Fri May 22, 2015 7:26 am
See, but you need an "early spread" so you can get more in a bag. Decoys are a numbers game. 1 doz mallard vs 2 doz teal.
For early season I highly recommend an "Alt J" spread, so it looks like two "Js" back-to-back making a double hook with two landing pockets.
It plays the wind variability often associated with late summer/early fall weather, particularly on shallower bodies of water.
One time, back '88, me and Darnell Thornton (he was a 2nd cousin to Nash Buckingham), used this very patter down on the Olopatagatchee Flats hunting out of the The Bill Collector's place. Back then, there wasn't much for modern conveniences such as roads and cell phones, so we had to walk and "hump" in.
Anyway, this piece of property commonly had more teal early season than any other in the flyway. A combination of duck potato, celery, and some umbrella nut made a virtual duck gumbo. The trick though, because it was such an expanse, was to get those birds within 70 yards. Now remember, this was the tail end of the lead days, and for those that don't know what lead could do... whooooeeee! You never seen ducks drop from the sky. It was like they heard the *bang!* and just give up trying.
Anyway, this expanse was known for for heating up quick on the water and slow against the shore. The tules out in the middle were too thing and short for any sort of blind, so we hunted from shore. But that heating/cooling cycle would cause sort of a multiple vortexesicies with the wind, blowing from the left sometimes, from the right other times, then as the sun rose higher, the rising air in the middle would pull the cool air from the shade, making a perfect wind for the ducks to come into~ 'specially when the got that hunger for the umbrella nut.
Now, if you've ever seen a duck in umbrella nut you know it's like busting down the doors of an opium den... they just don't move much, so as to when they set in for umbrella nut you can walk right up on them. What we'd do is get that first batch to land and get to feeding, then after a bit take careful aim and take one shot per flock so we wouldn't spook all those birds feeding in our decoys. They'd just look up, see there buddy wasn't looking so good, and go back to feeding.
We'd wait until we got 3/4 of our limit, then lay down a couple salvos across the marsh to rake the last of our limit, pick-up and be gone. All in, 'bout a half-hour.
And I'm pretty sure it's all because of the "Alt J" decoy pattern and using lots of small decoys.
