[birdman]

I've been noticing lately that ducks in our area are quite mojo shy. What are your experiences with late season ducks and their shyness. Do you have a remote and turn em off after they commit, or do you let em run?

Birdman

[DrakeHunter]

I'm not much of a duck hunter but when I do go my buddies use several mojo and keep them running during the hunt. These are some of the birds we shot during one hunt.[url=http://www.huntandfishfinders.com/forum/gallery/showimage.

[Ure-a-Duck]

Normally late season ducks will shy from spinning wing Flash. The concept draws the attention from a flash effect that looks like beating wings. In Low light tests we did with video camera effects we could see the ducks point of view. We had landing mallard with URE-A-Duck Decoys 3D Wind Ducks as the sppinning wing flash effect. A spinning wind driven wing Decoy. There was several hundred landing into decoys with the camera beside the decoys. When we shut the iris down on the camera we could not tell the difference between the decoys flash and the real ducks wing Flash. Key word was low light. The brighter the light the better a duck can identify the source of movement. I guess that answers the question on when is the best time to use a spinning wing.
Now here is late season alternatives. One: ducks focus on ripples from a long distance. They know when water is moving based on the object in the water IE: Duck swimming or Feeding. Look at your spread then look at a real group of ducks and decide what the difference for yourself. Does your decoys look like the real ducks on the water. What did you notice first the ripple or the duck?? I rather have 3 decoys making ripples than a hundred of the best hand carved decoys looking still. When I look at water I see the movement of ripples before I see the duck. So Does a Duck. I use the Ure-a-Duck Wobbler decoys to this job. We have found in tests a few decoys with movement work better than a bunch without.
TWO: Next alternative is to use Flapping wing decoys versus spinning wings. Flapping is a natural motion. The Ure-a-Duck 3D Flapper will give you real motion of a duck. The wings Flap up and down like a real duck. In our test we found 97% of the ducks on a refuge would decoy and swim directly to the Flappers. The only draw back is they would not draw from a long distance. The reason for that is nature made the ducks colors blend extremely well to the habitat on the ground. So when a duck is looking down at a Flapping decoy from a distance it is well camo'd. But once the duck gets within a 100 yds they can then Identify the Flapping decoy and respond to it.
So to answer your Question. Yes use the mojos. Put the mojo out, but put it 150 yds from your spread. Nothing in the decoy business is seen as far as the flash of spinning wings. This will get the ducks attention. Once you have the mojo ou there you can now begin the work on your spread to shoot over. In your spread cut down on the decoys use all ripple making decoys. Jerk strings, Ure-a-Ducks Struttin decoys, or wobblers will do the job on the motion. Finish it out with Flappers and now you will pull the Ducks from all your fellow hunters.
To be a great duck hunter is easy. Just think of what a duck sees and responds to and you will have better success.
I will leave you with this thought.
Before My father passed away. I had a chance to talk to him about decoying ducks. I told him I have made the best duck hunting decoys in the world. They look like live ducks and do the same things as live ducks. But I still have flocks to pass by me. His response was. We hunted over baited areas with strapped up live ducks as decoys. This was for a living and a way to feed our family. Even with the real ducks as a decoy and all the food they wanted flocks still passed by. So no matter how good your setup is. Duck will go where they want. There is no signs or streets to direct them in the air. All you can do is look natural and hope for the best.

Happy Hunting
The duckman

[oucorry]

I'm not a duck hunter, but that was very informative, Ure-a-duck. Sounds like you put alot of effort into duck hunting!