Although he’s had times when he’s killed nothing but greenheads, D’Arbonne Refuge and Upper Ouachita Refuge duck hunter Chance Havard said he has learned a little decoy trick he believes helps him get more ducks within shooting range.
“I’ve got a mix of decoys — probably eight dozen or so — but I usually try to put out more hens than drakes,” Havard said. “That gives me a darker spread, which to me looks like a variety of ducks.”
Now if he’s killing nothing but those greenheads, Havard will show them a lot of mallard drake decoys, but since those days are the exception rather than the rule, Havard puts out the hens because he feels like they look like a larger variety of ducks resting on the water.
“To me, it looks like it could be six different species rather than just a bunch of greenheads out there,” Havard explained. “Most of the time, we’re killing a variety of ducks, so I want it to look like there are a bunch of different ducks on the water.”
Besides mallards, Havard said he and his buddies kill widgeon, gray ducks, pintail, teal and some black jacks. However, Havard passed on that last season they killed more mallards and teal than gray ducks.
Regardless of whether he’s putting out a bunch of hens or greenheads, Havard explained that he likes to put out a lot more decoys and spinning wing decoys during the first split than he does the second.
“I might not even put out a MOJO during the second split, and I might only throw out eight decoys rather than two dozen like I do the first split,” he said. “But after that split and it gets later in the season, the local ducks get really shy.”
