Early season waterfowl season has already passed by in many states, and the brief window to hunt ducks and geese can be a great time to dust off your shotguns and tune in your calls to prepare for the peak of the hunting season later this fall and winter.
Perhaps no form of hunting is as gear-intensive as water fowling, and to make sure you’re prepared for the season, it’s probably a good idea to start running through a checklist of the gear you’ll need to get the most out of your hunts.
Ducks and geese are social creatures, and they’re very wary about potential danger when picking a spot to land. That means they’re almost impossible to fool without a solid decoy spread. A realistic-looking spread can make all the difference when it comes to convincing a group of birds to drop down from the sky within shooting range.
It doesn’t matter if you’re the best duck or goose caller in the world, and it doesn’t matter if your hunting in a field, flooded timber, or open water, if your decoy spread doesn’t accurately portray a gathering of birds enticing enough to convince real birds that the decoys are real, then you’re not going to have a lot of success waterfowl hunting.
Through a lot of trial and error and a lot of time in the blind, some of the world’s foremost waterfowling experts have turned setting up a decoy spread into an art and a science, and many of them are more than willing to share their tips and secrets. In fact, Ducks Unlimited has an entire section of their website dedicated to decoy strategies that contains almost 60 different articles with all the information you need to make sure your setup maximizes your chances and shooting birds.
Combine the expertise you can read up on from DU with some of the great decoys for sale from our friends at Bass Pro Shops, and you’re bound to have the best waterfowl hunting season of your life this year.
Check out some of these great products below, study how to set up a spread for each of these species, and start counting down the days until duck and goose season opens up in your state.
Flambeau Masters Series Mallard Duck Decoy – $59.99
Higdon Outdoors APEX Full-Body TruFeeder Canada Goose Decoys – $174.99
Flambeau Stormfront Classic Wood Duck Decoys – $59.99
Avian-X Topflight Blue Winged Teal Decoys – $54.99
Avian-X Topflight Green Winged Teal Decoys – $54.99
Flambeau Gunning Series Bluebill Decoys – $109.99
White Rock Decoys EVAC Series Full-Body Mallard Decoys – $169.99
White Rock Decoys EVAC Series Full-Body Specklebelly Goose Decoys – $54.99
Cabela’s Northern Flight Floating Gadwall Decoys – $54.99
MOJO Outdoors MOJO King Mallard Motorized Duck Decoy – $159.99
MOJO Outdoors Elite Series Woody Duck Motorized Decoy – $79.99
MOJO Outdoors Elite Series Green-Winged Teal Motorized Decoy – $79.99
For more great tips and information on strategically setting up your decoy spreads to be the most effective and luring in birds within shooting range, check out these helpful videos from the experts at Ducks Unlimited.
*This post contains links through the Bass Pro Shops affiliate marketing program. While all products are independently selected by our team here at Whiskey Riff, if you use these links to make a purchase, we may earn a commission.”
