UV Decoy Paint

R

rfberan

Active member
I would appreciate any input those with experience with Bird Vision UV decoy paint or the theory behind it have to offer. I had a situation yesterday where I believe the decoys (full flocked) flared the ducks. I understand all the other reasons why ducks will flare so my concern is specifically with this issue.
Thanks for any thoughts.
 
Where I live ducks will get to where they flare off of live birds. It's not because you are not using UV paint or because you are using flocked decoys. To me these items are gimmics. It has to do with hunting pressure and conditioning. If you want to be successful you have to make your spread look different from every hunter in your area. Changing the numbers and/or species of your decoys often helps.
 
Lee, excellent point and good advice. We made at least a dozen or more changes in every aspect we had control over. I went from 4 doz to 1 dozen decoys. Most use 2 to 3 doz plastic decoys. I use fully flocked black ducks and or mallards. Went from three robos to none. Changed blind locations, decoy spread pattern, calling - no calling. Probably should have tried only 2-3 decoys. Thought area too large to not use any since they had been coming in to rest not get food.
Most ducks were gadwall and I didn't have any gadwall decoys if that would have made a difference. On the other side of the dike were several thousand birds on rough open water that the mallards and pintails were drawn to.
We had watched these birds drop into our marsh the day
before.
Your point that it may have just been the wary ducks which had been beaten up for 2 weeks seems well founded.
Thanks for your input as it really helps to keep my sanity.
 
Coots. Get some coots. Gadwalls love to steal food from coots plus they eat the same stuff..

Our main puddle ducks down here are gadwalls. After the 2nd or 3rd week of the season, you would think they were mallards or black ducts: Circle 20 times, flare for no reason then land out in open water 100's of yards from even live birds. My approach has been to hunt over 4 dzn coots, with just a dzn or so gadwalls and bluebills mixed in or on the edges.
 
2 or 3 decoys might have worked well. Don't worry about the size of the space and using only a few decoys. They will see them just fine if they are using the area. Also add some Gadwall decoys. Gadwalls can get pretty spooky to just Mallard spreads. A couple of Gadwalls can make a huge difference on decoying Gadwalls.
I agree with the coots as well. When I run a large spread I run a lot of black and they suck in all species.
 
Funny about the coots. I have 3 doz I bought last year to use when they begin to concentrate in one of our areas. They haven't appeared in any significant numbers yet. I have gadwall decoys also. Difficulty is we have 4000 acres of marsh with with 30 or so "areas" for members to hunt. Each area can be a different environment from the others and from week to week. I can only hunt weekends and maybe one afternoon through the week. With a draw system for the members it is hard to get a handle on the changes and to have access to the same area 2 or 3 times in succession. We have limited cargo capacity so hard to always make the right choice or get a second chance to correct it. This is just my 4th year as a member and as I learn more hopefully will be better making these decisions.
Great to have others' experience to increase my data bank. Thanks!
 
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