What's y'alls take on rag spreads?

[southLA]

Originally Posted by C-Bass2mouth

My questions are:


1) What days (weather wise) would be my best bet on putting out a rag spread. I know wind is key for rag movement, but what about foggy, clear, or cloudy days? And should you avoid putting them out with little to no wind even if the rags have spines to keep them full?

2) What's the minimum amount of rags you'd be comfortable with along with say 4 doz FB snows mixed in.

3) What's the best placement for the FB snow dekes amongst the rags. I'm not trying to land 100 snows in the dekes lol. Or should I try and use the rags as fillers, and try to use the FBs to hide the rags?

4) Should I separate the FB specks from the rags and how far?

5) How far from the levee (with brush, not bare) should the rags start?

I hunt primarily specks, primarily out of large spreads. I used windsocks with back bones, although i do have a few hundred "rags". I have found rag spreads to work much better in stubble vs bean/plowed fields.

1. Don't put out rag spreads if there's no wind. Period. The birds will hit a wall at 75 yards everytime. Sunny/cloudy doesn't seem to have a difference.
Winds over 25mph or so are also disadvantageous.

2. I hunt with a minimum of 200 windsocks. I can hunt 2 people in that size spread. Add 200 windsocks for every extra hunter.

3/4 Fullbodies on the bottom end of the spread, 20 yards or so downwind of you. You don't have to separate. But the downwind side of my spreads are very loosely set anyways so they become separated be default.

5. I hunt mostly laydown blinds. Bottom edge of the spread. However, if i hunt from a levee, i put about 75% of the decoys in the cut upwind of me, and 25% in the cut downwind. Set the ones downwind very spaciously, create a large landing zone. You don't have to set them very far from the levee. Sometimes I'll even put decoys on top of hte levee where the grass is short enough.

[C-Bass2mouth]

Originally Posted by southLA

I hunt primarily specks, primarily out of large spreads. I used windsocks with back bones, although i do have a few hundred "rags". I have found rag spreads to work much better in stubble vs bean/plowed fields.

1. Don't put out rag spreads if there's no wind. Period. The birds will hit a wall at 75 yards everytime. Sunny/cloudy doesn't seem to have a difference.
Winds over 25mph or so are also disadvantageous.

2. I hunt with a minimum of 200 windsocks. I can hunt 2 people in that size spread. Add 200 windsocks for every extra hunter.

3/4 Fullbodies on the bottom end of the spread, 20 yards or so downwind of you. You don't have to separate. But the downwind side of my spreads are very loosely set anyways so they become separated be default.

5. I hunt mostly laydown blinds. Bottom edge of the spread. However, if i hunt from a levee, i put about 75% of the decoys in the cut upwind of me, and 25% in the cut downwind. Set the ones downwind very spaciously, create a large landing zone. You don't have to set them very far from the levee. Sometimes I'll even put decoys on top of hte levee where the grass is short enough.

We'll be in a plowed field...