Thoughts of ducks and geese float somewhere throughout our brains every day of the year. Whether you’re swiping through pictures on Instagram, reliving old hunts with friends, or checking geese for bands as they stroll across the parking lot in front of your truck, we’re constantly reminded throughout the summer of our addiction. And with any addiction, you need a remedy. I would suggest leaving the park geese alone and, instead, driving back home and taking a look at your decoys. Kick through the piles if you have to, and dump out your decoy bags. What do you see? These off-season decoy projects will have you ready for opening day.
Clean and Repair
If you’re anything like me, your decoys took a short trip from the back of your truck to their current resting place in your garage, all within the last few weeks of the season, where they have remained untouched. The uncertainty of the contents in each decoy bag is reason enough to explain their neglect. Floaters are likely tangled—some still tied together from a cold 4:00 am deployment. Full bodies have heads that have gone MIA, and everything is covered in mud and/or a thin layer of gravel dust. The obvious first step is to hose everything down. You might be amazed by your decoys’ color and detail after a quick bath. Another tip: don’t forget the decoy bags—empty and hose them out, too.
Next, begin repairing any decoy lines on floaters that defected during the season. While some will need new rigs altogether, others can get by with a replaced weight and a new crimp. The bottom of your decoy bag will probably have a few weights and lines floating around, ready to be re-commissioned, but replacement weights, crimps, and swivels are easy to come by. Personally, I like having finger loops on each end of my Texas rigs where the weight and swivel can slide between the two. This makes for a quick and easy pick-up at the end of the hunt. This is the time to repair what you have and replace what you lost from slinging floaters last year.
Paint Old Decoys
If you want to add some variety to your spread this year without buying boxes and boxes of new decoys, maybe try tapping into your artistic side this off-season. Start with the basics. A paint touch-up on the heads of your mallard drake decoys, repairing the flocking on goose decoys, or a new coat of white on the tail feathers can make a world of difference. It seems that the contrast in our decoy spreads these days is yielding favorable results.
Another easy place to start is turning your old mallard hen decoys into your new black duck decoys. It’s simple. Tape off the head and speculum on the hen decoys; hit them with a few coats of flat-finished dark brown or black, and there you have it. New decoys that cost you a $5 can of spray paint and the last of your masking tape. Creating diver decoys can be just as simple. A guy armed with a can of black and white spray paint and the basic knowledge of waterfowl plumage can create a simple and often effective diver spread in no time.
Get Creative
Your decoys can also gain a new life with a little ingenuity. Something as simple as cutting the keels off of your shot-up floaters can breathe new life into some of those decoys. What was once a bag of useless decoys with broken keels and pellet holes now becomes a lightweight addition to use on the edge of an ice hole or on a sandbar at your favorite river spot.
Lastly, while you maintain a creative mind, think of ways to create something new or improve on a current product. If you’re like me, you have a stash of broken motion decoys—8 spinners, a pulsator or 2, and a splasher that’ll tip over in a 5mph breeze. I often picture the inventors of these products in their garages, disassembling, modifying, reassembling, and testing prototypes over and over until they find something that clicks. I encourage you to do the same—build your own splasher with a repaired spinning-wing motor and an old GHG Magnum Mallard. Worst-case scenario, you familiarize yourself with the workings of your motion decoys. Best case: you develop something that’s better than everything else out there.
Last Minute Touches
It’s almost inevitable that we will end up with a few new decoys this summer to add to the arsenal. It just happens that way. There’s a simple pleasure in unboxing brand-new decoys and rigging them with fresh lines. That said, your current decoy collection still needs some love. With the season quickly approaching, get your hands dirty. With a little creativity and some elbow grease, your spread will be ready for the season ahead.