What do you consider essential decoys

[Gopackers]

If you're hunting anywhere on the Columbia River, make sure you have a lot of coot decoys, as there are thousands of them and every duck on the river wants to hang out in the coot wads. I use 3dz of them, and a few each of wigeon, redhead, cans, and bluebills mixed in. The mallards will decoy all day long into that setup.

[eastsidemallard74]

Good advice, do you use heavier weights?

[Night goat]

Sounds like I need to get more puddle duck decoys. A pull string spinner, some goose decoys, and maybe some divers

[Stein]

If you are on a budget, stick with mallards as they are vastly cheaper for the low end stuff.  If you have a few bucks, I would suggest the 6 pack Avian X floaters as you can get wigeons for about the same price for mallards.

If you are packing them in on your back, teal decoys don't take up much space.

[Gopackers]

I use the Ace Decoy Anchor brand in an 8oz weight for the Columbia River spread. For salt water on the Skagit Bay Marsh , I primarily use 60" Texas Rigged with a mushroom shaped 6oz anchor as it's quicker to pick up, and re-deploy to account for the tide swing speeds.