Leading from your blind

With your hunting area located, now it’s time to set up your blind. This doesn’t have to be anything special: Even just depressions, downed trees, or high grass make excellent blinds. A piece of camouflage burlap works wonderfully as a top cover. The objective is to conceal a hunter from waterfowl approaching above. Other tools such as layout blinds can be useful but also pricey.

A question of timing

Location selected, now to get set to hunt. Ducks prefer to land into a facing wind near points, inlets, or desired feeding areas. Additionally, timing affects the hunt. Early morning is best, although in saltwater areas, tidal swings can determine hunt times as well. Incoming tides are best, and in a tidal situation, be sure to set your blind above the high-water mark.

Keep it simple

Focusing on a more simplistic approach, puddle duck decoys painted as mallards, widgeons, or teals are a great choice. There is no need for hundreds of decoys. The fact is that an economical purchase of six to 12 decoys, rigged with 10 feet of string and 2-4 oz. weights, is easy and effective.

Combining the information above can paint a successful duck hunting picture, but hunter success is not just measured in harvest. Doing the research on your hunting and blind location, then having migrating waterfowl commit to your setup is a large win. If a harvest is had, field preparation is quite important in maintaining the best table fare possible. Field dressing your fowl, then getting it clean, cooled, and cooked or frozen for later use will provide tasty dividends.