Tips for duck/goose hunting.

[vandeman17]

If the hunting is decent then making a trip Saturday and Sunday would be fine by me. We can make plans when we get closer to the time but most likely we will just meet up with you guys in Vantage early Saturday morning. Will be a good time for sure!

[gasman]

Sounds good  we will keep in touch and if 2 days dont work out, We will do some chucker and hun hunting 

[drk9988]

Here are a few tidbits from my world..
-Buy breathables they are worth it. Just layer underneath..
-If you happen on a good spot keep your mouth shut. Duck hunting is very competitive.
-Loose lips sink ships
-Use fewer decoys of higher quality (ie flocked and such)
-All newbies wear face mask or paint 
-Less is more in calling read the birds
- Your hide is more important then you think
-Keep the wind at your back
-Dont skybust its just a waste of Shell
-Where you have been hunting is basically over now..

[Wtrfowlr62]

^^ never tell where you been hunting, if your hunting on a certain part of the columbia river for instance and someone ask just say the columbia or just flat out say no tell'em river .

the biggest thing i think from experience is cover up and movement. if they dont see you and you dont move your hunting will be good. of course also be were the birds wanna be. calling, i would say also less is more.. a simple one quack can decoy birds. over time youll learn which call to use with the body language of the birds, again thats experience it wont happen over night. invest in GOOD waders now. your waders should be your longest lasting piece of equipment.. decoys, guns, calls, ect will always for some reason keep "acumulating" when you have enough money in the account  , just like big game hunting take care of your feet, without good boots you cant do anything no matter how expesive your gun, shells and deks are. Decoy set up dont have to be in fancy J's and V's and such, ducks dont plan out "hey guys when we land make a letter" watch real ducks they set up on water way different, BUT you can in some cases you COULD make like for instance a j dpending on where there flying, wind ect to make a nice pocket for them to land in, but for the most part theres not crazy science behind it. Another thing is dont get discourged. Not everyone goes out and kills 7 greenheads everyday of the season. you could be like me and go through two seasons starting out never limiting once! it takes time to find good hunting, and when you find it, itll be all worth the time and effort!

the BIGGEST thing for a new hunter is goodluck quitting, waterfowling is the easiest to get hooked on and impossible to quit!!

[Black Plague]

oh yeah ....learn your effective range ...then stay 5 yards inside of it ...    its nice if you have a range finder to check how far your decoy spread is so you have an idea just how far you can shoot ... I like to have some big pockets of geese out to no more than 40 yards so I know if a bird is on the inside of that he has a chance of getting killed...outside 45 your effective percentage goes down (unless you shoot crazy expensive loads) .... if you take a course on shooting, it will save you a lot of money in he end...

[bagmNtagm]

another thing about decoy spread is on the windy days duck tend to fly against the wind to slow down, so if your wind is blowing east ducks usually will come from the west for example. the thing about the big ducks they like to land on the outside of your decoys except teal will land right in em. so figure out the wind pattern set up your decoys not right in front of you but more to you left or right so that when the ducks come in just happens to be right in front of you.

[Wtrfowlr62]

another thing about decoy spread is on the windy days duck tend to fly against the wind to slow down, so if your wind is blowing east ducks usually will come from the west for example. the thing about the big ducks they like to land on the outside of your decoys except teal will land right in em. so figure out the wind pattern set up your decoys not right in front of you but more to you left or right so that when the ducks come in just happens to be right in front of you.

i will def second this, to be honest (learning new things every hunt) i noticed my birds landing just beyond my spread to the right (wind was blowing to my right) so i started setting up where i stand about 5 yards to the right, helps a lot and less stress of my girlfriend shooting my deks  . very good tip!

[Special T]

http://www.ducks.org/hunting/decoys/
Usually have some tips. i have a user submitted book with waterfowling tips that is good.
killing ducks is wrappe up into 3 basic areas.
1 Location.. If you are on the X you can kill ducks without calling or having any decoys. I have done it and others have too.
2 Presentation How life like you decoys look. This includes everything from calling, placement, and kind of decoys/calls. (I personally think the most under used calls are the shaker call and the 6 in one call)
3 Concealment. your personal concealment, your blind, boat, movement etc.

I think if you do a good job on any 2 you will kill some birds. Location is more important than anything else. 

[dfarley33]

The best advice I have gotten, was to join Washington Waterfowl....These guys have years and years of advice, and are more then willing to share it with you.   Go to a meeting, if you need info, pm me.
Dave