Got into Ducks Last Year, Tell a Story or Give Advice!

[WanderingWapiti]

I've been a serious duck hunter for many years and fill the freezer with mallards every year, but my type of duck hunting is very different from the norm. I don't own a single decoy or duck call. I jump shoot exclusively. I'd rather cover ground and get exercise than sit in a blind freezing my butt off. I know every piece of water in my area and how to approach without being seen by birds on the water. You'd be surprised what ducks will sit on. I regularly jump groups of mallards off 2 ft wide ditches and other tiny sloughs and eddies. The occasional pheasant I shoot between duck jumps is a bonus. A dog is definitely necessary. Half of my birds drop in thick brush and I'd never find them without his nose. Working the dog and seeing the retrieve are the best parts of the hunt. I'm partial to labs, but any retriever will do. Weather plays a huge role, the colder, the better. My best day of duck hunting ever, was -17 degrees F when I left the truck.

Wow, I wonder how common that is. Seems like for some areas it could be a decent way to hunt. I think I could pull it off and as I hunt small rivers that are wooded. I'll have to consider doing that a little more.

 

[Hasslehoff]

Wow, I wonder how common that is. Seems like for some areas it could be a decent way to hunt. I think I could pull it off and as I hunt small rivers that are wooded. I'll have to consider doing that a little more.

It take a lot of scouting and trial and error to make the jumps work.

 

[KurtR]

Watching birds maple leafing feet down in the decoys is the second best thing to watching dogs work. I go pheasant hunting if i want to shoot flushing birds. If you do jump shoot dont do it to the roost and mess up every one else hunt

 

[WanderingWapiti]

It take a lot of scouting and trial and error to make the jumps work.

Yeah the couple times I've tried, I failed. But I do think my poor shooting was mostly to blame, I think I was in range. I'll keep it in mind this fall!

 

[Hasslehoff]

Watching birds maple leafing feet down in the decoys is the second best thing to watching dogs work. I go pheasant hunting if i want to shoot flushing birds. If you do jump shoot dont do it to the roost and mess up every one else hunt

I've never seen decoy hunters in my area. If anything, I'd increase their chances by putting more birds in the air.

Decoy hunters often have a bad attitude towards jump shooters and I don't get it. I wouldn't get mad if I found some decoy hunters had set out a spread on one of my jumps.

 

[RockAndSage]

I've never seen decoy hunters in my area. If anything, I'd increase their chances by putting more birds in the air.

Decoy hunters often have a bad attitude towards jump shooters and I don't get it. I wouldn't get mad if I found some decoy hunters had set out a spread on one of my jumps.

It's kind of elitist, along with mixing up the difference between just water-swatting sitting ducks, vs jumping them. Due to the area I'm in, between geography and limited opportunity, my hunting is a mix of jump-shooting tiny bits of water in the sage, and calling them into decoys if conditions are right. But man, when the birds are flying and you've got a good spread out, it's really great hunting that way. Very different types of hunting, but I appreciate both.

 

[KurtR]

I've never seen decoy hunters in my area. If anything, I'd increase their chances by putting more birds in the air.

Decoy hunters often have a bad attitude towards jump shooters and I don't get it. I wouldn't get mad if I found some decoy hunters had set out a spread on one of my jumps.

Its because we have roost lakes out here where the ducks if left alone will stay till the water freezes and we can hunt alot of days vs just going and blowing them off the lake for one time shoot. You dont set decoys up on a roost either seems people from out of state do it alot because they dont care about the next day. Im not talking about jumping 10 ducks im talking about roosts with 20000 plus

 

[RockAndSage]

Its because we have roost lakes out here where the ducks if left alone will stay till the water freezes and we can hunt alot of days vs just going and blowing them off the lake for one time shoot. You dont set decoys up on a roost either seems people from out of state do it alot because they dont care about the next day. Im not talking about jumping 10 ducks im talking about roosts with 20000 plus

This is interesting - it partly might be genuine ignorance if they're coming from out of state. I'm not sure I've ever heard the term "roost lake" on the Pacific flyway, and where I am in NV, we're lucky to see 100 table ducks on a body of water on any given day. I can definitely understand how flushing off 20,000 birds out of the area would infuriate people.

 

[KurtR]

This is interesting - it partly might be genuine ignorance if they're coming from out of state. I'm not sure I've ever heard the term "roost lake" on the Pacific flyway, and where I am in NV, we're lucky to see 100 table ducks on a body of water on any given day. I can definitely understand how flushing off 20,000 birds out of the area would infuriate people.

No they understand any one who drives up and has a dedicated boat with a mud motor knows what roosts are.

Roosts are where the birds stay over night and rest . Loaf ponds are where they go mid day after going out feeding and those are the ones to hunt.

Start busting roosts and over pressuring them and they will go nocturnal or just leave all together and the farther south they get the more sensitive they get.

 

[RockAndSage]

No they understand any one who drives up and has a dedicated boat with a mud motor knows what roosts are.

Ah, you're describing the Greater North American @$$hole. Known pest in many types of hunting.

 

[Rich M]

Used to be a duck fanatic, with 3 babies under 4 years I am just big game hunting for a while, but my favorite is small water/ rivers. Love working a leery flock of green heads and getting them to commit, man it can be a science and an art form, setting the spread, hides, getting the perfect weather day, sometimes pre storm sometimes during sometimes post, got to the point where I was only shooting decoying drakes on public spots in Co and we would still limit 4-5 out of 20 hunts which I considered a W. Got real real busy during the Covid times, but man something about whistling wings on an absolute freezing morning right as the sun is creeping up, feels like my childhood, or like Christmas morning! Always a great time

Put a couple full bodied ducks or geese on that ice and just decoy better.

 

[Hnthrdr]

Put a couple full bodied ducks or geese on that ice and just decoy better.

They decoyed fine that day

 

[BucksNBulls]

There was this day. Right after I put the phone down the big hail and lightning started. I laid on top of the dog to keep the hail from hitting him.

 

[BucksNBulls]

We did shoot 4 limits that day though. This was the last one of the day. He was DONE. LOL

 

[spur60]

Wow, I wonder how common that is. Seems like for some areas it could be a decent way to hunt. I think I could pull it off and as I hunt small rivers that are wooded. I'll have to consider doing that a little more.

If your goal is to shoot birds with minimal investment, sneaking is the way. I own thousands of decoys but I still enjoy a good sneak. Whether it's quietly sneaking up through the grass to a slough edge to pop a couple wood ducks, or belly crawling a fence line to rip into 15,000 feeding snow geese.

 

[dtrkyman]

I only call and shoot decoying birds, have no issues with anyone else's style or techniques it is just the way I like to hunt!

Location is the first priority, after that hiding well is key!

 

[Jesse Jaymes]

I’ll vote AGAINST the dog. It’s a commitment. And it sounds as if you have many other irons in the Fire. You’re either kinda born a Dog Man or you’re not.

I go TO RUN THE DOG. I shoot to run the dog. If no dog…I don’t wanna go

Enjoy your Run and Gun freedom. A dog is a huge commitment. It’s something I won’t be without.

Lots of great advice. Spend $130 on a decent call. Don’t try to learn everything. Simple hen quack. Low and mellow. Just enough to turn some heads. Drake whistle maybe #1 killer. Get and learn one. 12 quality dekes is better than 40 schitty ones

 

[jimh406]

Go big or small. That is, a lot of decoys or 4-6.

 

[BlanchardSteve60]

Love this thread!

Some Advice - get some good wader socks- one of the best things to keep you warm and dry.

Also you cannot kill them on the couch- keep going and learning your area and trying new set ups/scouting

Kayaks and canoes are your friend to get into water where hopefully the ducks want to be and other hunters don't want to do the work to go- fall is the best time to buy

it's a great sport - find a buddy or two who can stay still- and try not to go crazy on the decoys in most places 6-24 good ones in a good place will get it done - I recently got married and I have now realized how much space of my stuff I dedicated to plastic and foam birds......

 

[VomSteinbruch]

I go TO RUN THE DOG. I shoot to run the dog. If no dog…I don’t wanna go

Same here.
The dogs is what got me interested in hunting. No one in my immediate or extended family hunted. It just happened so that me and my brother were into reading adventure books which led us to hunting magazines which led us to a hunting dog and eventually we became avid hunters.

I had to take off from hunting because where I ended up living after the college, but the desire to have a hunting dog and hunting never left.

For me working with dogs, take them on walks, doing drills with them is therapeutic and almost as important as hunting itself.