decoy spread

M

mike rosiak

Member
Wanted to know for a layout spread and shore rig.Can I get away with mallard and black ducks.Also might through in some divers.Will be hunting puddlers and divers.How many decoys do I really need.I have restle blacks and toledo mallards and goose bodies that I made into black ducks.How many divers do I really need and do I really need every specie.Please help.Thanks in advance.
 
I hunt both puddlers and divers and have had some success with both. I own mainly puddle duck decoys and the guys I hunt with have a lot of diver decoys. Usually I have both in my boat as we usually hunt out of it. One day last November I decided to slip out for a solo afternoon hunt for divers but discovered I only had puddle duck decoys in the boat. I put out around 30 mallard decoys near the edge of a wild rice bed. I wasn't sure how things would work out but I was happy to be on the water. It wasn't long until I had my limit of four redheads and was headed for home. Was it luck? Who knows. The birds came in close for a look but didn't appear to want to land. I did have ruddy ducks and hooded mergansers swimming in my decoys while I was waiting for the redheads to arrive.

I know of a well known waterfowl hunter who is rumored to have a personal rig of diver decoys painted flat black. It is said that he uses them with his layout rig to great success.

Usually with divers more is better. I prefer to put out more than four dozen and have used as many as 100. Puddle duck hunting can be done with a small number of decoys in most circumstances.
 
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I am guessing by your location, you are hunting big water.
I hunt big water for puddler and divers. I typically use 6-9 dzn decoys. Equal Mix of coots, gadwalls and divers. Sometimes more coots than anything becuase we have coots by the 1,000's.
For divers only, I use 3dzn bluebills, 1 dzn redheads, 1 dzn cans, 1 dzn buffies and 3 GE's I will also put 1/2 dzn gadwalls on the side depending on where I am.
Do you need all the dive species? Nope, all bluebills will work for most. But if you want GEs & Buffies to commit to the decoys on a regular basis, you really need a few of them. And I have noticed that canvasbacks really seem to home in on can decoys. But then if you are on the "X" that day, all bluebills will work.
But then a spread of all bluebills is boring!
 
I haven't done much open water puddler hunting in a while. For whistlers and bufflehead I've had luck with only 6 decoys of their kind. Oldsquaw will come into relatively small spreads too, I usually put out about 18. For broadbill I like to have at least 3 dozen. I usually put out a mixed spread of 50 - 55 broadbill and redhead with about 6 buffies or whistlers set off to the side.

For layout boat hunting I like a larger spread to help minimize the appearance of the boat.
 
In my case for Lake MI the more white the better. When I first started waterfowling all i had was mallard decoys and I hunted from shore. After a few season of not shooting anything I got some bufflehead and bluebill decoys. Helped tremendously. The white on decoys sticks out from so much farther away.

As far as having every species, I would say dont worry about species just get as much white as you can out there to start. Big herters or if you go plastic GHG buffies and goldeneyes can be seen from far away
 
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