Mixing species in a spread

Anthony A

Anthony A

Well-known member
Hello all,

This is the first year I attempt to do some diver hunting on the jersey coast (location witheld). I've purchased buffleahd decoys over the holidays and just finished tying them up with strap weights.

I have been a puddle duck hunter to date, so I'm not sure whether mixing species (buffies, mallards, blacks, bluebills, canadas and brant is commonly done.

I was thinking of sticking to a max of 3 species (8 buffies, 4 mallards and 2 blacks - due to minimum space in my aquapod for Sat) and grouping them by species. I assume the old addage birds of of a feather stick together still holds true? I would be hunting Barnegat Bay, but not a very open area, where 3 tidal creeks come together about 70 yrds from the bay. I've seen and shot all three types of ducks and others there before, but over black and mallard decoys in very windy/rainy weather - I don't think they were particular about the company in that kind of weather...

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Anthony

Any advice in this regards would be greatly appreciated.
 
Hi Anthony,

There's lots of folks on here far more experienced than I, so once they give some advice ignore mine. I'm not too familiar with your situation, but up here and again back when I hunted in SW Ontario, I've primarily been a shore hunter and have had a fair amount of sport from buffleheads as of late. I'm also at the top end of a flyway and in the breeding habitat of the buffies so they may behave differently here. My shoreline hunting situation seems quite similar to yours, accessed by canoe and I would often sit on a marsh seat in my waders - though I was on the edge of the open lake or a cove a bit too.

One thing I have noticed though is that up here they tend to move about in smaller family groups, flocks of 3-4 birds is most common, though I have had flocks of up to 18-20 come in nicely. In fact they behave much like goldeneyes that way. I have noticed that while birds like redheads seem to mingle lots with other divers, you'll often find the buffies around other species but they tend to group off by themselves, or occasionally you'll see a loner amongst the goldeneye. I've also noticed they're much less afraid of the shoreline than the other divers (except the "marsh" redheads I kept encountering this year), and in a natural group of ducks they seem to always be the closest to shore (among the divers).

So to answer your question, I keep them close to the other species but in their own group in my decoy spread. I had the best luck using to small groups of decoys arranged in loose circles of about a dozen birds each (usually a group of goldeneyes on one side, and either bluebills or mallards/blacks in the other). Both groups were about 15 yards from the shore or weed bed I used as a blind, with about 15 yards between them. I only have 2 bufflehead decoys, and I would place them about 10-15 yards from shore right in the middle of the two groups of decoys, sort of an "x" marks the spot, and without fail, the buffies always landed with their own and in perfect range, almost irrespective of wind direction. Because they came in so quickly and I have slow reflexes, I often had to let them land then flush them and let them get further out so my loads wouldn't crunch them too badly. Interestingly, I found they often jump up more like a puddle duck than a diver.

Another little trick I used when working the shoreline was to arrange the 12 goldeneye in a miniature "J" hook, and birds moving up and down the shoreline would get "hooked" in and in that case I placed my buffies on the outside of the two groups.

Looking at my journal from this season, I see I had the most buffy shooting with the smaller decoy spreads.

Probably more info than you wanted, but enjoy. The buffies and goldeneyes are my favorite ducks to hunt!
 
Anthony, if you are doing a shore blind, I always put my puddle ducks in a horseshoe or J- hook and then run the divers in a gang rig farther out and slightly down wind. I also put them at an angle that runs from the middle of the water towards the "J" so that the birds will fly "down the line" and end up over the puddler spread. It has been very effective that way. If you are on open water, I would cluster the puddlers close to the boat and have the gang rig runn the birds towards the boat. Hope this helps. dc
 
I think everything Nick said is very accurate for this area.
I would also say that contrary to Dave I've had better success with my mallard/black
decoys away from the blind. The divers will fly over or through anything but the mallards
quite often would land outside my spread. Once I started putting their decoys upwind and
seperate from the divers they would try to land among them.
Just my .02 John
 
Here's another non-expert opinion.

Good advice above, and sounds pretty similar to the spots I hunt in Maine. I hunt a lot of sheltered spots on the coast for just blacks and mallards. And I hunt some more exposed places for just divers. (We primarily target goldeneyes, but get lots of "incidental" buffleheads, and on one great day last year a big flight of scaup. And I have one tidal spot close to a freshwater lake that gets big flocks of hooded mergansers. I shoot a couple of drakes every year for flytying, and the hoodies don't taste near as bad as common mergs. For the divers, we use only goldeneye decoys, and the buffies and hoodies seem to decoy just fine. They also seem to decoy pretty well, but maybe not quite AS well, with just puddle duck decoys.


The places where we mix puddle duck and diver decoys are primarily points that have a sheltered spot the puddlers like to one side (typically the lee side of the point). We'll set the puddlers in the lee, and then at the tip of the point or on the windward side set a half dozen or less goldeneyes, more or less in a straight line, although since I use individual anchors instead of a long line we end up with more a C or J most times.

We do not typically find the goldeyes or buffleheads to be really selective about the decoys. If birds are flying, and we are set up on a point along a shoreline they are flying along, they decoy pretty well.

The puddle ducks are another matter, and on days where the puddlers are flying, we often have better luck on them when we pull in the diver decoys. I think some of that is due to the black ducks flaring from the diver decoys, but probably a bigger factor is that we often move to more sheltered spots where it doesn't make sense to set the divers.

We rarely hunt with more than 8 or 10 black and mallard decoys--usually more blacks than mallards. We like to go light, and be ready to move to where the birds want to be. Given the black duck to mallard ratios on the Maine coast, it's very common for us to get our black duck early, then spend the afternoon chasing goldeneyes, and hoping for a flock of mallards.
 
Anthony, Barnegat is a great bay to hunt - a lot of variety in birds and hunts. I'd leave the mallards at home and stick to your diver rig. brant decoys are optional, they are pretty friendly birds. Blacks are wary, but since you can only shoot one, don't kill yourself to make a day hunting them...
In case your wondering, i recently moved from south Jersey to WA state, so i actually do know about shore hunting.... just not left coast hunting..haha..
good luck,
Dave
 
If you are only using 14 decoys, I would just make two seperate flocks with a gap in the middle. Buffies in one flock, Mallards and blacks in the other.

But then again, I live a long way from Barnegat Bay, and maybe the ducks have some local habits there.

Good luck,

NR
 
That spot sounds like a gem.

Absolutely mix species. My experience is that black ducks drop their guard when you have divers in the spread. I've found this to be true in VT and in coastal MA.

I'm partial to the "Triple-O" advocated by Zack Taylor. I'd put the buffies in a separate group slightly upwind of the boat/blind. Mallards can go slightly downwind of the boat/blind and slightly inshore of the buffies. Ideally, blacks go furthest downwind and away from the blind.

Separate each group with adequate lighting area.

I don't think you'll need that many buffies. I rarely see large groups or rafts on the water. 5 would probably do it, especially if all your blocks are drakes.

Note that I do quite a few walk-in hunts and use this set-up effectively, often with as few as 8 blocks. In those situations, my oddballs might be ringnecks, wigeon, or a lone buffy. The intent is the same -- put white in the rig.

If you hunt other areas that broadbill and whistlers also frequent, use the same setup. Only, use broadbill as the bulk of the divers and place the whistler(s) slightly upwind and offshore and the buffies slightly downwind and inshore.

If you have one, you can put one drake whistler block in the spread as a toller. That black and white target can sometimes work magic.
 
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