TOO Waterfowl Chronicles

[bowhunter1023]

Looking at a WSW wind at 9mph for opening day. It should be overcast, possibly rainy and low 40's. That wind direction will be right in our face, not what I built it for. But I'm hunting here regardless, so I need to figure out a decoy layout. My novice brain says set up decoys to the right and left of the blind running like this: \ /. Leaving the middle (and biggest part of this backwater) open for the kill hole.

We have access to at least a dozen ducks, 1-2 robo ducks, full body and floater geese, jerk rig, feeder buck decoy, and egret confidence decoy.

Please tell me if I'm barking up the wrong tree here, but I'll set the jerk rig out on the left side of the blind (as you look out of the blind) with 2 hens, a drake, and a feeder butt. The egret will go right in front of the blind. I'll run goose decoys to the left of the blind 50-75 yards to choke off the upper end of this. Then to the right of the blind, I'll drop 2-3 pairs of mallards.

I'll take all the advice I can get here.

 

[Kaiser878]

Are u expecting many geese ? Do the mojo ducks have remotes?

 

[bowhunter1023]

Are u expecting many geese ? Do the mojo ducks have remotes?

Geese are almost a guarantee and the mojos don't have remotes.

 

[epe]

We never really have good luck with mojos around geese. Morning hunt? Easy to take down the mojos?

 

[bowhunter1023]

Morning hunt, easy to get mojos. I wanted them up so birds over the river channel we may not see, can see the movement. But if its a bad idea, we can pull them. I expect this spot to be goose heavy until it gets cold. Once ducks start to migrate, this place should rock.

 

[jagermeister]

Morning hunt, easy to get mojos. I wanted them up so birds over the river channel we may not see, can see the movement. But if its a bad idea, we can pull them. I expect this spot to be goose heavy until it gets cold. Once ducks start to migrate, this place should rock.

Just based on the aerial photo and knowing absolutely nothing about the place, this is somewhat how I would approach it this weekend:

Couple more things:
1. Leave the egret at home. It's opening day... You don't need a confidence decoy.
2. If you expect to see more geese than ducks, leave the mojos at home too. Without remotes, you stand a pretty good chance of spooking approaching geese while you're rushing to shut them off. Plus, you'll still have a jerk rig out there that the ducks can key-in on.

 

[bowhunter1023]

I'm garnering that motion is not good for geese? Or just not in this area?

 

[bowhunter1023]

What is the thinking behind clustering the dekes in front of the blind?

 

[Carpn]

Geese generally don't like Mojos . Either run em on remote ,or don't run em with geese are a factor . In your situation I'd run em for the first half hr or hr for ducks then pull em before geese start flying .

 

[jagermeister]

I'm garnering that motion is not good for geese? Or just not in this area?

Although I've seen geese come into spinners a few times, more often than not they shy away from them. Motion is good... There's just something about spinners they don't like.

What is the thinking behind clustering the dekes in front of the blind?

You can kick them further upwind if you like. I don't know how much space is there by looking at the aerial photo. The exact placement in my drawing isn't really important... I was just trying to show that even with a less-than-ideal wind you can still create some sort of a pocket to land birds into. Birds land (usually) with the wind in their face, so you want the ENE side of your spread left open. Feel free to bunch the duck dekes toward the upwind side and create an inverted "J." You'll still have a nice pocket. I was just thinking you had limited cordage to run your jerk rig, so it'd have to stay out front... and it'd bring life to your other dekes if it was somewhat amongst them.

 

[bowhunter1023]

On another note I just got my slip aimed on a smoking hot goose field within 1/4 of the duck blind. If the blind sucks, we'll go set up for geese. The landowners are super nice. He started by saying I could only hunt if we killed them all! You know you're in good shape when that's the lead in!

 

[Beentown]

What is the ponds size?

 

[epe]

Just got my permission slip signed for my usual haunt. Key made for the gate lock. Gonna try and hammer some woodies

 

[bowhunter1023]

What is the ponds size?

An acre or less.

 

[Carpn]

Another option to, although I know you put a shitload of work into that blind , is ditch it and setup somewhere else in the hole where wind direction would be better and hide using natural cover . Although it looks like you'll have a crossing wind , if you show up and theres a decent wind in your face I'd think of setting up according to wind .

 

[Beentown]

So you can shoot half way across it. I am listening as well to see what others will say. My novice ass would do a "J" shape with a geese family group at the top of the short part of the "J".

 

[countryhunter50]

With the pond of that size I wouldn't worry about mojos. If they are coming there they are not going to matter.

 

[bowhunter1023]

Another option to, although I know you put a shitload of work into that blind , is ditch it and setup somewhere else in the hole where wind direction would be better and hide using natural cover . Although it looks like you'll have a crossing wind , if you show up and theres a decent wind in your face I'd think of setting up according to wind .

I'm not opposed to that idea, but access it tough anywhere else. I need to get on the John boat and check out the other side. If we can get there, there are two bigs maples overhanging the water where we could set up.

 

[Rutin]

Personally I would setup like Jim showed you.... BUT I would put the majority of the ducks further upwind making your hole right in front of the blind. Put a couple pairs in around the blind and the cluster further up cutting them off. The other thing to remember is that its not late season and there isn't a TON of birds around so I would put more than a dozen ducks and 6-8 geese out. Make it look as normal as possible.

 

[bowhunter1023]

It's early...