Best spread for $200?
 

You have $200 to put together a small decoy spread. What's your magic mix?

GHG "hot buy" decoys are pretty good for the price.

I would say depends on how many decoys you are trying to spread, The areas I hunt usually only need a dozen or two.

Where are you hunting?

2 litre coke bottles painted black. I have a friend that puts out about 150 along with mallard and pintail dekes. Guess where the mallards always try to land.

I have basically the same question. I have 2 dozen teal and a dozen mallard at home and between 4-6 dozen at the camp. I need to have enough for 3 marsh blinds. Two blinds are on big holes and the 3rd is a smaller puddle.

A dozen mallards, a dozen pintails, a dozen teal, half a dozen greys.

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this or coot decoys

It's just me but I try to match the hatch.
We have lots of coots and scaup with some greys and teal.
I like variety and I try to make the spread look like what they normally see.
Only 2 greenheads killed last year so I don't put out many of those.
I like to put a couple of mottled ducks as confidence decoys off to one side.
The white breasts of pintail drakes show up well so I put a few of those guys out front.
I found a couple of spoonbill decoys, I like the white breast on the drake even though I shoot spoonies only as a last resort. I like duck butts and headless feeders but I will pick those up if the wind is still and they seem to flare. A jerk string can be a magnet on calm days. That's everything that I know about decoys.

2 wonder duck tornado decoys and whatever still decoys you can buy with the money left over.:grinpimp:

Ditto. Match the birds you have in the area, not what you want. If you got a lot of spoonies, put out spoonies. If you don't have any mallards, don't put any, and so on.

check out flightcanceled.com I got some new decoys from them this year and they look pretty good for the price.

Mix in what you normally kill. We have lots of pintail and very few mallards so I load up on pintail. Picking up your decoys after every hunt will do more for your hunting than anything IMO

I agree that picking up decoys is the key......
If I am hunting a buddies blind that leaves them out........I reset them for wind when I get there.....

After 30 of so years of this......I just thing "big" bird "little" bird.....

I set species together.........
For the brakes we hunt I rarely use over a dozen decoys unless the big flights of greys are in.

For Venice........I use just mallard and teal

I Started picking up every weekend also. No sense in letting them sit there fading in the sun.

Thanks guys, hopefully be hunting around sweetlake and also maybe a little in Sabine. I know teal birds and a few greys and spoonies will definitely have to be in the mix! Do y'all have any preference about quality over quantity when it comes to brands of dekes?

You guys that pick up after every hunt, how many are you putting out? In my rice field we put out 12-15 dozen. That's just too many to pick up every day

x2^^^^^

Hunt flooded timber, only use about 2 dozen.

I usually pick up after the hunt and leave em in the blind, but like I said I don't put out but a couple dozen. I plan on texas rigging this year it just makes everything easier. plus I'm hunting in no deeper than 1.5ft of water. Its usually around a foot deep.

That is a lot of dekes.....

But I have seen decoys with slime growing on them they are left out so long.

I would be at least moving a couple dozen a day setting for wind

If you wanna kill ducks regularly in the rice fields it's what you gotta do.

We move em around some during the season for sure. I think we may pick em up for the split this year too

I have hunted over 300-400 decoys near rest areas w 100000+ ducks on them. Sometimes very large spreads are the ticket. We now hunt over 50-75 dekes and pickup everyday. I think it is more about being hid than decoys. We kill ducks in the woods with calls and no decoys every year. Gotta be flexible!!

Just buy as many as you can for 200

I think that it depends on where you hunt, small ponds with 2 dozen decoys definitely pick them up. We hunt from islands on a big pond and we use 6-8 dozen (2 dozen are coots) around each blind. We hunt at least every other day. That's just too much work to take those in and out every other day. I do pick them up during the split. There are many flocks in our area that have 15-20 or so ducks in them. Only 2 dozen decoys does not interest them much. I vote for quantity over quality but I don't allow sinkers or decoys that tip on their side to stay. I hunted specs over some stuffers once and they weren't as deadly as you would think. I also hunted with a guy who had 10 dozen spec decoys and they worked very good that day. Experiment a little and see what works in your area. I'm not Louie Armstrong on a duck call so I just try to get their attention and let the decoys do their job. My buddy shoots at every duck that comes in range, I like to let them circle and hopefully come in to light then get two or sometimes three. We usually hunt from separate blinds. He is done by 8:00, I like to stay until 11:30 or 12:00. There's usually a good pintail and greyduck flight around 9-10.

I'll be hunting small holes wherever I end up hunting most this year, so about two dozen than I can set easily on my own will be ideal I think. Kind of a "traveling" setup. Probably get a dozen teal and half dozen mallard and pintail or greys i'm thinking.