# central Texas duck hunting



## chronotrigger (Dec 18, 2008)

I am fortunate enough to be able to hunt a small lake on family land. This is near Granger lake. I haven't done much duck hunting and am pretty much a newb. I've been jump shooting quite a few times, but have never been hunting with dekes and calls until this year. IMHO duck hunting is as exciting as having a nice buck appear out of the woods. Them little jet fighters really get my heart pumping. I went with a buddy of mine (both newbs) this weekend and two weekends ago. There weren't near as many ducks as what I've seen there before, but it was still quite enjoyable. We killed a few ducks but were pretty disappointed considering I've killed more in an hour of jump shooting nearby stock tanks. I need to work on my calling for sure(I know less is more for the most part). I think that and the lack of movement in our spread is what hurt us most. I also question our concealment. I could go on and on. Any info on duck hunting, primarily central texas, would be much appreciated. Attached are some pics of where we were hunting.


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## aggie2015 (Dec 9, 2010)

concealment concealment concealment


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## btreybig (Jul 3, 2008)

Get a Mojo if your looking for movement. They work wonders early in the season. I dont like them late in the year. The birds get smart late in the season.


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## deebo (May 22, 2004)

jerk strings!!!! make them, use them. Also may wanna give the birds a bit more of a hole in your dekes.


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## El Capitan de No Fish (Sep 20, 2007)

deebo said:


> jerk strings!!!! make them, use them. Also may wanna give the birds a bit more of a hole in your dekes.


Right, and if your only using a couple dozen dekes try beaking them up into 3 or 4 groups, leaving a couple landing strips in front of your blind.


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## tealnexttime1 (Aug 23, 2004)

we never hunt w/ out mojos, u have to hide like crazy w/ them things most times, now sometimes it dont matter, if they want to be there they will hit it, good luck w/ the addiction cause, it never stops now


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## justinsfa (Mar 28, 2009)

Heres my take on Central Texas ducks.

1) Be there well before daylight. Its usually a 15 minute shoot RIGHT at daylight. 

2) Use a mojo or wonderduck paddling decoy. I swear by jerkstrings and always use them, but the cover isnt right out there and you can see the string.... I thought that that was rediculous, but after 5-6 trips with empty straps and wary birds, thats the only thing I could come up with.... plus, its such a short shoot, that you need to be concentrating on gunning rather than jerking.

3) Its perfect territory for layout blinds.... HOWEVER, since the shoot is so early, sometimes you are kinda wasting your time trying to completely conceal. 

4) Have multiple groups of hunters on your property. When those birds get shot at, they just fly to the next little tank, keep them in the air for a few more minutes by splitting up and each person sitting on a tank. I will guarantee you get more limits that way. Its VERY difficult to shoot a 3 or more man limit out of one spot. 

5) Hunt your place only 2-3 weekends a year, and spread those weekends out to about once a month MAX. There are tanks everywhere out there, and when they are pressured, they will just move to a different property. I have also found that late season produces the better hunts.

From what I have read, I think your biggest problem is that you are jumpshooting the ponds on your place. Thats the worst thing you could do if you are planning on setting up on the birds. There are thousands of tanks just like yours within just a few miles of your place. They will find sanctuary elsewhere even with the slightest bit of pressure.

We hunt our properties out there once a season. Thats it. Day 1 is awesome. Day 2 you can scratch out a few. Day 3.... NOTHING.

I dont think decoy species matter. Ive shot just about every species out there, even a canvasback! Really, the only reason I use dekes out there is to get them to land on a specific side of the tank so they will be in range. The birds out there already know where they are going.

Also, we do not call unless its a pintail whistle... that is it.... and thats just so we can feel like we are doing something productive.... haha


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## Spec-Rig.006 (Nov 2, 2007)

Wind will help your spread as much or more than a mojo in that country ... I second, or third, or fourth (which ever) the jerk string notion but like Justin is saying it'd be plainly visible there ... again a light wind on the dekes would help.

Another thing to consider from a committal standpoint with the ducks is that your deke placement can be very important. With the wind, the cold, and with ducks having picked a mate ... or being in the progress of picking a mate, you might want to tighten up your spread a little. Birds will raft in tight groups this time of year ... and always leave a hole for incoming birds to land in. Fewer dekes place closer together may be the way to go.

Shape of your spread and wind direction need to be thought about too. The first two pictures look ok, the last two are kind of sparse.

A final option is get some standing Mallard that you can set along the shore ... a tank like that can be good all day for a few minutes at a time and from a distance you'll often see Mallard (especially) standing on the banks sunning themselves away from the swimming ducks.


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## CoastalOutfitters (Aug 20, 2004)

i grew up hunting cen-tex

build several low natural blinds early in the fall

make the ducks land into the wind into your spread, wind direction is really key on these ponds

they don' like landing next to a high bank with alot of thick cover, they want to be able to see trouble coming.

spread the dekes in 2 loose clumps, with about 30' between them and hunt in the landing strip

paint some of your mallard hens flat black for coots


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## chronotrigger (Dec 18, 2008)

*Great info.*

Most of you who I hoped would post did. Thanks. It is true that we saw most of our birds right at first daylight and we did see ducks sunning on the shore across the lake. It seems that's where they wanted to go this season. A jerkstring is thick enough for ducks to pick up on? We would hide in the "reeds" for concealment. I plan on cutting out the middle of the reeds in the fourth pic and hiding within. Maybe trim a few spots so I can see out better. Less is more in regards to calling and decoy numbers later in the season. We were using pintail, mallard, and gw teal dekes. What's a good number of dekes for a lake this size early in the season? 5 dozen? Late season? 2-3 dozen? What about a small stock tank, a dozen max? Also, do I need to have the different kind of dekes somewhat grouped together by species, or can I mix them however? Tighter groups later in the season right? I also plan on buying a heron confidence decoy since there were quite a few on the lake where we weren't. I didn't know pelicans were around, but I swear we had a big white one working the entire lake all day long. Once again, I truly appreciate all the invaluable knowledge ya'll have shared. I might actually be more excited about this coming duck season than deer season. -God Bless-


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## deebo (May 22, 2004)

if you are thinking about getting more dekes, go with something different. I think this applies more to areas with more pressure, but every hunter out there uses mallards GW, and pintails. Go with some spoonies, wigeon and ringnecks. And coots. look at the birds from a distance (like now) and see how they are sitting on the water. there will be a group of 4 here, a pair 15 yds away, maybe a string of teal close to shore etc. they will be clumpy and spread out like others have said. some of the best advice was given above. dont jump tanks if you wanna hunt over dekes, let it rest, and scout the day before from a distance and see where the birds are on the lake and dont scare them. set up there the next morning


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## justinsfa (Mar 28, 2009)

deebo said:


> if you are thinking about getting more dekes, go with something different. I think this applies more to areas with more pressure, but every hunter out there uses mallards GW, and pintails. Go with some spoonies, wigeon and ringnecks. And coots. look at the birds from a distance (like now) and see how they are sitting on the water. there will be a group of 4 here, a pair 15 yds away, maybe a string of teal close to shore etc. they will be clumpy and spread out like others have said. some of the best advice was given above. dont jump tanks if you wanna hunt over dekes, let it rest, and scout the day before from a distance and see where the birds are on the lake and dont scare them. set up there the next morning


Good deke info. Late season means full plumage, which allows for use of highly visible dekes.... my go to dekes are the shoveler drakes.... you can see the white on them from a LONG ways away, more so than pintails because of the highly contrasting color change. I use em all out west... Pins, Mallards, Widgeon, Teal, Gadwall and spoonies... maybe 2-4 of each species. Pair them up late season.

Full bodies are just fun to look at when you are hunting... I will always put 4-6 of those out.... I just like the way they look.

Remember when you start to cutting those reeds, that the birds are coming in up in the air.... I see so many people with cover thick in front and behind of them, but none over the top.

Jerk strings are more visible than you think... I used one in the timber Saturday and ended up having to put it up cuz I could plainly see it, so I knew the birds could. Luckily, there was a blue rock road nearby, so a pile of those were the ticket on Saturday.

Ive never used confidence decoys, but I dont think they do that much good. I may be wrong, but it seems like a sales scam type thing to me. Your money would be much better spent on a water motion decoy (NOT a wobble butt, those dont move enought H2O)


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## chronotrigger (Dec 18, 2008)

justinsfa said:


> Good deke info. Late season means full plumage, which allows for use of highly visible dekes.... my go to dekes are the shoveler drakes.... you can see the white on them from a LONG ways away, more so than pintails because of the highly contrasting color change. I use em all out west... Pins, Mallards, Widgeon, Teal, Gadwall and spoonies... maybe 2-4 of each species. Pair them up late season.
> 
> Full bodies are just fun to look at when you are hunting... I will always put 4-6 of those out.... I just like the way they look.
> 
> Remember when you start to cutting those reeds, that the birds are coming in up in the air.... I see so many people with cover thick in front and behind of them, but none over the top.


Makes a lot of sense especially about the cover from overhead. We had cover overhead and behind (a few trees) where we were positioned. I felt we needed a little more coverage in front of us. A few times I wished I could of seen better behind us (we had some teal buzz us left to right from behind us), but I guess that won't be such a problem if we are successful in getting the birds to decoy. There are a lot of widgeon out there. I also need to get some good camo gloves or use some face paint when it's hot. I imagine a pair of white hands "attempting" to work a call would stick out like a sore thumb.


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## CoastalOutfitters (Aug 20, 2004)

would darn sure bring a whistle for one of your guys to always blow for wigeon

teal dekes would be closer to shore and off to one side

if you are buying another species of dekes get widgeons.

find a camo headnet and take an old pair of eye glasses and take the lenses out and stitch the headnet to the glasses so the eye holes are always in the right spot when you wear the glasses.


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## justinsfa (Mar 28, 2009)

CoastalOutfitters said:


> would darn sure bring a whistle for one of your guys to always blow for wigeon
> 
> teal dekes would be closer to shore and off to one side
> 
> ...


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## Spec-Rig.006 (Nov 2, 2007)

30 mi. West of Honalee engineering at it's best right there ... !


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