The waterfowl offseason is long—so take full advantage of it. Now’s the time to take inventory of your gear and start thinking about next season. If you’re like me, you’re always trying to improve your setup to successfully decoy and kill more birds. During the season, this usually means making minor adjustments. During the offseason, though, you have the opportunity to make both minor and major tweaks, so when the opener rolls around, you’re a more lethal hunter than ever. These five strategies—and gear picks—will help make that a reality.
1. Put More Motion in Your Spread — Higdon Pulsator Pro Guide Pack
One of the keys to a realistic decoy spread is motion. Odds are, you likely have plenty of spinners already. Instead, consider giving your decoys more action by putting more and better ripplers in the water. In one of my last hunts of the season, I got to hunt over a spread with several Higdon Pulsator Pro Guide Packs. These agitators have long 14-hour runtimes and use a custom pump and impeller to displace a lot of water and create a visible spray. The only downside is that these are heavy and could be a pain to haul into the field on a walk-in hunt. But for most hunters, they’d immediately add realism to a decoy spread and help draw in and finish ducks.
2. Manage Motion — Lucky Duck HD Remote Kit 2.0 or MOJO Outdoors Multi Decoy Remote Kit
Spinners are helpful—but they can also be harmful by flaring decoy-shy mallards and flocks of geese. If you don’t already have your spinners on a remote system, this is your sign to do so. This way, you can easily toggle the spinners on and off depending on the conditions and waterfowl species you encounter in the field. Whether you run MOJO or Luckey Duck spinners, it’s easy and relatively affordable to install a remote kit.
3. Dial in an Aftermarket Choke Tube — JEBS High-Voltage Black Nitride
During the season, it’s important to keep your choke and ideally your ammo consistent. But if you’re interested in killing birds at longer ranges, pair an aftermarket choke with a premium shell like Winchester’s Last Call Double Shot. Jebs Precision Shotgun Chokes can help maintain pattern density and velocity at longer ranges than standard chokes, and the black nitride coating helps with durability. During the off-season, you have time to get your new choke patterned and shoot clays with it so you’re ready to go when you’re back out in the marsh.
4. Flock Your Dekes — SX Decoy Flocking Kit
Are your decoys looking a little worse for wear? Taking the time to touch up the paint on old decoys and adding flocking can pay dividends for drawing in wary birds. SX Decoys offers a kit that includes a pint of UV-resistant paint and a pound of SX Flocking that you can use on any brand of decoys. Applying the kit will immediately make your spread sharper and more life-like. There are options for both goose and duck decoys, too.
5. Try a Throwback Spinner — MOJO Big Blade
I think of spinning wing decoys almost like an arms race: you need to be able to match or outdo what other hunters have to draw in birds, especially when you’re hunting heavily pressured refuges. A recent trend has cropped up in California and elsewhere: using old-school and oversized motion blades. And it works damn well. MOJO recently offered its own version of this in the MOJO Big Blade. The large size of the spinning component helps catch the attention of ducks from long distances, and the brand’s modern technology means this throw-back style of decoy is just as reliable as any other spinner on the market today.