You can search the internet high and low looking for ways to improve your success rate while waterfowl hunting. When you do you will get a thousand different answers all of them quite possibly right. The following are just three out of countless ways to help stack the odds in your favor this season.
1. Concealment can make or break an awesome hunt. It doesn’t matter how many birds are flying around seeing your decoy spread if they can see you or your buddies. It is mind boggling how many guys overlook this. Many guys will adjust and readjust a decoy spread only to keep flaring birds because they simply didn’t brush in their blind good enough, someone is moving around too much, or someone isn’t wearing face paint or a face mask. Making sure you are concealed as well as possible will greatly improve your success, and it doesn’t take much time to brush in or paint your face!
2. Knowing when to call. This can be a touchy subject. Guys will argue until their faces are blue about how to call and when to call. The truth is it depends on what the ducks want that day. I have hunted days when calling was essential. The birds wanted to be called too all the way to the water. Other hunts the birds didn’t need any calling at all to just fall right into the spread. And I have witnessed everything in between where the birds want a little calling but not too much. The hard truth is it takes time and flared birds to learn what they want and when they want it. But when you start being able to read what the birds want by the way they are acting, it is an awesome feeling of getting them to commit and stay committed.
3. Knowing your equipment. You have to know your equipment and how it works properly. This includes knowing your calls and how to blow them properly. Knowing your shotgun and the pattern it shoots and to what range it is effective to for taking ethical shots is also important. Knowing exactly how to set up your blind and dog blind are incredibly important since you will be setting them up in the dark more often than not. Also, you must know how to set up your decoys especially if you use battery operated ones. You don’t want to get out to the blind and realize you have forgotten to charge the batteries or buy new batteries for your decoy. In order to have a great season, knowing your equipment is vital.
By using these basic tactics you can vastly increase your chances of success this season. Do not let your season go down the drain because of simple mistakes that can easily be fixed.