Decoys$$$$

[Dutchman]

Being new to this waterfowl stuff,How many dekes should I have for mallards and woodies on open water? And how many for geese in the field.I have 3 dozen for geese, but do I need more to draw them away from other spreads?Also any plans on a camo contraption I can make to put on my boat to make it a floating Island?

[RealDcoy]

Well I can't tell ya anything about the geese setup. Some of those guys use hundreds. I saw a show where one guy had a custom trailer built to carry 120 full body decoys mounted on boards, done by a taxidermist with REAL BIRDS! Holy cow!!

Towards the ducks, on mallards it seems to me that 3-4 dozen has a real effect over 1-2 doz. Past that, a buddy and I competed against another group 3 times this last year. We both had equal #s, and both had them downwind of us. The difference was the set. The other group tossed dekes out with reckless abandon. (Basically into 1 big blob)

We set a classic "J" pattern, with a small circle of birds at the lower end. We consistently pulled more birds. We traded locations on the 1st and 2nd days. (They beat us out in the morning and set up where we had set, thinking we had "THE" location.)
We just set up in their spot and did better.

Point being, set-up can be more important than numbers of dekes.

Lastly, as for the boat blinds, what kind of boat are you trying to camo? On Grand Lake over towards Alpena, there is a guy that covers his entire boat with army style netting and lets out strings of dekes from the back of the boat. He then moves between islands and just floats. I understand he does great.

I have a 17ft aluminum bass boat that I use on some larger lakes. I can get to a location at 30mph, and then pole the boat in skinny water like a flats boat. I built a PVC frame last year and then covered it with advantage wetlands camo burlap. It worked surprisingly well for about $80 total, and 1 hour of work. No drilling or mounting of hardware like alot of the maufactured blinds.

I plan to make some improvements to the frame this year, but it will be minimal investment.

[WEEZER]

I haven't had much experience with open water hunting however I have experimented with the # of decoys for marshes. I have found that there is not really a relationship between # of Decoys and the number of birds you'll call in! My best day last year I only had 6 decoys with me! Usually though I use about 2.5 dozen. As for the geese thing I watch the field that I plan on hunting and try to match the Number of decoys to the number of birds that are working the field.

[DuckMan]

Been away from the forums actually doing work and I return to a WATERFOWL Forum....THANKS STEVE!!

Anyway...I think RealDcoy is abosolutely correct about placement vs numbers. I have seen the exact same thing on numerous occasions. You learn from experience what the ducks want. Sometimes more decoys do the trick, other times 6 decoys bring them piling in like it was the only open water around.

Re Camo:
I love FastGrass. It's all over my boat and later in the season, it blends perfectly almost anywhere. During the earlier part of the season we just drape a German camo net over the whole boat to give it more green and it works out very well.

RealDcoy: How did that PVC work out for you in the cold weather? Seems like it would just snap with the slightest pressure.

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DuckMan