Duck season is already underway in most of the country and you can bet you will have plenty of company out on the water. Waterfowlers that don’t have access to private land will drive or fly hundreds of miles to pursue waterfowl. Public duck hunting can be a very hectic and stressful time for a lot of hunters. How you deal with the hunting pressure, crowded ramps, sky busters and everything else will dictate whether your duck strap is full or not. I will try and go over 7 tips to make your trip to public land as good as it can be.
- It sounds rather simplistic doesn’t it? But scouting is the most important thing you can do prior to actually hunting. Don’t go out in the middle of the day and try to find your birds. You will soon realize there are 20 other people at the ramp who are already hunting or have already jumped the ducks and walked to most of the sloughs you want to hunt. Try to scout a few days during the middle of the week during prime flight times if at all possible.
- Get there early. What is early you ask? It may vary from place to place. At the local public lakes I hunt such as Lake Wright Patman, Millwood and Lake O
’ the Pines…many people will be camping on their holes when the sun goes down the evening before. If that is not your thing, so be it. If you think you need to be at your claim by 4 AM, you should try to be there by 2AM, IF you are serious about getting that EXACT spot. - Run a HUGE spread. Look at it from a ducks point of view. They will be able to see 20 decoy spreads that will be very similar in size and shape. Make yours standout from the rest by running as many as your boat can safely haul. If most people are using 2-3 dozen blocks….try to double that to 5-6 dozen. I know it sounds kind of harsh, but with today’s Texas rigged decoys you can pick up 60-80 decoys in minutes.
- Motion & more Motion. Early season ducks love water motion. I prefer motion decoys like a Higdon Pulsator pro or a Mojo Mallard Machine. All of these decoys simulate actively feeding birds on the water and are constantly providing movement in your spread. If you don’t own any type of motorized motion decoy, then a jerk string will do just fine. I would wager a jerk string has killed more ducks than just about any other motion system out there.
As far as spinners go I love the new Avian X Power Flight spinning wing decoy. https://www.avian-x.com/powerflight-smart-motion-mallard-spinning-wing-duck-decoy/
It can be remote controlled, run intermittent and has an ultra light Lithium ion battery. I will opt for at least 2 spinners in my larger spreads. As I feel ,most other public hunters are running 1.
- Get Hid. Too many people want to hide on public ground like they did for dove season. Don’t be that guy that is standing out in front of the bushes pie facing the ducks and wonder why the birds won’t finish. Get some cover in front of you and behind you. You want to break up the human outline and try to keep your movements to a minimum while birds are working. When you go out to retrieve a bird or get the boat, look back at your hide and see how things look. Remember, birds aren’t looking for everything to be right….they are looking for ONE thing to be wrong. Tuck in and brush up and you will find yourself with a much heavier strap at the end of the day.
- Kill um softly with your calls. On most public bodies of water, try and keep your calling to a minimum. I have found that loud, aggressive cadences are usually not for crowded duck marshes. Instead I opt for a lot of feed chuckling, contented quacks and lonesome hen calls. How many times have you just been sitting there and hear a greenhead land in the dekes with no calling at all? Keep that in mind.
- Leave your feelings ay home. There will no doubt be other people out there that may call at every duck, coot, woodpecker or grebe that they see. They may shoot at everything this side of the river and they may set up a bit close for your liking. Try not to get in your feelings and let these things bother you. Don’t let other hunters steal your cool and ruin your day afield. If need be, pick up and move or come back later. Remember that it is public and not all hunters play by the same set of rules in the ethical hunters’ playbook.
Well, I hope these 7 tips help you kill more birds this year on public land.
Shane Smith