BY PATRICK T. STINSON
This October 4 marks the
forty-eighth fall yours truly hunts ducks, and I am still learning. The first time in a blind was 1960 just five years after they started breeding population estimates. Fifty-three years later the U.S. Fish & Wildlife seem to have a good bead on what we should expect to see season to season. This year total duck numbers are down nine percent from 41 million to 37 million but greater than the 1955-2007
average. Here in Montana, we had 555,000 breeding ducks a 42 percent
decline from last year and 39 percent
below the long-term average, not good news for the Ducks or hunters.
Here is the good news; there are plenty of ducks to hunt. We are down here in Montana but these are not the only ducks we hunt or see in a three-month
season. Mallard numbers are still high at 7.7 million; Redheads and Green Winged Teal number are up double digits. John Hanson with Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks here in Billings and a Waterfowl guru told me we will not see as many young ducks this season and what we do see will probably be tougher to decoy. Armed with that information, we are changing our approach this season not dramatically but we are implementing a few important changes.
The bigger Decoys 18 to 20 inches are first out of the bag from day one. John Mullet from Final Approach sent me a half dozen of the new Gunners HD Widgeons and six Gunners HD Field Mallards. I understood the Mallards but the Widgeons, I was not sure why?
After a quick Google search on Widgeons, I figured out why John sent them with no explanation. Nicknamed Baldpate, they are restless and quick to sense danger, taking flight instantly, added with your other deeks the Widgeon are confidence builders. The HD
Gunner Mallards oversized are shore decoys postured as feeders, walkers, snuggle hen, and runners and are complete with motion bases. We add a Blue Heron decoy for another confidence builder early season. The Great Blue is most active at dawn and dusk and hunts alone, when temperatures head south so do they, you need to heed the weather and put them back in the bag as the weather changes. This is the first season for us with
motion shore huggers and the Baldpate we are anxious to see how both improve our hunting. We will keep you posted.
TIP: When you pull your Decoys out of storage and they look like mine, you need to clean, give them a crisp look. Cleaning one at a time is time consuming and unnecessary. First, cut off all weights and line and put the Decoys in the dishwasher. Depending on the size, I can put in a half a dozen, with oversized three or four is max. Set the washer on short cycle with a small amount of dishwashing soap. Additionally you will find Decoys with leaks, if you can patch, great, if not, use on shore.
TIP: If you bought Decoys with removable keels, you had problems we all did. It was a great idea that bluntly put did not work. I had keels break and Decoys leak, patching never seems to work. I am taking the ones that are still good and use them as shore Decoys. With the money, it takes to buy quality deeks you need to figure out a way to utilize all that you own and sprinkling the shore with these, keeps them in your inventory.
TIP: Do not leave your Decoys out overnight. We hunt both private and public property and always pick up our deeks. The temptation on private water, leave them so you do not have to set up in the morning. If you have ducks in the area, they will figure your spread out and not decoy. If you put out every hunt they are seeing ducks on water were none were before, remember ducks land into the wind.
