Truly a rookie looking for pointers and tips on waterfowling
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Truly a rookie looking for pointers and tips on waterfowling
Hello so this season coming up is going to be truly my rookie year at waterfowl hunting. So I'm looking for any good pointers/tips... Anything from when to call how often to call how to set my decoys up what decoys to put out how many decoys to put out... What kind of ducks like to hangout with each other... Any help would be a great help. I've hunted with friends but they did all the calling and set the decoys out and what not I was just there to shot at the ducks and try to help kill some ducks. I'm truly a good guy not looking for people's honey holes and anything like that. I serve in our great military I've been in sense 08. I was introduced to this great hunt by a buddy a couple years ago but he transferred and now I'm on my own.
Rack em and stack em boy's
Re: Truly a rookie looking for pointers and tips on waterfow
Ok, I'll start......
1) Find an area that has more birds than hunters.......crowds teach folks bad habits and make folks behave badly at times.
(next tip........)
1) Find an area that has more birds than hunters.......crowds teach folks bad habits and make folks behave badly at times.
(next tip........)
"I'd like to be remembered among my closest waterfowling friends (if I am remembered at all) for how I hunted them - not how many I killed" - [Jay Strangis]
- champcaller
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Re: Truly a rookie looking for pointers and tips on waterfow
What you are doing now is the best way to learn the sport of waterfowling. Each time you get a chance to go with a more experienced hunter, jump on it and pay attention to what they are doing and when they are doing it. I've learned a lot by sitting back, watching, and taking in everything I could.
You can read all the forums and magazines you want and there is a lot of good information out there (including this site), but the best and only way to get better and see results is to go every chance you can. That might mean going into unchartered by yourself, but if you train yourself to learn each time you go and enjoy each hunt for what it's worth, then you will become a successful waterfowler.
Good luck and thank you for your service to our country.
You can read all the forums and magazines you want and there is a lot of good information out there (including this site), but the best and only way to get better and see results is to go every chance you can. That might mean going into unchartered by yourself, but if you train yourself to learn each time you go and enjoy each hunt for what it's worth, then you will become a successful waterfowler.
Good luck and thank you for your service to our country.
- Blake Williamson
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Re: Truly a rookie looking for pointers and tips on waterfow
Setup with the wind to your back.
Marsh Mutt Pro-Staff


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Re: Truly a rookie looking for pointers and tips on waterfow
There are several wma's. get on the Internet and search for public hunting land in your area. It may take some homework but you should be able to find something. Use key search words such as duck hunting. Get a map of an area from a check point (permit station set up by mdwfp). And get a full tank of gas and just ride the area and look and listen for waterfowl. Look through old post on this website and other web sites to find clues in people's post to there where abouts. If you have the luck of seeing a game warden stop and ask him questions. You'll have to go above and beyond what the average hunter does to get those hidden spots no one is willing to work to get to. Just remember the X factor!!
Re: Truly a rookie looking for pointers and tips on waterfow
Scout...ALOT. Before, during, and after season.
Pattern your gun. Know where your thickest part of pattern goes.
You can find diving dux and puddle dux in the same areas...learn to ID birds on the fly....comes with experience
Learn a simple quack...build from there.
Dux don't land on levees...if you aint wet, your doing something wrong
Scout...ALOT. Before during and after season
On occasion I will try to line up a forum member hunt at an unnamed WMA...holla when it gets cold...where abouts do you live
Pattern your gun. Know where your thickest part of pattern goes.
You can find diving dux and puddle dux in the same areas...learn to ID birds on the fly....comes with experience
Learn a simple quack...build from there.
Dux don't land on levees...if you aint wet, your doing something wrong
Scout...ALOT. Before during and after season
On occasion I will try to line up a forum member hunt at an unnamed WMA...holla when it gets cold...where abouts do you live
" You get what you put in, and people get what they deserve" Hank Jr. and Kid Rock
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Re: Truly a rookie looking for pointers and tips on waterfow
Thank you everyone for your input so far... I live in picayune. So what I've got some people is scout scout and scout... What are some thing I should look for to show that there are ducks coming in... What is the "X" factor? So have the wind to your back because ducks want to land with the wind in there face? I've reed a bunch on different ways to set up your decoys? How much does that matter? And any ideas of ways to set them up. And I'm not trying to invite myself with anyone but now that my hunter I was learning from is gone I'm on my own so if there is anyone out there that is willing to bring a rookie along I would be more then willing to help with gas and what ever else I could help with...
Rack em and stack em boy's
Re: Truly a rookie looking for pointers and tips on waterfow
Hahahaha...I like you man, NO homo
Your gona have ta drive a coupla hours to get to the real deal brotha. You not dead stick. Could probably kick up a wood duck shoot with sum scouting. No dux yet.
Here are some things to consider. Will u be walking in, hunting from a boat, utilizing a 4 wheeler?
I walk in a lot...a long ways. I like to have a dozen inflatable decoys in my backpack and don't weight all of em. I push my crap with a deer cart. I drape my waders over my shoulders for a death march. When I hunt from the boat I can use weighted keels by the dozens. Mimic your flocks...if ya see birds flying in groups of less than a dozen, use less than a dozen dekes. Early I tend to use 6 or less...sometimes just 2. Later the birds group up...break out a bigger spread.
There aint enough page for all the stuff we aint hit on...be sure the plug is in the boat...NEVER crap upwind from the blind...remember the bullets...by a federal and a state stamp...don't forget HIPA. Plug your gun...don't use corn....change your out of state plates...lock your truck, with your keys in your pockets. Bring an extra pair of sox...MAN, it NEVER ENDS

In the mean time...hang out, chillax...WELCOME aboard

Your gona have ta drive a coupla hours to get to the real deal brotha. You not dead stick. Could probably kick up a wood duck shoot with sum scouting. No dux yet.
Here are some things to consider. Will u be walking in, hunting from a boat, utilizing a 4 wheeler?
I walk in a lot...a long ways. I like to have a dozen inflatable decoys in my backpack and don't weight all of em. I push my crap with a deer cart. I drape my waders over my shoulders for a death march. When I hunt from the boat I can use weighted keels by the dozens. Mimic your flocks...if ya see birds flying in groups of less than a dozen, use less than a dozen dekes. Early I tend to use 6 or less...sometimes just 2. Later the birds group up...break out a bigger spread.
There aint enough page for all the stuff we aint hit on...be sure the plug is in the boat...NEVER crap upwind from the blind...remember the bullets...by a federal and a state stamp...don't forget HIPA. Plug your gun...don't use corn....change your out of state plates...lock your truck, with your keys in your pockets. Bring an extra pair of sox...MAN, it NEVER ENDS




In the mean time...hang out, chillax...WELCOME aboard

" You get what you put in, and people get what they deserve" Hank Jr. and Kid Rock
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Re: Truly a rookie looking for pointers and tips on waterfow
For my wood ducks I walk in because I hunt them on private property.... But the rest of my hunting will be from my boat with my dog...
Rack em and stack em boy's
Re: Truly a rookie looking for pointers and tips on waterfow
Yes, they wil land into the wind if there is any to speak of. Best scenario is wind at your back or quartering over your shoulder and the sun at your back. You're practically invisible on the final approach. Next best is a crossing approach (I prefer the wind from left to right cause i shoot better that way) and the sun at your back. Worst is wind and sun in your face, but sometimes that's all you've got. You can kill them that way. I don't recommend it.Down South Gratton wrote:Thank you everyone for your input so far... I live in picayune. So what I've got some people is scout scout and scout... What are some thing I should look for to show that there are ducks coming in... What is the "X" factor? So have the wind to your back because ducks want to land with the wind in there face? I've reed a bunch on different ways to set up your decoys? How much does that matter? And any ideas of ways to set them up. And I'm not trying to invite myself with anyone but now that my hunter I was learning from is gone I'm on my own so if there is anyone out there that is willing to bring a rookie along I would be more then willing to help with gas and what ever else I could help with...
Movement in the decoys matters more than how you set them. Get yourself a jerk string and learn to use it!
The X factor is location, location, location. Find the "X" - where they WANT to land - and you can just about do whatever you want in terms of decoys and calling. Sometimes 100 yards makes all the difference. If they're landing in a spot, you need to be there or you're fighting a losing battle. If you watch several groups do something, don't expect the next group to do anything different - adjust. As a wise man said, "There's only two places to kill a duck - where he wants to be and some where he doesn't mind going."
If you have a decent boat and motor, you've got a good opportunity right in your backyard. Be careful with the dog that far south, though. The gators can be hard-mouthed on a lab.
SHR Up2Early's Delta Dawn
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Re: Truly a rookie looking for pointers and tips on waterfow
Don't forget to strap your boat & decoys down real good and double check that strap down job 

Re: Truly a rookie looking for pointers and tips on waterfow
Good question. I'm almost 60 so I can't relate.Down South Gratton wrote: What is the "X" factor?
I think it's like everything else these days......a new term for changing perceptions.......just another generation's interpretation of what you're supposed to get outa duck hunting, I guess. 'Gotta have something different than the older guys.....so you can reach the self-actualization phase of Maslow's Hiearchy of Needs, quicker than they did.

"I'd like to be remembered among my closest waterfowling friends (if I am remembered at all) for how I hunted them - not how many I killed" - [Jay Strangis]
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Re: Truly a rookie looking for pointers and tips on waterfow
O yea the boat is good and tight on the trailer... Lol
Rack em and stack em boy's
Re: Truly a rookie looking for pointers and tips on waterfow
Don't laugh. It happens. BUT, in the event your boat disappears off the trailer please let us know right away so we can be on the lookout. Don't wait till months after the fact. There's very little that can be done at that point.Down South Gratton wrote:O yea the boat is good and tight on the trailer... Lol

"Well we don't rent pigs and I figure it's better to say it right out front because a man that does like to rent pigs is... he's hard to stop" -Augustus McRae
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