There are tons of things that can be done to make a difference in a duck hunt. The one main thing I talk to my guides constantly about is motion. Years ago, after becoming a pilot, I understood what ducks were seeing from the air. I think everybody should get that perspective and not just from a drone. I think you should ask or offer money to a pilot to take you up during duck season. The one thing you would see when looking down on live ducks is motion with a trail coming out behind them. Decoys sit still and have no trail behind them. Live ducks keep the water they are in stirred up in an organized way. If and when you go up with a pilot in a small plane, get him to fly you over duck holes that are being hunted or at least have decoys on them and also where live ducks are sitting. Of course don’t fly close enough that you disturb someone’s hunt, but close enough to get a comparison.
I promise once you see a spread versus real ducks, it will change the way you hunt forever. The main difference you will see is the motion. Live ducks produce trails and decoys just sit there. What do you do to produce that motion? I am doing two things to produce motion. I am using a jerk string or making water move with my body in the timber.
A jerk string produces a similar motion to live ducks and has been working for years for the most successful hunters. If you are using a jerk string in the field, I would add one thing. I would walk out into the flooded field every once in a while and stir the mud. I would make the water look dirty or muddy just like a real duck would in the field.
In the timber, if you don’t have a jerk string, make motion by kicking the water or even just swaying your body back and forth. Any movement of water in the timber gives ducks the confidence to come close enough to mash them up.
Remember one thing when you are walking out the camp door. If the wind stops blowing that morning, how am I going to make motion? How am I going to make my duck hole come alive? If you can produce motion, then you are one step ahead of 50% of the other hunters you are competing against.
