Decoy height and flaring birds

C

Capt. Frank Miller

Active member
Maybe I have had too much time on my hands latlely. But it has amazed me that as perfect as decoys are today birds can still tell they are not real from great distances. So I have been taking tons of pictures of resting birds and one of the things I notice is that almost all decoys ride heigher on water than the real birds. Now I know some will say heck yeah that is better visability. But I know know some makers especially on the upper bay made lower riding decoys. Any thoughts on this? Could lower profile be btter?
 
A waterfowls retina & cornia are designed to pick-up on (2) two things.

Depth perception (flock flying & landing)

Color recognition (pair bonding/mating).

This is why you can hunt with realistic, magnum, super magnum or field chairs (6) six times the size of a real goose.

Most rigs fail the waterfowl test from a "lack of movement."

Look @ a resting flock & they still move.

Look @ a feeding flock in crystal clear water & it is turbide from the bottom being disturbed.

A "motionless" set of dekes w/o a jerk cord or mojo other nether of these things on a bluebird day with no wind.

Man, I wish I had your time to think about things??? LOL LOL LOL

Now go have another beer!!!
 
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Frank m My view, is today that people dont you use the proper paint to paint their decoys, they tend to use household paints and I think these tend to make the decoys weigh to shiney and this causes the ducks to flare.
Eddie.
 
Look again at those live birds, when the sun is right,... or wrong, depending on your point of view, you get a LOT of shine, and "flashing", reflections off wet feathers and near the waterline. Yet birds will work to them.

My expertise is Black Ducks, maddening creatures that will give you fits, I've seen them reject and flare from their live cousins. If they won't commit to live birds How on earth can you fool them with decoys? but they can be fooled, and sometimes they can be down right stupid, not as stupid as Mallards but...... LOL.
 
Closely spaced, high headed decoys all facing the wind look like a flock on alert ready to take off.


To provide a "relaxed" look I always try to make sure there is a lot of space between my decoys, the anchors are attached such that only about 25% are headed into the wind (like they are alert and prepared to take off) and that there are a minimum of upright heads (like they are alert and prepared to take off).
 
I agree with whats been said, boats, blinds, hunters are the biggest reason for flaring birds. I don't think decoy height has much if anything to do with it, but I have been carving some low profile birds, just cause I find them different and fun. I think Plastics do bob too much and as far as all alerts heads, if you look at Upper Bay decoys they all had alert heads and faced in the same direction. But they tended to pack them in real close and in big numbers, so I would think that would offset the alert heads. My big thing outside of concealment and who knows how much it matters, is the layout of the rig. I try to duplicate what you see in natural flocks. But concealment is number one, as much as I try if I leave the spead there is always ducks pouring in, maybe thats just luck. :)
 
Gary is so right. Try spacing them out more and tail tying about a third of your dekes. Gives a more relaxed less nervous look.
JMO,
Harry
 
I will disagree somewhat. If you watch flocks of feeding ducks, they are a lot of times packed into a tight ball. The old sinkbox hunters would pack the decoys around the box real close together almost concealing it. I will admit might be wary to pack them in if you have all high head decoys, but with a vareity of plastic brands head profiles and cork/wooden birds you can mimic what occurs in nature. I also think a knot of decoys can be seen from a further distance as well. Next year in my diver rig I will get rid of some of the longlines and go to singles just so I can get a more densly pack group of decoys.
 
Catchy phrase, dont you think?
IMO, either no movement or improper concealment is the culprit for flaring ducks.

If you have a spread of the finest decoys made and no movement, as in flat water & no wind, then it just doesnt look natural. Flocks of ducks are always moving, swimming, stretching, dabbling, diving, etc.. Had a day on the bay where the wind was intermittent, 5-10 mph one minute, flat the next. if the ducks came by when the wind was blwing enough to put a ripple on the water, they dove right it. If they happened by when the wind & water were flat, they would come in to about 75 yards & then rise up & head in another direction.

On the other hand, if your blind does not fit the surroundings, or you are moving too much or have something that just doesnt look right, as defined/seen by the ducks and who know what they are thinking/see most of the time, then the ducks are going to flare. Why? Who know? What worked one day, doesnt the next. Same conditioned, same setup, et.. but birds are flaring. Why??????? I've heard guys say shotgun shells floating flares birds, decoys lines to bright flares birds; decoys touching flares birds; decoys to close together/to far apart flares ducks, etc.....

None of us will figure it out 100% of the time. If we spend all our time trying to out-think a creature with a brain the size of a pea, we will go mad. If we arent mad already.
 
#1 reason for flaring/lack of success is hunter movement. My favorite two subsets of the same issue are - no gloves on (white) hands, looking up at circling waterfowl without a full mask that even covers your (white) neck.

I also think that clothing camo pattern and color of inside of blind should be darker than lighter. You could do worse than paint your duck boat flat black & wear all black clothing.

No wind days stink for a couple reasons. Ducks less likely to trade around because they can sit quietly on open water with no strain. And "still" decoys don't look right. But I have had black ducks & blue herons land & loiter in still decoys (after I have taken my one blackduck "limit").

While still decoys in no wind might not attract ducks very well, I doubt they will flair "commited" incoming ducks. Most of my waterfowl hunting is field hunting for geese & I use no "movement" decoys. The trick is getting them to commit. Once they are heading in with cupped wings the calling stops & the hunters need to stay absolutely still. I only flag when they are way out & I'm trying to turn a flock.
 
I agree,all of the above are correct on a given day.I feel concealment is second only to location.If you can't pick your days and only hunt the weekends you take whatever the weather throws at you.This brings us to decoys i have noticed with geese in particular that they sit lower in the water than most of the commercially available models. Most divers are low enough but the puddlers i feel are too high in appearance they seem to bounce too much. Lower wider birds seem to rider better. recently i have been experimenting with fewer decoys in a group trying to emulate what i see in the wild,i hunt the ohio river and see fewer birds each year. Blinds i think play a big part in success, i used to have no problem decoying puddle ducks to a boat blind not so any longer,divers still respond but puddle ducks and geese are tougher. Of course it would help if we were in a stronger area of the flyway.
 
Re: the subject is FLARING!!!!!

If the birds have commited & set their wings, some process in their pea sized brains has told them it is OK/desireable to land. They've already "bought" the number-set of the decoys.

If they are flaring I doubt it is because decoys are sitting too high.

I added some head forward/dabbling decoys to my set. In my pea sized brain some flaring I was observing was because of those new decoys/heads. I changed the heads. I probably didn't need to.

Almost certainly some movement (not lack of movement) has pushed the danger button.
 
Hey gary you are right,flaring means the birds have seen something that represents danger. Non-committing birds are not frightened but are not completely sold on the set up. Who knows what conditions cause this,decoys,hunter concealment,blind shape or camo covering etc. I am pleased to see that others have been thinking along the same lines. Whether flaring or non-committing the end result is the same,frustration.No shot,shot-plop,plop.
 
"Flaring" to me means the setup is fine, and hunter movement is almost certainly the reason.

The wrong spot in a marsh is another reason ducks will pass you buy. Unless you have a better "eye" or more luck than I it takes a couple outings in an area to half way figure out the better spots to set up.

I had a small private land primo hunting spot on a river in the middle of a national wildlife refuge for a couple years. I was the only guy who had permission. It was always a great private outing. Put out lots of decoys in various setups, but it was very hard to bring in ducks. I was on the weather shore (they prefered the lee shore across the river), and other naturally favored spots were around me. It was just a spot the ducks did not favor for their own pea brained reasons.
 
there are alot of posts regarding movent -- but i can't tell you the number of times we are switching guys out in a layout and birds come decoying in and land in the spread with the tender there, guys talking and moving around and in they pour and swim around looking at us as if its was perfectly normal
 
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