I took this video yesterday of my decoys when 5-10 mph gusts would pick up. You could see the movement achieved with the reinikeel design @Ryan Ellifson
Not dad's foamers
- Thread starter Don Mintz
- Start date
Looks great, but what kind of spread doesn't have a mojo! @tod osier will mock you!
Havent hunted one in 6ish years. Its rare I ever put one in the spread. Still have one, but ripples and movement on the water is far more successful for me than flapping wings. I have my theories on mojos. I do remember when they first came out though, and they were as deadly as deadly can be. I remember on migration days seeing ducks fall out of the sky like basketballs from hundreds of feet up in the air. Not so much the case anymore. Then the pulsators came out, and when I got one of them (about 5 years ago) I remember we killed a 3 man limit in about 30 min. It was disgusting how crazy they work. They keep working too... Just my .02 though, and I dont claim to know much about this crazy game of waterfowl. I just like getting out and being cold and occasionally pulling a trigger at some flying liver meat.
No doubt in my mind the birds that live get smart after seeing something a few times. I think the same with sound... I've turned some very wary birds with a metal reed, mainly I suspect because it just sounds different from what they hear most.
Im BIIIGGGGG on doing things different than others. Have always been that way. Most run giant divebomb style goose spreads. Ive gone back to small full body spreads. Most run mojos, I run more movement on water. Most run RMC, RNT, Lares, etc calls. Im using Kent Eason Langniappe and Doug Baum calls. That newest Doug Baum call I have was DEADLY on mallard the other day. The amount of hold and crispness on the low end is something anyone would desire. I much agree with this statement you have made sir.
Mark Belknap
Member
Totally agree we you both. Looking natural while being different than the masses means way more action. I use small spreads and love old school style metal reed calls
it's a western grebe, I think the clark's grebe has white surrounding the eye.
It was not a confidence decoy like a heron might be, but a food source. Wigeons don't wear that mask for nothing, they are bandits and are notorious for feeding on food other fowl have brought up from deep water. The reason I made what was actually a pair of western grebes is a pretty good story.
For years and years when my boys were just starting to hunt, wigeons were pretty common, but difficult to decoy without wigeon decoys in my stretch of the river. Once we starting using wigeon decoys so did everyone else and the idea of being different while being natural like Mark pointed out can make a huge difference. The first thing I tried was making a swan decoy and trailing up a half dozen wigeon decoys behind him as if they were picking through stuff the swan was digging up off the bottom. It worked pretty well, but was cumbersome to drag around, so we didn't always pack it. It's extremely rare that we hunt from a boat.
On one occasion, it must be 20 years ago by now, we were hunting our regular spot with lots of wigeons trading up and down the river corridor, but instead of landing with our decoys the wigeons would land and feed with a pair of western grebes on the opposite side of the river maybe 75 yards away. It was extremely frustrating. 5 days later I had a pair of western grebe decoys, kind of the luxury of being a decoy maker. That morning there was a pair of foam grebes on my side of the river and it was pretty much magic. It's the only decoys we had, so I was betting on it pretty heavily to work and it did.
I don't remember if anything else decoyed to the grebes, but we were targeting wigeons. The next few years we never saw any grebes and didn't use the decoys again. Someone bought them, but I don't remember who.
It was not a confidence decoy like a heron might be, but a food source. Wigeons don't wear that mask for nothing, they are bandits and are notorious for feeding on food other fowl have brought up from deep water. The reason I made what was actually a pair of western grebes is a pretty good story.
For years and years when my boys were just starting to hunt, wigeons were pretty common, but difficult to decoy without wigeon decoys in my stretch of the river. Once we starting using wigeon decoys so did everyone else and the idea of being different while being natural like Mark pointed out can make a huge difference. The first thing I tried was making a swan decoy and trailing up a half dozen wigeon decoys behind him as if they were picking through stuff the swan was digging up off the bottom. It worked pretty well, but was cumbersome to drag around, so we didn't always pack it. It's extremely rare that we hunt from a boat.
On one occasion, it must be 20 years ago by now, we were hunting our regular spot with lots of wigeons trading up and down the river corridor, but instead of landing with our decoys the wigeons would land and feed with a pair of western grebes on the opposite side of the river maybe 75 yards away. It was extremely frustrating. 5 days later I had a pair of western grebe decoys, kind of the luxury of being a decoy maker. That morning there was a pair of foam grebes on my side of the river and it was pretty much magic. It's the only decoys we had, so I was betting on it pretty heavily to work and it did.
I don't remember if anything else decoyed to the grebes, but we were targeting wigeons. The next few years we never saw any grebes and didn't use the decoys again. Someone bought them, but I don't remember who.
Put the decoys on the river yesterday. They swim good. Reinikeel in current.
I only used a lucky duck spinner a few years about 20 years ago other than on dry grain fields. Never had much use for one in water. We had good movement with the old river keel design, but the Reinikeel is a massive improvement to the design. The side to side doesn't rock the decoy like the river keel did and has a profile that will fit in the slotted bags better. The combination of flocking and movement has been deadly over the years, probably due to so few people using it. Look mom, no batteries. We have a couple pulsators that we've had out a couple of times and it has made absolutely no difference to divers or wigeon, there are next to no mallards where we hunt.
No pulsators needed when you have this kind of movement. The few that were around and saw them did it dirty. Some just a wee to close. Unfortunately, just not enough birds around this year to really put these through the tests I was hoping for. Long off season to improve even more, ill be back again next year.
Cody Foster
Member
Those move great! I get similar movement out of my corks with the river keel design.