Decoy question?????

[dogdoc]

I hunt a 3 acre pond. The mallards have arrived and when groups start working the pond early there are usually 6 to 10 birds per group. After the first 30 minutes I'm usually only working 2 to 3 birds per group.

I usually only put out around a dozen decoys but last week decided to put out a few more---ended up with 21 decoys in the water. The larger groups worked fine but it seemed the smaller groups didn't like the larger spread.

Question--if you were hunting a small body of water like that how many decoys would be in your spread?

thanks

todd

[mathews4life]

Re: Decoy question?????

Well a 3 acre pond isn't really that small of a body of water. We hunted in arkansas this weekend in your typical swamp pot holes which are no more then 200 yds long and 70-80 yds wide. We put out b/w 12-15 decoys and they worked out fine. Just make sure u place them in junction w/ the wind conditions. Ducks always land into the wind!!!(sometimes u get some crazy ones). Good luck man. I'll have pics in here soon w/ our success. It was amazing

[billkay]

Re: Decoy question?????

Maybe toss out 3 or 4 to start and gradually add to them if needed. Sometimes less is more. If the birds are regularly using the spot, they probably don't need much enticement and may be wary of the extra visitors already there.

[huntn4bucks]

Re: Decoy question?????

[ QUOTE ]

Sometimes less is more.

[/ QUOTE ]

I totally agree. We only had 6 decoys out yesterday and killed 2 limits. We had numerous birds land right in the decoys before we even knew they were there.