Ducks Unlimited: You can’t blame late-season ducks and geese for being skittish. By this time of year they’ve seen lots of decoys, heard plenty of calling, and experienced a great deal of gunfire up and down the flyways. Naturally, the birds have grown extra cautious about which enticements they respond to and where they land.
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In return, hunters must adjust their tactics accordingly if they want to stay in the game. Simply tossing out a few weathered decoys in a haphazard pattern will not bring in the birds. But building a realistic-looking spread and setting it in the right location can work wonders. Here are five decoy spreads that will help you bag more waterfowl during the waning days of the season.
Expert #1 Spencer Holzfaster’s
Gravel Bar Spread
In bitter-cold conditions, ducks and geese often feed in dry fields in the morning and rest on creeks or small rivers at midday. Spencer Holzfaster, an avid waterfowler who hunts on the north and south forks of the Platte River in western Nebraska, enjoys good duck and goose hunting action by setting up on gravel bars and sandbars.
“We hunt from a permanent blind at the edge of the river, which is knee-deep and around 20 yards wide,” Holzfaster says. “A gravel bar extends several yards from our blind out into the moving water. At this time of year, we shoot a mixed bag of ducks and geese over a spread of mostly Canada goose decoys on the gravel bar and a few duck and goose floaters just off the bank in the water.”
The spread deployed by Holzfaster and his hunting partners consists of more than 10 dozen Canada goose decoys and up to three dozen duck decoys positioned to simulate resting birds. For the sake of realism, all of the Canada goose decoys are fully flocked.
“We start by setting a big group of Canada goose sleeper shells on the upriver point of the gravel bar,” Holzfaster says. “We place them six inches apart and string them down the bar. The idea is to make them look like geese that are sleeping and trying to stay warm.”
Next the hunters scatter full-body goose decoys throughout the spread—a sentinel here, a couple of resters there. “This adds realism. In an actual flock, there are always a few geese standing up and looking around when most of the birds are sleeping,” Holzfaster says. Continue reading – http://www.ducks.org/hunting/decoys/five-spreads-for-lateseason-waterfowl/