Pick one of two for me please...

Morning team!

Leading up to this years shoot I'm lucky enough to have two ponds to hunt... 1 is a largish high country dam with plenty of manuka bush and some raupo (I say high country but it's only 150ft off the Manawatu river), 2 is an upper valley dam surrounded by trees... Last year year we shot option 2 when faced with extremely calm conditions and our shoot was about the worst I've ever had, ducks were seen miles in the air but nothing even thought about having a look. This years weather forecast now looks almost identical to last year for our area, hence the reason I'm looking at the other option...

Let me know your thoughts please? Maybe our decoy spread last year was wrong for the type of conditions?? Any help in that department would be great too!

option one......
1# raupo is good habitat
2# option 2 sucked last time
3# being close to river you could well sucker in birds trading up river or ones sick of being shot at on said river.
loads of movement beats loads of still shapes anyday,if you havent got coin to spare rig up a dipper duck or 3 ...small hole drilled in end of beak with nylon ran down through heavy weight and back to maimai......if they drift a bit even better you slowly dray nylon in making bird swim then pull it upright and bob its bum ito the air ....it really makes good movement and can mesmerize ducks if done right,just be sure YOUR movemnet isnt seen,this year Im pinching the pokers from home to run nylon through,sunk down into muddy bottom they should keep it out of dogs way nicely.

Go for the one with the most ducks!:O_O:

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Originally Posted by Maca49

Go for the one with the most ducks!:O_O:

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Sage advice Maca. You are such a wise old bugger.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Maca49

Go for the one with the most ducks!:O_O:

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yep count the feathers multiply by ten and shoot there.
plus id go for the raupo and manuka just cos i could.
trees on a dam are a fuckin nuisence:D:D:O_O:

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Originally Posted by Micky Duck

option one......
1# raupo is good habitat
2# option 2 sucked last time
3# being close to river you could well sucker in birds trading up river or ones sick of being shot at on said river.
loads of movement beats loads of still shapes anyday,if you havent got coin to spare rig up a dipper duck or 3 ...small hole drilled in end of beak with nylon ran down through heavy weight and back to maimai......if they drift a bit even better you slowly dray nylon in making bird swim then pull it upright and bob its bum ito the air ....it really makes good movement and can mesmerize ducks if done right,just be sure YOUR movemnet isnt seen,this year Im pinching the pokers from home to run nylon through,sunk down into muddy bottom they should keep it out of dogs way nicely.

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That sounds like one of those simple things that works amazingly... Will have to give it a go! Cheers Micky.

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Originally Posted by Maca49

Go for the one with the most ducks!:O_O:

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A sage indeed... However - we went for the dam with the most ducks last year though... of the 50 that left in the morning, 6 came back! After pondering our last effort over several warm beverages today we've come to the conclusion that we suck, and our decoy spread was terrible.

If I recommend one and you go to the another you'll be fine, I always get in the slowest lane, so it should work here! I recommend......
The good olde Manawatu, great fishing if there's no ducks!;)

Dundee would have you believe there is... I have about as much luck with fish in the river as I did with ducks on the pond last year! Although perhaps technique and tactics can be blamed for both!!