Weasel and I have a duck hunting date today.  The weather isn’t too ducky, but what the heck…gotta go when you can.  Cloudy this morning, turning to partly cloudy this afternoon, slight breezes.  It will be a fine day none the less and maybe, just maybe we will get a chance to shoot at a duck.  We’ll take the goose decoys with us as well.  You never know when those big bad boys will come winging along.

So, most of you know I’m a “cheap-0″….it takes a whole lot of planning for me to actually pay retail for something I think I need or want.  For years I have watched the classifieds for a Vexelor brand fish finding flasher.  I’ve used one that my buddy Shipley has and it is so cool to sit on the ice and watch the flash of a fish right next to my bait and then to see the pole move as the fish grabs my offering.  Well, on a whim last night I typed in ksl.com, then typed in “fish finder” in the search and BAM!  Up popped a Humminbird Super 60 flasher!  Ogden!  $25 firm!  I was on that like a fox on a mouse!   Sure it’s a 1970’s something flasher and at the time it was the only one made.  It’s mine and I’ll be using it come ice fishing time!

But that has nothing to do with duck hunting.  I just wanted my fishing buddies to know, I got me one!  Watch out now…no mercy….bring lots of quarters!

Well, the last time out duck hunting with Weasel and Conner, I noticed how rough my 12 decoys look.  The mixed bag of decoys has mostly mallards, but there are two pins and two gadwalls in the mix as well.  All of them looked like bobbing blocks of ugly out on the water, but even at that they did draw a few ducks in close enough for a shot or two.  So, I decided to put a fresh coat of paint on them.  Which I did Monday.  A long time back I was listening to a country radio station in SLC area when they decided to have a contest.  The winner would win a dozen duck decoys from Sportsmans Wearhouse.  If my memory serves me right, the first caller in that could make a sound like a duck quacking would win….I was on it and just as the dial tone ended it rang!  I was in and of course with my unmistakable QUACK when they answered it!  I won!  Well, in my current bag of mixed decoys there is one of those decoys left.  Where the rest went I have no idea and it doesn’t really matter to me, the 12 I have work just fine.

Now put yourself in the eye of a real duck.  You have flown the same route time after time, from the resting area to where you like to eat.  Every time you make the trip someone tries to kill you and you begin to notice a few things down on the water.  Bobbing blocks of duck looking things and you always have to pass over them on your way to lunch.  After several trips and having your butt stung a time or two you begin to think that perhaps those duck looking things are causing you some pain, and so you begin to swing wide of them.  Enter my decoys!

With this thinking in mind, I sat on the back step looking at my newly washed decoys….all faded shades of rubber and plastic….they all sort of looked the same except for a bit of a change in shape of some of them (the pins come to mind), but all of them drab colored.  I thought, why not make them look like something nobody else has?  Make them stand out among the millions of other duck decoys out in the marsh!  And so I did just that.  Lots of white went into the mix of paint!  Lots of white!

These decoys are going to look like no other decoys out there!  On the mallards I even painted their bills Red!  Yes Red!  Real mallards have brilliant orange bills, but my decoys have red ones.  Why?  The real ducks are going to be winging past and look down and see red billed decoys and think…..WHAT?….Hey boys look at those Red Billed mallards….We best get down there and make sure they are all right!  And down they will come for a look and BLAM!  Bag time!  I’ll take some pictures of them on the water….you’ll see!  After painting them all up and sitting back with a beer looking at my creations, they looked more like Wood Ducks than Mallards.  Of course the heads of the male mallard decoys did get painted green with a white band around the neck, that is about all that looks mallard like with them.

The pins?  Well, pins are pins and they have a lot of white on them anyway, so I tried to mimic real pins with their color configurations.  White is a good color to have on the water in the swamp….swamp water is usually stained brown, with brown mud, brown toolies, brown on brown on brown.  So, toss in some white and what do you have?  A real duck attracting color that does nothing more than get the ducks to come close enough for a shot….30 yards!  Bring it!

Oh and the Gads…..they have taken on a cross look between a hen mallard and a pintail.  There are only two of them and they fit right in.  Wait till you see the pictures of them on the water and wait until you see the brace of ducks Weasel and I bring home today!  You too will be re-painting your decoys!

Bears Butt

November 5, 2014

And the saga continues!

These are looks of the decoys in action…ACTION?  We waited all day for the action and ended up shooting 3 times….Weasel twice…me once.  It was a blue bird day with little to no wind.  A few birds were flying on a course 300 yards west of us, but we didn’t get in on the action.  Our birds mostly came in to us from behind and surprised us enough that they flew through without a shot.  We did have two really nice Pinnys land in the decoys, but being the ethical hunters we are, they flew off without a scratch, or even a shot going in their direction.

Next time we will pick a day when we have more of a chance at bagging a bird or two.  I’m really pleased with the decoys and how they look on the water!

Bears Butt

P.M. Report