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OK. I have been searching for the answer to this situation....that's actually how I ended up here. Now, I have been hunting ducks for 20 plus years and in the early days we had peanuts, more recent years private property and this stuff was easy....not the case anymore. No more peanuts and no more private land or not as much. I find myself hunting more public spots and having to experience some things that quite frankly are new to me. For instance, went this morning, lots of bird.....big groups and singles. Birds were responding to the call, working, and then landing just out of gun range. They weren't flaring, they just seem to be freaking smart......ANY SUGGESTIONS????

trduckmafia wrote:OK. I have been searching for the answer to this situation....that's actually how I ended up here. Now, I have been hunting ducks for 20 plus years and in the early days we had peanuts, more recent years private property and this stuff was easy....not the case anymore. No more peanuts and no more private land or not as much. I find myself hunting more public spots and having to experience some things that quite frankly are new to me. For instance, went this morning, lots of bird.....big groups and singles. Birds were responding to the call, working, and then landing just out of gun range. They weren't flaring, they just seem to be freaking smart......ANY SUGGESTIONS????

hunt 20 yards from your decoys and the birds will be right on top of you.

Where you at, north Texas?

Flightstopper wrote:Where you at, north Texas?

Southern Oklahoma. Texoma area.

Woody wrote:

trduckmafia wrote:OK. I have been searching for the answer to this situation....that's actually how I ended up here. Now, I have been hunting ducks for 20 plus years and in the early days we had peanuts, more recent years private property and this stuff was easy....not the case anymore. No more peanuts and no more private land or not as much. I find myself hunting more public spots and having to experience some things that quite frankly are new to me. For instance, went this morning, lots of bird.....big groups and singles. Birds were responding to the call, working, and then landing just out of gun range. They weren't flaring, they just seem to be freaking smart......ANY SUGGESTIONS????

hunt 20 yards from your decoys and the birds will be right on top of you.

Maybe I need to explain better....I am hunting from the bank...big water. Wind at my back. 2 groups of decoys to the right and left....using about 3 dozen. The ducks are landing approx. 70 yards off the bank approx. 40 yds from the decoys. Does that paint a better picture? Maybe I am not following what your saying.

Sounds like they have been educated by other hunters, or something was not quite to their liking in your set up. Any movement in your spread? Did you try rearranging your decoy spread? Moving from private to public waters can be night and day when it comes to decoying birds.

Deltaman wrote:Sounds like they have been educated by other hunters, or something was not quite to their liking in your set up. Any movement in your spread? Did you try rearranging your decoy spread? Moving from private to public waters can be night and day when it comes to decoying birds.

Yea, I'm finding that out. I always thought this was easy. LOL. We had movement so I don't know if that was the problem? They are for sure educated the guides hammer this spot. One buddy told me to reduce the number of decoys down to maybe three to six.....don't know for sure may have to give that a try. I always lived by the bigger the water the bigger the spread. Frustrating!!!!

Welcome to the world of public land and stale birds. There is something they aren't quite liking. Make sure your decoys have movement and your hide doesn't. If you are using a spinner, pull it or put a remote on it and turn it off when you get the ducks attention. Use some geese decoys, crane decoys or whatever other birds you have around there. Will give the ducks a little confidence booster.
Sometimes it doesn't matter and they just won't come close to shore. That's where you have to get creative and figure out how to hunt them 100 yards off the shore.

NuffDaddy wrote:Welcome to the world of public land and stale birds. There is something they aren't quite liking. Make sure your decoys have movement and your hide doesn't. If you are using a spinner, pull it or put a remote on it and turn it off when you get the ducks attention. Use some geese decoys, crane decoys or whatever other birds you have around there. Will give the ducks a little confidence booster.
Sometimes it doesn't matter and they just won't come close to shore. That's where you have to get creative and figure out how to hunt them 100 yards off the shore.

Thanks, that's good advice. I don't use spinners much, never had much luck with em. I might use em early but once it gets this late I don't even get em out. I do use a jerk string a lot and shaker butts. I have been thinking about throwing in some goose decoys. No one uses them out there....might just make a difference. That brings up another question though...I never used the two together do you separate the two??

There is a good chance that it is nothing you are doing. On many of my areas, birds will not land with other live birds. They'll whistle and talk for a while before swimming together. Welcome to the world of pressured birds. My advice would be to either downsize your operations, or overwhelm them with every decoy you have, can't tell you which one will work better. If possible, set up with the wind going across from side to side, position yourself down wind away from the decoys, and HIDE!! HIDE well!

trduckmafia wrote:

Woody wrote:

trduckmafia wrote:OK. I have been searching for the answer to this situation....that's actually how I ended up here. Now, I have been hunting ducks for 20 plus years and in the early days we had peanuts, more recent years private property and this stuff was easy....not the case anymore. No more peanuts and no more private land or not as much. I find myself hunting more public spots and having to experience some things that quite frankly are new to me. For instance, went this morning, lots of bird.....big groups and singles. Birds were responding to the call, working, and then landing just out of gun range. They weren't flaring, they just seem to be freaking smart......ANY SUGGESTIONS????

hunt 20 yards from your decoys and the birds will be right on top of you.

Maybe I need to explain better....I am hunting from the bank...big water. Wind at my back. 2 groups of decoys to the right and left....using about 3 dozen. The ducks are landing approx. 70 yards off the bank approx. 40 yds from the decoys. Does that paint a better picture? Maybe I am not following what your saying.

Sounds like a good excuse to drop some cash on a layout boat.

trduckmafia wrote:

NuffDaddy wrote:Welcome to the world of public land and stale birds. There is something they aren't quite liking. Make sure your decoys have movement and your hide doesn't. If you are using a spinner, pull it or put a remote on it and turn it off when you get the ducks attention. Use some geese decoys, crane decoys or whatever other birds you have around there. Will give the ducks a little confidence booster.
Sometimes it doesn't matter and they just won't come close to shore. That's where you have to get creative and figure out how to hunt them 100 yards off the shore.

Thanks, that's good advice. I don't use spinners much, never had much luck with em. I might use em early but once it gets this late I don't even get em out. I do use a jerk string a lot and shaker butts. I have been thinking about throwing in some goose decoys. No one uses them out there....might just make a difference. That brings up another question though...I never used the two together do you separate the two??[/quote]

Reduce your spread, lose the Mojo, get their attention from a distance, once you do, speak (call) only when spoken to and mimic the sounds they make to you. It's been my observation that most the time geese will not land over ducks, so if you want a shot at geese, decoy placement is in important, ducks could care less, they will land over, behind or on top of geese.
This time of year you're really looking for singles and pairs coming in, big groups have too many eyes and opinions to commit.

trduckmafia wrote:

NuffDaddy wrote:Welcome to the world of public land and stale birds. There is something they aren't quite liking. Make sure your decoys have movement and your hide doesn't. If you are using a spinner, pull it or put a remote on it and turn it off when you get the ducks attention. Use some geese decoys, crane decoys or whatever other birds you have around there. Will give the ducks a little confidence booster.
Sometimes it doesn't matter and they just won't come close to shore. That's where you have to get creative and figure out how to hunt them 100 yards off the shore.

Thanks, that's good advice. I don't use spinners much, never had much luck with em. I might use em early but once it gets this late I don't even get em out. I do use a jerk string a lot and shaker butts. I have been thinking about throwing in some goose decoys. No one uses them out there....might just make a difference. That brings up another question though...I never used the two together do you separate the two??

Put 1 doz ducks close to shore on the down wind side 10-15 yards. Feeders and resters if you have them. No more than 20 feet out.

10-15 yards upwind put the other 2 dozen strung out from shore out to the open water about 30 yards.

Put the geese right out in front of you about 30 yards with a 5 yard gap between the end of the big group of mallards.

Put 1 active hen mallard half way between the geese and the first small group of mallards. Make sure she is on a jerk string.

If you have a mojo on a remote put it just on the upwind side of the big group half way between the shore and last mallards of the group. Turn it off soon as they show interest in the spread. If they loose interest, turn it back on until you get them again.

trduckmafia wrote:

Flightstopper wrote:Where you at, north Texas?

Southern Oklahoma. Texoma area.

From the peanut comment I figured you was close by, I'm in Whitesboro. Welcome to the forum.

Yea live in ardmore grew up in marietta. Grandpa raised peanuts at enville right in between hickory and wilson. Thanks.

The Duck Hammer wrote:

trduckmafia wrote:

Flightstopper wrote:Where you at, north Texas?

Southern Oklahoma. Texoma area.

From the peanut comment I figured you was close by, I'm in Whitesboro. Welcome to the forum.

That one post was meant for you. trying to figure this out on my phone.

NuffDaddy wrote:

trduckmafia wrote:

NuffDaddy wrote:Welcome to the world of public land and stale birds. There is something they aren't quite liking. Make sure your decoys have movement and your hide doesn't. If you are using a spinner, pull it or put a remote on it and turn it off when you get the ducks attention. Use some geese decoys, crane decoys or whatever other birds you have around there. Will give the ducks a little confidence booster.
Sometimes it doesn't matter and they just won't come close to shore. That's where you have to get creative and figure out how to hunt them 100 yards off the shore.

Thanks, that's good advice. I don't use spinners much, never had much luck with em. I might use em early but once it gets this late I don't even get em out. I do use a jerk string a lot and shaker butts. I have been thinking about throwing in some goose decoys. No one uses them out there....might just make a difference. That brings up another question though...I never used the two together do you separate the two??

Put 1 doz ducks close to shore on the down wind side 10-15 yards. Feeders and resters if you have them. No more than 20 feet out.

10-15 yards upwind put the other 2 dozen strung out from shore out to the open water about 30 yards.

Put the geese right out in front of you about 30 yards with a 5 yard gap between the end of the big group of mallards.

Put 1 active hen mallard half way between the geese and the first small group of mallards. Make sure she is on a jerk string.

If you have a mojo on a remote put it just on the upwind side of the big group half way between the shore and last mallards of the group. Turn it off soon as they show interest in the spread. If they loose interest, turn it back on until you get them again.

Thanks to everyone for the info. Good stuff!!!

Hunting public land being different is key. Play on the fact that no one throws out goose decoys. Bring about 16 to however many goose decoys you want. About 6 or 8 ducks. Set out your goose floaters in a U, C, V or groups, ect... However you want to. Then on one side (I usually do the upwind side) throw out a couple ducks and 4 or 5 on you jerk rig. It may work it might be a bust. But you don't know unless you try.

I started doing this mainly to conserve space in my boat. I always took 24 to 40 geese and 2 or 3 doz ducks. Not that I used them all the time but I brought them just in case. We'd have ducks work us and they wanted nothing to do with the duck decoys. On multiple hunts not just a one time thing. The ducks always wanted to be with the geese. So I stopped bringing the duck decoys and only had a couple 4-8 duck decoys with me.

trduckmafia wrote:Yea live in ardmore grew up in marietta. Grandpa raised peanuts at enville right in between hickory and wilson. Thanks.

I also figured you were close by, I'm in Mead next to Texoma and hunt the Hickory area a lot, when I actually get out.

RickC wrote:

trduckmafia wrote:Yea live in ardmore grew up in marietta. Grandpa raised peanuts at enville right in between hickory and wilson. Thanks.

I also figured you were close by, I'm in Mead next to Texoma and hunt the Hickory area a lot, when I actually get out.

That's cool man. I played ball at Southeastern so I've been through Mead a time or two. There are lots of birds at Hickory but they are stale!!! Glad another Okie is on here.