Strangest duck hunting setup you’ve tried

[Sunklands]

Nah, we were in NoDak.....we were sitting across from each other in some reeds. Between the 4 of us we had over 175 years of duck hunting experience, so it was doable. I'll tell you this, when I take someone into flooded timber for the first time with a group of people, they stand next to me and I don't shoot until I know they see what the game is.

It's just the nature of different kinds of duck hunting....it is, by no means, one size fits all. That's the beauty of it.

And the 2 days we were in the trees, we fooled them. Third day, the wind changed and those two days have yet to be duplicated.

 

[Sunklands]

Couple of times I hid under an orange tarp like rice farmers often use on levees.

Ah, the old rice gate trick. Some are white and some are baby blue. Sounds muddy.

 

[Sunklands]

How, about the bovine blind?

 

[Sunklands]

This is a corn blind, with rice gate camo.

 

[Mudtoes]

Probably back around 1971, in the Sacramento Valley close to Dunnigan. The 2047 drain was backing up with flood water and nothing was using our small duck club. Waded out into the flood water and knelt down in a bunch of flotsam, rice straw and other agricultural cuttings. No decoys, just held my gun just above the water, kept my face down and shot sprig working that big flood water. That was when you could kill 7 sprig a day. Water ran down my waders a couple times while leaning to shoot, but is was worth it. Probably why my legs are crippled up these days. When you are young you do crazy stuff.

 

[Bclick]

No decoys, just pass shot a slot woodies used to use early and late.

Buddy used to put out a pink flamingo lawn ornament.

This isnt really rocket science if you find the X. All this other stuff is for when you cant.

 

[R.R.HARBAUGH]

Hunted a local marsh for 5-6 years, played the wind with the points and coves. Tried and true wind at your back.
Noticed this point that ducks do what I call free landed on
No one there and jiggy wind in there face.
***….
Pulled spread. Re-Set across the marsh wind in my face, slot formation right. Goose blockers at the top.
And crushed everything that came in sight of our blocks.
What we call a double double.
Limited on ducks
Limited on Geese
Wind in Your FACE.

 

[rtcbob]

Wasn't my set-up. I was just a participant.

Stone quarry salesman I bought a fair amount of crushed stone from found out I was a waterfowler. Asked me if I wanted to join him and his brother goose hunting at the quarry. Quarry hole was bordered by corn fields on 2 sides so I figured a normal field hunt. One end of the quarry was inactive due to flooding. At that time, the quarry hole was probably 80'+ deep.

I asked him if he wanted me to bring my decoys, dog & layout blinds. Nah, none of that. Just bring a gun and shells. Meet him at the scale house 15 minutes before LST. He'd take care of the rest.

So Saturday morning I meet him at the scale house, we drink some coffee, BS for a bit and now it's getting light. By now, I'm REAL curious what the game plan is. Finally we pile in to a Suburban and drive down in to the pit. His brother pulls up next to a pile of crushed stone that's about 20' high and as soon as we get out you can hear geese at the flooded end of the pit, already starting to sound hungry and ready to head off for the morning feed. We climb up the stone pile to just below the peak.

Couple minutes later we hear the geese get up and I realized they have only one way out of that hole without booster rockets. They start coming over our heads about 10' above us. Less than 5 minutes later we have a full limit of geese. One of them left a bit of a dent and blood all over the roof of that white Suburban, which is where we retrieved it from.

Definitely the fastest I've ever been done & to the diner after a "hunt".

 

[WOODIE13]

Hunted ducks in blaze orange during deer season on Quantico along a creek, Potomac was froze up pretty good, shot them up pretty good since the deer hunters aren't shooting at them.

Snow had been on for months, laid out some green outdoor carpet, put decoys around, hardly had to call, 2 days of fun.

 

[yeehaw]

The times for us in SWMO is about every 5 years or so when it gets cold enough to freeze just about everything. One year we had the same kind of conditions guys were talking about above. Hunted a spring fed river. Mallards would land at the top of a set of riffles, flip upside down to feed off the bottom, and float through the fast moving sections, eating as they went. When they'd get to the end, they'd jump up and fly back up to the top about 5ft off the water. We'd sit on the bank towards the end of the run and rain fire from above when they'd jump up.

Had another spot where a creek entered a lake, small hole of open water surrounded by a huge, bare, mud flat. Couldn't find any cover and it was the only spot I knew with ducks, so I just sat on the ground next to the water with a single fast grass mat on my back. Easy limit of greys and greenheads.

Last one that stands out was another of those cold years, one of the coldest that I had hunted. It was Christmas morning. Parked my truck right at first light at a small bridge over a no-name creek. This creek was so small, you could jump across it in most places, but I had seen birds using it the day before, and it was halfway between my house and my parents (about 5 miles apart). The open water hole was right next to the bridge and literally the size of my truck bed. I tossed in 2 decoys, cuz 3 wouldn't fit. Sat down in the snow about 5yds from my decoys. 6 shots, 6 gadwall, and back in the truck about 15 minutes later. Got to my parents before they even got out of bed. Easiest hunt I've ever had.