When I saw the first spinner I didn't like the way it seemed to level the playing field for novice hunters. I introduced two families to duck hunting on opening day over 20 years ago. Neither had ever duck hunted before and had no idea what they were doing other than what I had told them. Both showed up with brand new spinners, I didn't have one, had no use for something like that. We were hunting a small river and I put my son and myself between the two families on a 300 yard stretch of river and watched those two groups shoot continually at the fresh birds on opening day, we never fired a shot. I was in shock to say the least. Every duck seems to be hypnotized by those spinning wings.
20 years later spinners don't seem to make any difference other than in a corn field.
I don't see a lot of folks that use spinners here anymore, when I've tagged along with someone who does, it seems to make no difference. I usually have less than a dozen decoys out, never hunt on the "x", just depending on calling and just a handful of decoys. I used to hunt over 200 decoys, accuracy by volume, the older I get, the less decoys I take. At this point I usually take what fits in the back of my fly fishing vest with a fly rod in my hand and a shotgun over my shoulder.
I have been known to put out some over sized goldeneye decoys myself, usually 1 to 3. The two wigeons are a little oversized which gives you an idea about how big that goldeneye decoy is. There are ways to be more effective decoying ducks without putting a battery in something.
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