Slow start to season. Blanked in Pleasanton.

Our lake is usually pretty good, guessing with all this water there are other places for them to be

I support this thread!

6 man limits in Matagorda County

Great morning. I limited out, father in law & a couple of his friends added in the rest.

Scouted my spot today water is way up glad I went because my primary is cutoff right now. Secondary is good will be easy yo find cover in some brush /trees that are now at the edge of the water

Did you give it a go this morning? I hunt a small tank in Bexar Co., thinking that all the water has them spread out.

no. after saturday i just mailed it in

Nice

I will be making my first attempt at duck hunting this weekend at our place in Seguin over a small pond. I have low expectations, but trying to increase my odds of seeing birds.

What kind of birds should I expect to see? I bought a set of 6 cheap mallard decoys and that is about the extent of my duck gear. Any suggestions on a cheap duck call, or should I just stick with the decoys? Any other tips?

No calls

If you see anything it will be early and birds just "passing by" most likely.

We are down near stockdale and will see blue-wing teal, Whistler ducks, a few gadwall and similar.

Very unlikely to see mallard.

If I were you, I'd get a teal mojo and some dove mojos maybe toss out 3 decoys. And that's it.

The 6 in 1 whistle, but being brand new I think the consensus would be don't call at all. A jerk rig for motion would probably be beneficial

Thanks for the responses! Looks like I will hold off on buying a call and will be picking up a mojo teal decoy at Academy after work. Just curious about the suggestion to use mojo dove decoys as well. Does this just add more motion to attract birds?

Probably see mostly gadwall. They love stock tanks.

You don't need to call on a small tank. They are either coming there already or they aren't.

Anyone have thoughts on duck butt decoys in the spread? They are cheap and don't take up much room. I was thinking about adding one or two to the spread. Any thoughts?

water turkey said:

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Probably see mostly gadwall. They love stock tanks.

You don't need to call on a small tank. They are either coming there already or they aren't.

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This is spot on. Most of my hunting is on stock tanks so very similar to what you're looking at. I've got 18 decoys: 12 full size ones and 6 teal, plus a baby mallard mojo. I mostly throw out 4-10 decoys and have the mojo going, that's it. No using a call or anything.

Honestly some of my better success is just jumping the tanks. Get home after work and just walk out there and see if anything is already there. Then maybe set some decoys up after checking all the tanks if I feel like it.

Get you an extendable decoy retriever pole. I barely walk out in my waders and use the pole to get ducks after I've shot them.

Be prepared for a ton of gadwall, some ringnecks, maybe some teal. I'm still mad at myself for missing on a mallard I saw on one of our tanks last year.

Silky you live in Seguin?

I actually live in Houston, but my parents have a place in Seguin. Some posters suggested there might be some birds in the area and it would be a good place to get started in duck hunting. I know there is public land around Houston, but I am woefully under-prepared and under-equipped for that.

Mtn_Guide said:

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Anyone have thoughts on duck butt decoys in the spread? They are cheap and don't take up much room. I was thinking about adding one or two to the spread. Any thoughts?

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Only time we used them was for "motion" decoys. We strapped a bilge pump to the bottom with a hose rigged on it. Added a blinker circuit and voila....

they are not exactly light though!

Just drove from Georgetown to Abilene. Only saw two tanks with Ducks.

thanks for this idea.

I'm also interested in finding other ways to add motion to my spread. I'm all ears if someone else has ideas.

Pivate lease or hunting club? If club, which one? Always like to see who's having success out there.

Private lease, for now.

Mtn_Guide said:

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thanks for this idea.

I'm also interested in finding other ways to add motion to my spread. I'm all ears if someone else has ideas.

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The Higdon pulsators work really well. That's the commercial version with the bilge pump. I hunt with someone that will use six of them with 3 dozen decoys. It's lethal but such a pain in the rear. I've had good luck with two pulsators and a dozen decs. Ideally you want ripples coming from multiple directions rather just one decoy making a bunch of waves.