take your time. Remember the blind should blend in with its surroundings. The better that blind looks and the more it blends in with the surroundings, the better your chances for a good hunt are. Find six straight sticks or posts, about 3" in diameter. Any straight round wood will work. Driftwood is my preference for the posts; it is usually pretty light and clean. Drive three supports in the ground about 4 feet apart in a straight line. If you don’t have a tree row or ground behind you for a back wall, then do the same with the remaining three posts in a parallel line directly behind the front posts for the back of the blind. As stated, if you have had good success in locating a tree row, you can eliminate this step. This will be your framework for the portable blind, approximately 4 feet by 8 feet. This can be stretched out to ten feet without any problem. Use the rule of thumb of four feet for every person. If there is more than three people, then I would recommend building two blinds. If needed, cut off the front posts to a height around 4 feet. The front has to be high enough to conceal you, yet low enough for you to shoot. If you have back posts, then cut them off around five and one half feet. Wrap hog wire or chicken wire around the outside of the posts to encase the blind. I prefer hog wire as chicken wire does not have as much support, but it will work. Staple the wire to the posts for strength. This will add stability to the blind and help hold the actual blind material to be placed on the wire. One end must be left open so the hunter and his dog can get in and out of the blind. Next you will want to start layering your brush and tree limbs. The first cover on the blind should be your large pieces, working down to your smaller pieces. The base layer should be your hard wood material, and then follow with your evergreen material. Interweave the material with the wire for strength against wind or rain. All of the wire should be covered to prevent reflection from the sun. Weave the material in and out of the hog wire, as if you were weaving a basket. Material on the back of the blind should extend higher than the top of the hog wire so as to conceal the hunters from ducks coming into the shooting lane from behind. Remember, the blind must blend in with its surroundings and look as natural as possible. It's not hard at all and can be done in a half of day. Good hunting! Jim "Duckie" Newcomb, President ShellShocked Outdoors www.shellshockedoutdoors.com

Waterfowl Mating Habits

I find it very interesting that some waterfowl choose mates for life, while others experience the annual ritual of courtship.    Geese generally choose mates for life.  My research does not show this to be true for ducks.  Usually ducks go through the routine of seasonal courtship and the competing with like-kind males of their species for the opportunity of securing a mate.  As they do in the entire wild, male and female ducks choose a mate for the sole purpose of reproduction.    I find it really amazing how Mother Nature has conditioned the female to search for the strongest male she can find for the annual courtship and continuation of a duck’s life cycle. Geese do not form a bond with a partner until they are at least two years of age, but it will be more likely in their third or fourth year of life to do so. Geese do not nest and lay eggs until their second year of life or later.  Male geese play a significant role in raising their young, including vigilance over and defense of females while they are incubating and raising the young.   Long-term pair bonding is generally observed among species of waterfowl that have large bodies; live longer because of lower annual mortality, exhibit low annual production (fewer young produced), and have slow-maturing young.

Ducks on the other hand, do not form long-term bonds, rather they form seasonal bonds, and a new bond is formed each season.  Ducks bond at their wintering grounds during their first year of life, and those bonds are maintained only through the beginning of nesting.    Males do not participate in raising the young, but they will defend the female.  Re-pairing is suspected for buffleheads, long-tailed ducks, harlequin ducks and common eiders.

Male Ducks do not participate in raising their young.  Seasonal pair bonding is more typical of species with small bodies; species that exhibit higher annual mortality, higher annual productivity and breed in highly productive environments. These characteristics apply to most dabbling ducks and diving ducks, such as mallards, teal, canvasbacks and redheads, to name a few.  Seasonal bonding is common among dabblers, divers, and sea ducks.  I think it is important that we learn as much as possible about our respective sports.  The more I read and learn about the sport of waterfowl hunting, the more enjoyment I get out of it.  Anybody can grab a gun and go tromping out into the timbers.  If they are lucky a greenhead just might come their way.  I would rather take a little time in the off season and learn all I can about the sport.  You should make an effort to obtain a duck hunting video, you’ll see the teamwork and dedication those we admire put into the sport.   I recommend the Duck Commander’s videos.  You will soon learn there is more to this than pulling a trigger.  Remember, whatever game we hunt is a gift from God. Take’em Boys, Jim, Duckie, Newcomb Shell Shocked Outdoors