If you could only have 5 dozen waterfowl decoys,,,,

[C M Wings]

5 dozen swans for big water.
One dozen mix blacks and mallards for the marsh.

 

[Rubberhead]

That's pretty much what I've got...I've got probably 60 Herter's 72s that I paint and re-paint all the time depending on what every species I'm interested in that season. They've been painted so many times, they're probably Herter's 73s by now...

Here's some I made into gadwall. Autumn Wings didn't have gadwall heads then so I use pintail heads on one set and, I think, greenwing heads on the other. I never liked the way the heads were shaped but the gadwall haven't noticed...

I had a half dozen, home burlapped, redheads under the house that I wasn't using so I turned them into bluebill in late January this year...look what happened the first time I floated them...the bluebill was the last duck of my 2022-23 season...the decoys made it memorable...

 

[Fsbirdhouse]

Ok,
Here goes.
I like movement, lots of it! But I also like to 'Tinker' with my decoys.
When it comes to a goose spread the only motion decoy I still use is the JTR X flapper.
I had 4 Lucky Duck goose wing flappers that never seemed to work out for me, and anyone else I knew. But I had a thought to experiment with them and three fellows gave me theirs to try out along with my one LD flapper.
They ceased to be used as goose attractors, and instead, with a little work became spinning wing duck attractors.
The conversion was easy, and if the creator of MOJO spinners is telling the truth, and his spinners can be seen from elevation up to 5 miles away (Which I am skeptical of), mine should draw birds from even further, because they have a wingspan of almost 5 feet, and when turned off as geese are spotted they simply become goose decoys again. One side of wing is white, and one side black.

These have attracted ducks amazingly well and have had ducks walk under them when spinning at full throttle.
The price is right if you have the decoy already, and a shaft adaptor from MOJO, a bit corrugated plastic and rod and you'll have a spinning wing decoy like no other (And flapping linkage can quickly be re-installed if you don't like it)

 

[drahthaarducker]

View attachment 389204

That's pretty much what I've got...I've got probably 60 Herter's 72s that I paint and re-paint all the time depending on what every species I'm interested in that season. They've been painted so many times, they're probably Herter's 73s by now...

Here's some I made into gadwall. Autumn Wings didn't have gadwall heads then so I use pintail heads on one set and, I think, greenwing heads on the other. I never liked the way the heads were shaped but the gadwall haven't noticed...

I had a half dozen, home burlapped, redheads under the house that I wasn't using so I turned them into bluebill in late January this year...look what happened the first time I floated them...the bluebill was the last duck of my 2022-23 season...the decoys made it memorable...

I would take 5 doz of these

 

[Fsbirdhouse]

3 common goldeneye drakes, 5 barrows goldeneye drakes, 9 bufflehead hens, 2 bufflehead drakes, 2 canvasback, drake and hen, 5 redhead drakes, 5 eclipsed redhead drakes, 2 redhead hens, 2 canada geese, 2 specks, 2 drake pintails, 1 hen pintail, 7 wigeon drakes, 3 wigeon hens, 3 drake ringneck, 3 hen ringneck, a drake and hen oldsquaw and a drake mallard and hen black duck.

I suppose that hen Black Duck is on the off chance a stray Black Duck should be found on the Snake.
I'm waiting for one too, but may miss my chance not having a lone Black duck hen to entice company.

 

[Woodduck31]

the black duck is just for visibility on the small water and close to the bank areas that are hard to see. I've only shot two black ducks in my life, a hen in eastern Kansas and a drake within about 4 miles of the Illinois river near Pittsfield, Ill. The Illinois black was sitting with a bunch of wood ducks on a small creek below our house. The hen was solo in a flooded milo field near Hartford, Ks. I do put out oldsquaw decoys in hopes that they will decoy, but haven't done that very many times. Caleb shot a juvie drake oldsquaw over our barrows decoys and we see them every now and then. The barrows decoys made a huge difference in decoying them over using common decoys.

 

[dwhauss]

Used to be a coastal Texas crew who'd have an annual redhead hunt over yard flamingos, pinwheels and such while dressed in tutus, clown costumes and the like and shooting from what looked like a Mardi Gras float. Not the wariest of birds.

I've seen that one. Neither are cans though most of the time.

 

[Rick Hall]

I've seen that one. Neither are cans though most of the time.

My morning blind is on a tiny floating marsh pothole well enough away from bigger, more attractive broken marsh that the primary divers in our area, ringnecks, want nothing to do with it. So I tell guests that if I burr at passing birds and they come to die, they're going to be scaup, redheads or cans, none of which seem capable of resisting the most unlikely of setups.

(Once winced over having him in the worst of our spots for it, when the late Justice Scalia started our day by allowing that he sure would like to shoot a canvasback, yet the only two that passed that morning tolled like parking school busses for he and his partner.)

 

[RedDog]

For my area, coastal VA 2 dozen Bigfoot floaters, 2 dozen tip up goose butts, 5 black ducks and 7 wigeon

 

[Billy Bob]

4 swans, 8 Bigfoot floaters, 2 dz of my old Drake Flambeau Wigeon, 1 dz of the old early 80's model Pintail drakes (the kind with the huge spike) and 1 dz G&H supermag drake Pintails.