Ducks/Geese Tips

[Fitzy1994]

Hello

Looking for more hunting/calling tips for duck and geese hunting for this following hunting season?

-which calls work the best
-best bang for your buck
-good southern alberta hunting grounds
-decoy set up
Just want to prepare for this years hunting season, if you have any tips it would be highly appreciated

[JRsMav]

Originally Posted by Fitzy1994

Hello

Looking for more hunting/calling tips for duck and geese hunting for this following hunting season?

-which calls work the best
-best bang for your buck
-good southern alberta hunting grounds
-decoy set up
Just want to prepare for this years hunting season, if you have any tips it would be highly appreciated

Hard to give calling tips over a forum....but I would kill your brain by pounding on youtube. Fortunately we are fairly privileged up here to the point where most times you can put the calling to rest most days if your location and spread are good.

I have a drawer of goose calls but repeatedly go back to the cheapo primos goose flute. Easy to use, easy to blow, versatile....one draw back is it seems to clog fairly easily. However cleaning is simple. I think they retail for about $30

Southeast Alberta is my stomping ground. WMU 232. Pretty hard to beat waterfowling in that area in my opinion. However, its getting busier every year with Americans, guides and outfitters that seem to think they get first crack at every quarter....even if you own it lol.

What questions in particular do you have about decoy setup?

I hunt on average 40 days for waterfowl per year between Sept 1st to the start of November. Ill do my best to answer your questions

[Fitzy1994]

Originally Posted by JRsMav

Hard to give calling tips over a forum....but I would kill your brain by pounding on youtube. Fortunately we are fairly privileged up here to the point where most times you can put the calling to rest most days if your location and spread are good.

I have a drawer of goose calls but repeatedly go back to the cheapo primos goose flute. Easy to use, easy to blow, versatile....one draw back is it seems to clog fairly easily. However cleaning is simple. I think they retail for about $30

Southeast Alberta is my stomping ground. WMU 232. Pretty hard to beat waterfowling in that area in my opinion. However, its getting busier every year with Americans, guides and outfitters that seem to think they get first crack at every quarter....even if you own it lol.

What questions in particular do you have about decoy setup?

I hunt on average 40 days for waterfowl per year between Sept 1st to the start of November. Ill do my best to answer your questions

Do you use just fixed decoys or do you use like mojos? Im with ducks unlimited so I get floating decoys and lay down blinds to use but what other decoys do you recommend for water hunts and field hunts?

[Drake slayer]

Mojos are deadly on ducks

[JRsMav]

Originally Posted by Fitzy1994

Do you use just fixed decoys or do you use like mojos? Im with ducks unlimited so I get floating decoys and lay down blinds to use but what other decoys do you recommend for water hunts and field hunts?

I personally don't typically target geese on the water. Once in a while I'll get the odd pairing that I manage to convince to come check out my duck spread over a puddle but otherwise we stick to fields for the geese.

On water, if your targeting ducks mojos work phenominal. You will swear the ducks are bombing in to literally breed the mojo itself. Its actually ridiculous sometimes. 1 mojo will make a good spread into a great spread....for ducks. Geese seem to flare far to often with a mojo incorporated into the spread. Aside from mojos, typically my duck water spreads max out at about 2 dozen floating dekes. Ive found you don't need much more than that at any point during the season unless youre hunting big water and are competing with live ducks on the opposite end of the water body itself. Typically ill set out a dozen floaters in your basic J pattern on the far left side of the blind, and the same set up for the other dozen on the far right side. Seems to offer 3 good landing pads for incoming ducks. Ive noticed over the years that on the water ducks will usually go on the side of caution and land on the deeper furthest point they can from the shore line so station your dekes effectively as far as effective gun range. most of my dekes are no further than 15-20 yards from my blind.

For geese and ducks in the field.....I stay away from mojos on land. 95% of my field set ups are initially to target geese, but I get a ton of ducks coming in. Again though, mojos seem to spook geese so in the fields I leave em at home. Ducks will decoy well in the field with goose decoys. I do have a few field duck dekes and I do put them out, but often its to make me feel better about myself. ha! Field duck dekes really aren't needed at all.

As far as goose decoys (phew-novel here) I use a combo of homemade silos, full bodies and shells. My routine for the morning set up is I build my basic decoy pattern using the full bodies and shells and use the lower grade dekes to fill out the spread. I typically go with a basic J pattern but have used everything from a U pattern to dual U patterns, straight lines, family groups etc etc. From my experience, motion in your decoy spread is your enemy so standard shells will work fine. One other note! I can promise you you will kill more geese using cheap homemade silhouettes if youre on the 'X' and your spread is well thought out, than the guy in the next field using 5k worth of full body full flocked decoys. Its all in decoy placement and location. And ue your floaters in the field too! dig a shallow trench with your knife and jam the keel into the ground! works great to fill out a spread!

Ive used as many as 6 dozen on the water and as few as 5, all with success. Ive used as many as 300 in the field and as few as 8 (was out by myself last fall with the hound and was WAAAAYYYY to lazy to set out anymore), again all with success. Placement and location placement and location

[iliketrout]

I agree with pretty much everything said in this thread. I do love my mojo for field duck hunts though. Never failed to shoot a limit of field ducks this year with the mojo running strong. I wish I would have bought the one with the remote control so I could turn it off when the geese are coming in.

Calls are like trucks, a lot of guys are brand loyal and what one guy loves another guy hates.

For me I really like the triple threat by duck commander. Only drawback is that I find after a while the three reeds tend to stick together from all the spit. I may buy a second one so half way through the hunt I can have a dry one.

As for goose calls, I'm still trying to find my go to. The thing about a goose call is that a pro can make a cheap call sound good and an amateur can make a good call sound like a kid's party toy. I learned this when I thought I was doing a reasonably good job with my call and I gave it to my buddy who proceeded to sound like a flock of geese by himself. So I know with my goose calling, my call is up for the task and I need to catch up.

For locations, you just need to put the miles on the truck and have a landowners map for the areas you want to hunt. I ended up getting lucky and finding a honey hole that was 12 minutes from my house this year and we did very well there. It was also difficult to get permission and I only ended up tracking down the owner after knocking on a few neighbor's doors. The owner lived out of province. Being so close to the city and not have to contend wth other hunters was nice. As with any hunting, scouting and knocking on doors is key. I love getting out after work and going for a drive to find where the roosts and feeding fields are.

We'll shoot over water for the first few weeks of the season and when the migratory birds start arriving we shift our focus to the fields. I think in 6 duck hunts down south this year we limited out on 5 of them, 2/2 over water and 3/4 in fields. One of the fields we forced a shoot on a smaller flock and only took 18 out of the 24 bird limit but our shooting could have been better and one had a band so I was happy. I also bought my mojo after this shoot, I think with the mojo we could have got them in closer.

My water spread is 24-36 duck floaters, 8 goose floaters and a mojo, and my field spread is the same as my water spread with 4-5 dozen extra geese decoys, a mix of full bodies and shells. Not sure if this is proven or not, but we tend to put out fewer greenheads in the early season as the real drakes will not have turned yet, and it seems to work for us.

I know these are generic tips, but along with the other things shared in this thread you should get started off in the right direction. Welcome to the addiction!

[Fitzy1994]

Originally Posted by iliketrout

I agree with pretty much everything said in this thread. I do love my mojo for field duck hunts though. Never failed to shoot a limit of field ducks this year with the mojo running strong. I wish I would have bought the one with the remote control so I could turn it off when the geese are coming in.

Calls are like trucks, a lot of guys are brand loyal and what one guy loves another guy hates.

For me I really like the triple threat by duck commander. Only drawback is that I find after a while the three reeds tend to stick together from all the spit. I may buy a second one so half way through the hunt I can have a dry one.

As for goose calls, I'm still trying to find my go to. The thing about a goose call is that a pro can make a cheap call sound good and an amateur can make a good call sound like a kid's party toy. I learned this when I thought I was doing a reasonably good job with my call and I gave it to my buddy who proceeded to sound like a flock of geese by himself. So I know with my goose calling, my call is up for the task and I need to catch up.

For locations, you just need to put the miles on the truck and have a landowners map for the areas you want to hunt. I ended up getting lucky and finding a honey hole that was 12 minutes from my house this year and we did very well there. It was also difficult to get permission and I only ended up tracking down the owner after knocking on a few neighbor's doors. The owner lived out of province. Being so close to the city and not have to contend wth other hunters was nice. As with any hunting, scouting and knocking on doors is key. I love getting out after work and going for a drive to find where the roosts and feeding fields are.

We'll shoot over water for the first few weeks of the season and when the migratory birds start arriving we shift our focus to the fields. I think in 6 duck hunts down south this year we limited out on 5 of them, 2/2 over water and 3/4 in fields. One of the fields we forced a shoot on a smaller flock and only took 18 out of the 24 bird limit but our shooting could have been better and one had a band so I was happy. I also bought my mojo after this shoot, I think with the mojo we could have got them in closer.

My water spread is 24-36 duck floaters, 8 goose floaters and a mojo, and my field spread is the same as my water spread with 4-5 dozen extra geese decoys, a mix of full bodies and shells. Not sure if this is proven or not, but we tend to put out fewer greenheads in the early season as the real drakes will not have turned yet, and it seems to work for us.

I know these are generic tips, but along with the other things shared in this thread you should get started off in the right direction. Welcome to the addiction!

Yeah I have the triple threat and the reeds get stuck when its cold, great for a hail or a feeding but just for a simple quack, I have this $10 crappy tire one and it sounds great for a single quacks. How much does a mojo usually run? I worked in hunting and archery at wholesale sports but like everyone knows they never have anything in stock, where can I look into getting one?

[Fitzy1994]

Originally Posted by iliketrout

I agree with pretty much everything said in this thread. I do love my mojo for field duck hunts though. Never failed to shoot a limit of field ducks this year with the mojo running strong. I wish I would have bought the one with the remote control so I could turn it off when the geese are coming in.

Calls are like trucks, a lot of guys are brand loyal and what one guy loves another guy hates.

For me I really like the triple threat by duck commander. Only drawback is that I find after a while the three reeds tend to stick together from all the spit. I may buy a second one so half way through the hunt I can have a dry one.

As for goose calls, I'm still trying to find my go to. The thing about a goose call is that a pro can make a cheap call sound good and an amateur can make a good call sound like a kid's party toy. I learned this when I thought I was doing a reasonably good job with my call and I gave it to my buddy who proceeded to sound like a flock of geese by himself. So I know with my goose calling, my call is up for the task and I need to catch up.

For locations, you just need to put the miles on the truck and have a landowners map for the areas you want to hunt. I ended up getting lucky and finding a honey hole that was 12 minutes from my house this year and we did very well there. It was also difficult to get permission and I only ended up tracking down the owner after knocking on a few neighbor's doors. The owner lived out of province. Being so close to the city and not have to contend wth other hunters was nice. As with any hunting, scouting and knocking on doors is key. I love getting out after work and going for a drive to find where the roosts and feeding fields are.

We'll shoot over water for the first few weeks of the season and when the migratory birds start arriving we shift our focus to the fields. I think in 6 duck hunts down south this year we limited out on 5 of them, 2/2 over water and 3/4 in fields. One of the fields we forced a shoot on a smaller flock and only took 18 out of the 24 bird limit but our shooting could have been better and one had a band so I was happy. I also bought my mojo after this shoot, I think with the mojo we could have got them in closer.

My water spread is 24-36 duck floaters, 8 goose floaters and a mojo, and my field spread is the same as my water spread with 4-5 dozen extra geese decoys, a mix of full bodies and shells. Not sure if this is proven or not, but we tend to put out fewer greenheads in the early season as the real drakes will not have turned yet, and it seems to work for us.

I know these are generic tips, but along with the other things shared in this thread you should get started off in the right direction. Welcome to the addiction!

and yeah my first waterfowl season was last year and it is definitely an addiction. We were at keho lake last year and we've heard some good things about taber lake from our prof's at Lethbridge college, and from the guys from the DU

[iliketrout]

Sorry wasn't on for the entire weekend.

I got mine at Bass pro, it came on sale....don't remember the exact price but it was a little more than $100.

Also, a great local Alberta business is http://www.canadianwaterfowlersproshop.com/. Check them out as well for decoys, they have great prices on floater ducks.

PM me if you want any further details!