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Yes I am New to the forum !!!! but my wifes' uncle has a cabin on Kankakee river and he's got tons of Wood Ducks out there, so the question is "who makes the most realistic woody decoys" And is it frowned upon to put mallards decoys out with them?

Call me a rookie, but everyone has to start somewhere.

First off Welcome to WFF.

Secondly if you're just getting started some cheaper wood Duck decoys would be fine so you can spend money on other things.

Flambeau Storm fronts are nice looking woodie decoys.

And mallard decoys will work for almost any puddle Duck, I've killed woodies over mallards many times. If you already have a good mallard spread you should be fine with those.

Welcome!!

In my experience, teal or mallard decoys work just as well (if not better) than wood duck decoys.

To me the critical part of a successful woodie shoot it to be EXACTLY where they want to be.
They really don't respond to calling or decoys that well.

Yup. Go out in the morning and just watch. See where they are going or tend to want to be. Then go hunt there the next morning. Better than any decoy or call you an buy. Just ask Duck Hammer.

Welcome to the forum.

As others have said, being exactly where they want to be is the most important thing on a woodie hunt. Sometimes I like to think that my success on a wood duck hunt is due to my decoys and their setup, but it's really ALL about being on the X.

NuffDaddy wrote:Yup. Go out in the morning and just watch. See where they are going or tend to want to be. Then go hunt there the next morning. Better than any decoy or call you an buy. Just ask Duck Hammer.

Truth, woodies really don't give a crap about decoys, or calls, in my experience. Saw some a few years ago that would land in the same exact spot every time I went no matter what I did. Unfortunately that spot was accessible to me.

Yep, you have to figure out the spot the woodys like, but once you find out what the woodys like they will be hard to keep away from you.

If you want realistic tho, I thoroughly believe you cannot get better than ghg pro grade wood duck decoys. Not the cheapest, not horribly expensive, but amazing looking.

DeadEye_Dan wrote:Welcome!!

In my experience, teal or mallard decoys work just as well (if not better) than wood duck decoys.

To me the critical part of a successful woodie shoot it to be EXACTLY where they want to be.
They really don't respond to calling or decoys that well.

Also check out the greenhorn forum for any "green" questions. Only helpful answers in there.

Goldfish wrote:If you want realistic tho, I thoroughly believe you cannot get better than ghg pro grade wood duck decoys. Not the cheapest, not horribly expensive, but amazing looking.

I agree with this. If using mallard and wood duck decoys together, set the woodies about 25 yards away from the mallards, near a woody spot, like a fallen tree. I've seen wood ducks buzz the woody decoys, while avoiding the mallards.

What part of the Kankakee are you near? And

no input, just

Higdon woody decoys, get the foam filled. Put em on jerk string. The combo of ripples on the water and a woody call done right is almost as deadly as corn.

Thanks for every ones input!!! Im out of Highland, Indiana and the cabin is about three miles east of RT 41. I have about a dozen and a half of the storm front mallards and a two butt up mallards, I just didn't know if woodies wood decoy to them, I did read that they don't really like to socialize with the mallards, but i also read that to fill a spread you could use them.


again Thanks everyone!!

Hunting where the birds want to be, anyway, is the surest way to make a good hunt for any species, but if you don't get your birds and get out quickly, you can shoot yourself in the foot by changing where they want to be and have to find a new "X". If access or other concerns preclude doing so, you may be a heck of a lot better off hunting birds trafficking between places they want to be.

When I hunted rivers, I shot a lot of woodies at the mouths tributaries they presumably used more than the bigger stream. Many just gave us a look on their way elsewhere, but it wasn't uncommon for them to pitch right in with my mallard and teal decoys. In fact, it was one such that taught me what I've found the most useful call for them. It swam from decoy to decoy whistling a long, drawn out "Sweeeeet," as if lonely and trying to find a friend. So that's how I started calling them on a (the Cali boys will love this) Wingsetter whistle. Later, I switched to a Duck Commander wood duck call that was more accurate, but it's more the cadence of the call than the tone that seems to matter, and these days I just "sweeeeeet" through a specklebelly call I'm carrying, anyway, with good result. I'm guessing most folks fall short when trying to sway woodies with a call by replicating their wavering "sweet, sweet, sweet" flight call, instead of something they do on the water.

As for decoys, I've never owned a wood duck decoy and have mostly hated those I've found myself hunting over. Their high profile and big heads makes them prone to pitch, roll and slalom in high winds, so if you buy some, I'd strongly recommend paying whatever extra for weighted keels or converting water keels to weighted keels yourself. Otherwise, they'll be counterproductive when it's windy. Might be, anyway.

DuckDude219 wrote:Thanks for every ones input!!! Im out of Highland, Indiana and the cabin is about three miles east of RT 41. I have about a dozen and a half of the storm front mallards and a two butt up mallards, I just didn't know if woodies wood decoy to them, I did read that they don't really like to socialize with the mallards, but i also read that to fill a spread you could use them.


again Thanks everyone!!

Just over the border from me. Watch for IndianaMallard to come around. He's in your area when not in school.

And again,

Welcome!

These are what I prefer to decoy to...



Kidding aside...
Where I am at for the first month of the season there isn't much other than woodies. We kill quite a few over mallard decoys, for the first two maybe three weeks we can almost count on a limit of woodies, but I wouldn't say that they necisarily come to the decoys. More that we are where they want to be. The decoys are for them to key in on and pick that particular part of the swamp or flooded timber. The key really truly is to be where they want to be, woodies get up in the morning and fly to a certain spot and is hard to convince them to deviate from that, IMO.

Set em up like FF said.
They'll light in your dekes at just before LST.
I'm in Illinois and will use just a couple or three wood duck decoys and they'll land right on them. Getting them to stick around til LST is your problem. Good luck.

Welcome.

Goldfish wrote:If you want realistic tho, I thoroughly believe you cannot get better than ghg pro grade wood duck decoys. Not the cheapest, not horribly expensive, but amazing looking.

I should maybe mention, in the wind these decoys aren't the greatest. The swivel head decoys like to "sleep" on their side, and in chop they kinda slap the waves, but if you keep them out of the waves and in the vegetation they are great