Fun Times & Frustration in South Jersey

Craig F

Craig F

Well-known member
Had a good time gunning South Jersey yesterday afternoon with my father and Tex. Decent amount of birds around but boy were they working strange. We'd have groups and singles lock up at 100 yards and then at 70-50 yards would just flare out. We did manage to scratch out some teal and a black duck but we couldn't seem to get them to finish right.

Has anyone had a situation where you had black ducks just flare out from the sight of pintail decoys? We had a group of pinnies in the rig but never saw any so it might have looked unnatural and once the birds saw the white they just flared.

Here's some screencaps from the hunt.

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Where we were hunting yesterday all we saw were pintails and blacks and they were al going into the same general area about 150 yards from where we were set up. We had blacks coming into the pintail decoys. It was too shallow for my boat where the pintails were landing.
 
Waterfowl depend on their eyes and ears for the most part...Flaring at that distance could be that they are used to the area they were coming into and with the addition of your boats...the picture has changed...or they just saw something in one of your boats. It's hard to tell when you can't walk out and take a look but your Go-Pro type camera housing on the bottom of the forend of your shotgun would be something I would consider. If it's exposed...it will flare them.
 
Did you muddy the water severely when setting up the decoys and getting into place? If so, that may have caused them to flare, as over the course of a season they might begin to associate a big circle of brown water against surrounding clear water with bad things(tm)..

Other than that, talking, moving, or a big white face peering up at them might do it, assuming you didn't have any hard outlines left on your boat.

Nice photos!
 
Ha ha I figured I'd open a can of worms with the question. Believe me, it wasn't lack of concealment, etc. Just a weird day.

Farrukh, the last couple shots of the single black duck are screencaps off the gun mounted camera, though I zoomed them a little. Raw off the camera it looks like this:

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Which mount are you using, Craig? My wife bought me a gopro 3+ last week for my birthday, among the various mounts I have the alligator jaws. I thought that one might work clamped on the barrel from underneath but it looks to me that you are using a different one. My head is spinning with all the available accessories. Also, does the cold effect the camera?
 
There is a company called Capture Your Hunt that makes shotgun mounts for the go pro cameras. You can get them direct through their website or Mack's Prairie Wings. I am sure other venders have them too.

Here is the website: http://www.captureyourhunt.com/shotgun-gopro-mounts/

I am told you need to buy two pieces. The actual mount and then another piece called the recoil keeper.

Chad
 
As you know it could be anything with black ducks ....they are sharp.

You probably just can't shoot and the rest is just details.
 
Chad all of their mounts come with the recoil keeper now. That's what I have and I bought it from Macks. I honestly didn't think it was going to work but I've been pleasantly surprised.
 
You mentioned muddy water possibly flaring birds because it looks different than surrounding water, in Arkansas we often muddy the water in the decoys while hunting rice fields to make it appear that the feeding is good in that spot.
 
Craig,
I know its very frustrating when birds flare like that , Its obvious they didn't like something. First I would pull any other decoys other that the Black ducks, you are mainly hunting for,Change the spread a little, Next Move your boats from right in front of the decoys more to the side,still in gun range, so the incoming birds can just concentrate on the decoys & wont see your boats or cover that does not look natural to them in that surrounding. Also take in consideration you are dealing with MR. Intelligent Black duck.We have all had those days. Paul
 
Craig~

From your description, it sure sounds like a classic "flare" , i.e., they saw something they did not like.

On the other hand, I had always heard that Black Ducks want to approach "their" decoys without encountering any "white birds" (meaning any bird with white on them, not just divers). Thus, I always rig with the Black Duck stool downwind and anything else (usually a few puddlers, then some Geese or Brant) ahead (upwind) of the rig. I tend to believe that this behavior is real. I hunted with a friend once who had his Goose (Canada) stool right below the Blacks. I watched several Blacks go through real gyrations to make their way around the Geese before they would get to the Blacks.

Also, Paul's thoughts about placing the boat so that birds do not look right at it as they approach the "landing zone" is another thing I try to do whenever I can.

But, you must be doing lots right - because you are sharing a bunch of great photos! Keep it up!

All the best,

SJS
 
Steve you raise a good point that I always adhere to. I never put any 'bright' ducks as the last birds downwind as black ducks do not like to have to fly over them to land with their own kind.

Of course some days it doesn't matter but it's always a learning experience, even with Saturday having the three of us with somewhere around 100 years of combined waterfowling experience. It's what keeps you coming back!
 
I'd like to touch on Nick's comment about "muddying the water'

Depending on whether it's a loafing spot or feeding spot, I've seen ducks turn the water muddy because they kept disturbing the bottom looking for food. I know people who actually will ride a quad in the water to stir it up a little. Nothing worse than clear water to show the decoy lines.....

I think what most of us fail to realize at times it that the puddle ducks fly higher and they are looking down on us. Totally different perspective. They see a lot of things that we don't when we are on the ground looking straight ahead at our spread/boat.
 
The muddy water thing is interesting. I hunt a lot of sand bottomed areas so I've never given it a lot of thought. With that being said the cut we were hunting was somewhere between 15-20 ft deep so it probably wasn't a factor. I had a friend hunt the same area Monday and had similar reactions by the local black duck population so it wasn't just me!
 
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