Hunting Ducks With Motion Decoys

Have you ever watched ducks in their natural environment just going about their day feeding, preening or just loafing?  If so, you probably noticed that ducks move and create a lot of ripples and motion on the water, and they don’t look like those big head statues on Easter Island.

When ducks feed, they are constantly tipping down to look for food or diving under the water searching for their next meal.  When ducks are courting, the drakes are constantly chasing hens and pulling feathers out of competing drakes.  The bottom line is, ducks are constantly moving.  Many decoy manufacturers produce decoys in a wide array of motion to add to your spread and rightfully so.

When I am talking about motion decoys, I am not talking about spinning wing decoys, I am talking about decoys that move about your spread, that create ripples or swim.

These motion decoys will finish ducks that the spinners will often only get close enough to shoot at.  Remember that “A” typical spread I talked about in a previous blog on-“Keepin it Real”?  That rig almost always includes 1 Spinner or Mojo type decoy and 0 motion decoys.

My favorite type of motion decoys are Wonder ducks and Higdon Crazy Kickers and Pulsators.  They come in a variety of species and different types of motion based on what type of birds you are hunting.

These motion decoys will set you apart from the masses and make your spread look much, much more realistic.  We will go over spinners in a later blog, but for now it is all about the water motion.

You will see the 3 types of decoys that I primarily use are the Wonder Duck Cyclone Feeder with a timer, Black Mallard Magic decoy and a Higdon Pulsator.

The Cyclone Feeder is a butt up decoy that has 2 counter rotating feet that will spin the decoy in a wobbly circle and splashes a tremendous amount of water.  I like the timer that is a 5 seconds on/off cycle that not only looks real but saves your batteries as well.  If you hunt shallow water, this decoy is a must that adds sight, sound and swimming motion to your spread that won’t flare birds like your spinners will when birds get close.

The Black Mallard Magic is a floating decoy that runs the left wing for 5 seconds, then the right wing for 5 seconds, then both wings forward for 5 seconds.  It looks amazing and adds a very realistic amount of water & swimming motion to your spread.   The decoy moves throughout your spread to the extent of the cord anchoring it to the bottom.  It is all over the place with right and left turns and is moving a lot of water and making splashing sounds, just like real ducks do.
The Higdon Pulsator is a Mallard butt up decoy that has a small tube that sprays water up the side of the decoy that causes it to rock back and forth on a timer.  This decoy moves a lot of water and keeps ripples in your spread constantly.

I have a saying “ducks ain’t looking for everything to be right, they are looking for one thing to be wrong”.  If you aren’t putting some type of motion in your decoy spread you are really hurting your chances of finishing birds and making your spread more appealing to the birds flying overhead.

You see in the picture from this season on Lake Wright Patman the exact 2 wonder duck decoys I spoke of, the cyclone and the black magic with a nice limit of mallards and gadwall.

Put some of these motion decoys in your spread and see if you don’t put more ducks on your strap this season.

http://www.higdondecoys.com/searchresults.asp?cat=1819

Go to www.Wonderduck.com to check out all of the other decoys they have and how you can customize your spread to match your local flyway.  They are an American made decoy and furthermore they are built right here in Marshall, Texas.

Shane Smith