Arkansas Opener Video from Public Land

[William Reinicke]

Jeff,

In the first year or two of spinners, I would have wholeheartedly agreed with your first sentence. I saw things that were borderline obscene. Ducks would drop straight down from 200 yards, no calling, no hesitation. I saw a flock of widgeon get busted, go out, turn around, and come back over to get shot again. I watched ducks try to land on a spinner with a group of four people standing within 15 yards of it in an open rice field, talking and laughing after the hunt while people were going to get the ATV's. That's when I made up my mind that I would never own one.

I think there is some conditioning to them now, and I believe the effectiveness is less, but I think it does affect young birds and certain species more than others. I hear plenty of people say, "they aren't as effective as you think, and most days they don't do anything but flare ducks...", but when I say, "then don't take it", I get the, "wellllll...you can't always tell...and it might make the difference in killing ducks or not..."

That said, I hate the damn things, and I wish Arkansas would go the other way and ban them outright. I don't care what the other states do, and I don't care what landowners and guides and Mack's Prairie Wings or Mojo or whomever wants.

I agree with everything said here. First couple years, I watched mallard fall out of the skies like basketballs from 200+ yards up. They were specks in the sky and all you would hear was the sound of a jet engine as they literally cut wind to get down to that spinner. Still to this day, a spinner in a corn field is about the dumbest thing I have ever seen. But fast forward to today.... I have 2 and they are strictly for those corn field hunts when I stumble on them. Its rare to see ducks in any other field around here, but I am sure it holds true to other field hunts as well. I havent used a spinner in a water set in 3-4 years now. Every so often, I think they may be effective and I pack them.... and then I get to the hole and just leave them in the boat. Now, I do hunt at least 2 lucky duck agitators and will use as many as 4-6 if I can. I LOVE the movement they put off in a spread and I think that is much more natural movement. The first time I ever used the higdon style, where the legs spun and splashed the water, we had 10 drake mallard dead in 8 minutes. We had ducks trying to land on top of that movement with the dog fetching a bird 5 yards away. At that point, we were using jerk strings again and no spinners. This was just a way to get rid of the jerk string is all, but for some reason seemed far more effective. Even to this day, that agitation on the water seems to kill birds better than any spinner and I will stick with this technique for movement. Plus I like not having to fiddle around with wings anymore. Push a button and toss it out with the rest of the decoys. EASY PEASY!

 

[Jeff Reardon]

Jeff,

In the first year or two of spinners, I would have wholeheartedly agreed with your first sentence. I saw things that were borderline obscene. Ducks would drop straight down from 200 yards, no calling, no hesitation. I saw a flock of widgeon get busted, go out, turn around, and come back over to get shot again. I watched ducks try to land on a spinner with a group of four people standing within 15 yards of it in an open rice field, talking and laughing after the hunt while people were going to get the ATV's. That's when I made up my mind that I would never own one.

I think there is some conditioning to them now, and I believe the effectiveness is less, but I think it does affect young birds and certain species more than others. I hear plenty of people say, "they aren't as effective as you think, and most days they don't do anything but flare ducks...", but when I say, "then don't take it", I get the, "wellllll...you can't always tell...and it might make the difference in killing ducks or not..."

That said, I hate the damn things, and I wish Arkansas would go the other way and ban them outright. I don't care what the other states do, and I don't care what landowners and guides and Mack's Prairie Wings or Mojo or whomever wants.

I'm kind of disappointed that Tod Osier has not chimed in with a photo of a shotgun-blasted Mojo. Those were common in my early days here.

 

[Rick Pierce]

I'm kind of disappointed that Tod Osier has not chimed in with a photo of a shotgun-blasted Mojo. Those were common in my early days here.

When Arkansas banned them initially, there were several of those pics/vids going around.

I was always disappointed in the MS Flyway because Arkansas and I think one other state wanted a flyway-wide ban, and they were told, "you do it first, and we will follow...", and then the other states backed out after Arkansas instituted a ban. It was a tacit admission that they worked and nobody wanted the backlash.