Leaving decoys out

[blind-ambition]

Would just like to get some opinions on leaving decoys out. Do you pick them up after every hunt, at the end of the day, or at the end of the season? I've always picked up at the end of the day. No matter where I'm hunting, whether it is public or private land.

[khines2]

i always pick mine up. i have hunted some places that is in some of the best hunting area in arkansas and in every single hole there is a few dozen decoys that have been sitting there for no telling how long. half the decoys are sinking and black. it kills me to see these holes pretty much wasted with them littered with crappy decoys. but its not my place so i dont cant say anything about it

[farmweather]

I have always picked mine up after every hunt, unless you know you're going in the afternoon. I'm no expert nor claim to be, but from what I can tell it depends on location. Typically you can used your discretion based on how the ducks behave and make a judgement call. Hope that helps.

-buckshot

[quack_a_tack]

I prefer to pick mine up every time, although I have hunted clubs that leave them out all season. I have personally had better luck putting them out everyday. If you are on the x it does not make much difference.

[BLM]

We leave ours out unless its going to be more than a week or so before we get back. We'll add and subtract decoys depending on what's working at the time. We always move them around to change up for wind, etc every day.

Props to you boys that are picking em up every day...either you're only using a couple dozen dekes, or you gotta several folks in your group that don't mind working an extra hour or two every day.

[Faithful Retrievers]

Right at 400 we leave them out. As it gets later we drop the number and will pick them up through the week to setup diff spreads. As of now I havent seen enough ducks to make me pick up shat. I have asked alot of knowledgeable hunters about this and most will reply, when we pulled up to the x did you see any dam decoys? I think several dozen life like birds setup properly gets them in over the large spreads, but I am not up for the work until the birds are here. Another thing most put them in a circle around the pit. How many ducks you seen all laid up in a circle around a big lump of grass?

[landscaper]

I prefer to pick them up anyway, but I've seen things freeze up for several days and coyotes walk out on the ice and chew the heads off about 4 dozen!

[novacaine]

If i don't pick mine up every time then i don't have any decoys to hunt with the next day cause i don't hunt the same place 2 days in a row. If i did i would still pick them up. The most i ever put out was 2 1/2 dozen. This time of year i am not putting out more than a dozen- sometimes less. I put so much hip action on a 2 duck jerk string it looks like a dozen "Rocket Dancers" out there!

[duckstorm]

Ha i've made the mistake of leaving decoys out on public land. I wasn't afraid of them being stolen because it was a hard spot to get to and just figured people would be happy to just hunt over them when we weren't there. That worked for about 3 weeks until we went to hunt it and some guys not carrying any decoys tried to come in and hunt on them. So, of course they set up fifty yards away and just tried to call and shoot off our ducks. To put it nicely, we exchanged words. Instead of being smart and picking up the decoys, sure enough a week later we came back and they were all gone. Ha learn from that mistake.

[jdaves]

I hunt private land and I'll leave mine out if I'm coming back to that spot the next morning. However, if there's a chance of a frost that night I'll pick them all up. There's nothing worse than all of your decoys shining with white frosty backs. I've hunted with people who say it doesn't matter but they're crazy!

[pep]

my dad left them out friday, i hunted there saturday and all the decoys were white with frost and we killed four limits of mallards in about an hour, but i may be crazy. you gotta be where they want to be

[quack_a_tack]

Hey .... buddy ya killed 4 limits huh, frost and all I don't know ya but I am willing to go witness this for myself, otherwise I just can't believe it.