Darren Digby As we flip the calendar to January and the home stretch of the 2014-2015 waterfowl season, it's time to buckle down and get after them hard before a long offseason. There's nothing more frustrating about the offseason than thinking of what tactics or new locations you "coulda-woulda-shoulda" tried before you ran out of season days.Recent fronts have brought good numbers of birds to the region but we're unfortunately already seeing typical late season patterns that can make hunting them a challenge. On recent trips the birds have been observed rafting up in large lagoons or out on the tidal lakes.
New birds have arrived following recent fronts When they do come into the marsh they're often favoring the middle of the larger ponds, avoiding points or other land masses like the plague. If you've got access to a layout boat or other means of setting up in middle of larger waters, now's the time to give it a shot. Otherwise, look for small islands to set up on if it can get you out away from the bank. Typically you'll want larger decoy spreads for being out in the middle of big waters in order to mimic the rafts of birds the flights are keying in on. That said, for more typical setups, I'm starting to scale back my spread right now for a couple of reasons. The first is that since the beginning of the season most hunters have been putting out roughly two dozen decoys on every hunt. The birds wise up to that and will either only commit where there are hundreds, if not thousands, of birds, or will land with only a couple of birds out in the open. Don't be afraid to scale back to even a pair of well detailed dekes or even no decoys at all. The other reason to scale back is to be more mobile, taking a run-n-gun approach to your setup. Scouting will show you where to start but if the morning flight is elsewhere you've got to be ready (and willing) to hustle a quick change of location. When you're on the move, the fewer decoys the better!
A quick move 30 mins results in a hefty strap Also, don't get married to any one spot! We've all got our favorites that have produced over the years but some days you've just got to go where the birds want to be. This is not the time of the season to be hardheaded and trying to sway birds your way; go to them! A hunt this week started at a blind that had been steadily producing hefty straps but when shooting time came around there wasn't a bird trafficking within 400 yards. We quickly moved where we'd seen a few go down and the birds were coming back in around us as we tossed decoys. With just over three weeks to go, it's time to hunt hard but also smart to finish the season strong. Good luck guys!
