• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

2023-2024 Waterfowl Thread

Nutterbuster

Nutterbuster

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2017
Messages
10,066
Location
Where the skys are so blue!
@redsquirrel, I know you've been doing some duck scouting this year.

Kicking this thread off with an article I just finished on wood ducks. It boils over a decade of wood duck hunting experience down to a few pages. I've wanted to write this one for a while.

greatdaysoutdoors.com

Wood Duck Hunting - The Complete Guide | Great Days Outdoors

If you’re new to wood duck hunting, this article will help you cut your teeth on the Deep South’s most abundant fowl. If you’re an old hand, you still...
greatdaysoutdoors.com greatdaysoutdoors.com

Also, going floating on a river to try and jump shoot geese on some shoals tomorrow. Hoping to have pics by Sunday. Wish me luck!
 
Spotted a couple large wads of geese and a few green heads here and there on my drive through Arkansas this morning. Got me fired up
 
We have been doing some Phuck hunting, Hunt passing ducks on the river at first light then hunt pheasants in the corn fields along the river after. So far the only ducks have been woodies. 2.5 year Phin (green color) is a funny dog. He refused to look at the birds or the camera on that one day no matter how hard I tried to get him to look or turn his head. I had not zapped, grouched at him or reprimanded him before the picture either. The only thing I could think of is that the 9yr old Remy grabbed the cock pheasant from him during the retrieve not long before the picture and I think he was still pissed at her. You can see in the other picture he is all smiles for the camera and that is his normal reaction with or without other dogs in the picture.
20231015_093645.jpg

20231021_085559.jpg
 
NuttaBrutha, this is how I put motion in the decoys……

60d6e677a23b6d5e2489899cebebfede.jpg



Find the biggest one you can, tie a loop of paracord to the end, run a jerk cord from a decoy, through the loop and back to you. When you need motion pull on it enough to get the decoy under water then immediately let the slack out so the decoy pops back up. Tons of motion. If you’re hunting a spot that has a lot
of grass and you don’t bring decoys thinking the ducks won’t see them anyway this setup shines. They’ll see the water and think some scoundrels have already beat them to the hole.
 
dalton916 said:
NuttaBrutha, this is how I put motion in the decoys……

60d6e677a23b6d5e2489899cebebfede.jpg



Find the biggest one you can, tie a loop of paracord to the end, run a jerk cord from a decoy, through the loop and back to you. When you need motion pull on it enough to get the decoy under water then immediately let the slack out so the decoy pops back up. Tons of motion. If you’re hunting a spot that has a lot
of grass and you don’t bring decoys thinking the ducks won’t see them anyway this setup shines. They’ll see the water and think some scoundrels have already beat them to the hole.
Click to expand...
Yup, I have a rig built just for this but with a short section of marine grade shock cord.
 
dalton916 said:
NuttaBrutha, this is how I put motion in the decoys……

60d6e677a23b6d5e2489899cebebfede.jpg



Find the biggest one you can, tie a loop of paracord to the end, run a jerk cord from a decoy, through the loop and back to you. When you need motion pull on it enough to get the decoy under water then immediately let the slack out so the decoy pops back up. Tons of motion. If you’re hunting a spot that has a lot
of grass and you don’t bring decoys thinking the ducks won’t see them anyway this setup shines. They’ll see the water and think some scoundrels have already beat them to the hole.
Click to expand...
Them window weights will dual purpose in summer time too for holding down your trotlines.
 
Nutterbuster said:
View attachment 95627

Spent the morning spanking wood...ies.
Click to expand...
Can you feel my burning jealousy through the interwebs?...
I've been wondering: Are there any finer tips or pointers for someone who's new to wood duck hunting that you'd add to beyond what your article covered? Anything that got cut or seemed a little too advanced/nuanced for the piece you wrote?

Edit: I can't help but chuckle that my 1,000th post on SaddleHunter is on a duck hunting thread that involves neither deer nor saddles...
 
Working on my duck hunting skills and making progress.

Early week
683942342de6f2e8702f2adffabd2c53.jpg


Opening day of the regular season
0e366bad90d8c9936490d930444c8240.jpg


I got pretty good at wood ducks but they've mostly moved on. Next up mallards. I probably should have had one on Wednesday but I think I got spotted. Lesson learned.
 
dalton916 said:
NuttaBrutha, this is how I put motion in the decoys……

60d6e677a23b6d5e2489899cebebfede.jpg



Find the biggest one you can, tie a loop of paracord to the end, run a jerk cord from a decoy, through the loop and back to you. When you need motion pull on it enough to get the decoy under water then immediately let the slack out so the decoy pops back up. Tons of motion. If you’re hunting a spot that has a lot
of grass and you don’t bring decoys thinking the ducks won’t see them anyway this setup shines. They’ll see the water and think some scoundrels have already beat them to the hole.
Click to expand...
Just to make sure I understand, you are using the weight to basically pull the decoy under and then drop it back to the bottom so the decoy pops up, right?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top