Ryan Barnes for SPLIT REED
Presented by Browning Firearms
Every year the question is asked; “How many decoys should I put out?”. It’s usually brought up numerous times on social media, followed by bombardment of smart-ass remarks commenting things like, “if you have to ask you don’t have enough,” or “you can never have too many”. While it’s true that large spreads can be effective and attract birds from long distances, many people miss the mark on the advantages of hunting with a simple few decoys strung over their shoulder.
When I was in high school, most of my money went to honker decoys, calls, and the occasional bad date. Very little of my money went to duck decoys. In fact, my entire high school career I only had about a dozen and a half mallard floaters in a torn up bag. It wasn’t until after high school that I bought a boat, and my duck decoy surplus skyrocketed. Most of my time hunting was spent in the goose field over dozens upon dozens of honker decoys. Any duck hunting I did wasn’t done with my personal spread because I was with family friends, or on the off chance I did get out and chase ducks on my own- I was usually heading to a walk-in access point with some of my best decoys (whichever ones still had weights attached and paint that still looked half decent).
I got pretty good at learning how to hunt over small decoy spreads. And by small spreads I’m not talking 6 or 7 dozen, I’m talking 6 or 7 individual floaters. Most people today might think that’s absolutely ridiculous. Why hunt with that small of a spread? I’ll tell you why. Because while most people are out with their multi-dozen spread of decoys, as the birds pass by you, you look different. A group of less than 12 ducks looks less dangerous than that huge group of decoys they just got blasted out of. A story from just last season sticks out to me. A friend and I went out to a popular duck hunting location here in Utah for a quick morning shoot before we had to be to work that morning. That meant a small spread, easy walk-in access, and hopefully some quick working birds. I grabbed about 8 decoys out of my bag, and we headed out. As soon as we got to the water, we tossed out the decoys, and it was on. Shooting light arrived, and no sooner did we load our guns then did I hit the calls to start working a group of mallards overhead. They circled a few times, and came close enough to give us a shot. Shooting 3 greenheads out of the group, we retrieved our birds, and quickly reloaded. Soon we had ducks flying over us constantly. All looking for new water, new food, and a chance to stretch their wings. Without a big spread we needed to be vocal on the calls. We soon worked in multiple different flocks of teal and spoonies. We quickly capped off our limits with a visit from another flock of mallards.
That story really isn’t that rare for me or for a few other friends I know who also enjoy the minimalist style of hunting over just a few decoys. There can be lots and lots of success in hunting this way. You just have to know where to go, and how to hunt. Obviously trying to hunt big water with a small spread might not work. This is more designed for small sloughs, tributaries, and even farm ditches. Any place where you might jump-shoot a duck, is a place you could consider running the small-spread tactic
The trick to hunting with small spreads comes down to 3 major things: Movement in the spread, a good hide, and calling.
Movement in the spread
Jerk rigs, MOJOs, pulsators- anything to get movement in the spread is crucial. You’d be surprised how much a small group of ducks moves around. I’ve learned that when hunting with a small spread, it’s usually best to have at least two movement decoys. I prefer having a jerk-rig with two decoys, and a MOJO.
You also have to remember to have a good balance. Too much movement looks unnatural in any scenario, but it’s magnified when hunting with a smaller spread. If you’re making the splashes and movement of 5 dozen birds with 9 decoys, ducks will notice and move on.
Managing a good hide
You always have to have a good hide, but when you’re only using 6-12 decoys, your hide becomes even more important. Without a monster spread to keep the ducks attention, their eyes will wander even more than usual, making sure they have a safe place to land. What you need to do is make sure those eyes don’t catch a glimpse of you. Blend in as best you can. Try to be as hidden as possible while still being able to manage to manage your calling and shooting lanes.
Grabbing the birds’ attention with the call
90% of the time, a lot of hard, loud calling isn’t needed to get the ducks to work into the hole. Especially when you have a large spread of decoys to help convince them that there’s plenty of reasons to come join in on the fun. When you only have a few decoys, you might want to consider really leaning on the call to get the bird’s attention. When I first started hunting with small spreads, I often made the mistake of thinking that my decoys would grab the duck’s attention. Obviously they won’t always be effective alone, unless you happen to be right in the birds’ flight path. Just because you see ducks flying away at a distance doesn’t mean they didn’t have interest, it probably just means they didn’t notice you. Get on that call and let it rip. Once you’ve got the birds attention and they’re giving you a look, then you can dial it back and let your decoy motion and usual calling sequences work for you. But make sure that you use your call to your advantage! If ducks are flying past, start ringing that thing out. Try to get them to look at you. Use your call to grab the duck’s attention.
Overall, hunting over small spreads can be extremely fun, and extremely efficient. It may not be something you want to devote an entire hunting career to, but it’s definitely a trick to keep in the back pocket. For mornings before work or school, or those days when you have to walk a good distance to where you want to hunt. There’s a million different scenarios where you might want to try a small spread set up. So this season, give it a shot. You might just be surprised at how many decoys you don’t need.
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