Creating A Realistic Decoy Spread

Just what is a landing zone? A landing zone is an invitation. It's an invitation to those birds that are in the air to join the birds that are already on the ground or in the water. It's your "Welcome Home" sign.

The easiest way to describe a landing zone is to use the letters C or U. Imagine that your decoy spread is in the shape of either a C or a U. As you can see, the area between the beginning and the end of the C or U forms what is referred to as a pocket or landing zone. Additionally, you will notice that the area is wide open. There is nothing closing it up. This unobstructed area is what we consider the pocket or landing zone and it's what you want to have in your decoy spread.

There are three critical components in creating a landing zone.

The first is the size of the zone or the hole. You must make sure that it is large enough to accommodate the size of flocks you'll be working. As a rule of thumb, it's better to have a landing zone that is a little on the large size rather than one that is too small.

Second, the flight lane to get into your landing zone should be clear of decoys. That's right; you don't want the approaching birds to have to fly over your decoys to get into your pocket. Many times ducks and geese will land short of your decoy spread if they are forced to fly over your decoys to get to the landing zone.

Finally, regardless of the decoy pattern you choose to use, make sure that your landing zone or zones have clear openings that resemble the opening of a C or a U. Doing so will insure that you have a proper landing zone.

Creating A Proper Landing Zone Pays Off

Many years ago a friend and I were scouting a small river that had recently been flooded by an over abundance of rain. It was early in the season so most of the crops were still in the field. As we were traveling on a gravel road that over looked the river bottom, we spied a flock of mallards circling a cornfield that was flooded by the river's overflow.

As we stopped and grabbed the binoculars the ducks disappeared. Fortunately, within a couple of minutes, another group reappeared and once again began to circle the flooded cornfield. This time we were able to pinpoint exactly where they went down. We quickly tracked down the farmer who owned the land and we were granted permission to hunt.

Since both my partner and I like to be prepared for anything, we decided to pack in as many decoys as our decoy bags could handle. Between the two of us we managed to pack in almost six-dozen decoys.

As we approached the spot, the ducks erupted as expected. As we continued ahead, we found the spot that the ducks were dumping into. The ducks were landing in an area that was void of corn. This low spot in the field was flooded out earlier in the spring so the corn never had a chance to grow and mature. The spot was only about 20 yards wide and less than 30 yards long. The ducks were landing in this spot and then swimming into the field to eat the corn off the stalk.

As the ducks began to come back, we hastily threw out all six-dozen decoys in the low spot and hunkered down in the corn to begin what we were sure of would be a quick limit of ducks. To our surprise that didn't happen.

The first group of birds came right off the flooded river. As they cleared the timber their wings were cupped and locked. We hit them with some feeder chatter for confidence. Instead of dumping right in they swung wide of our spread. We hit them with a couple of quick comeback calls and turned them on a dime. We were sure they were ours now. But instead of dumping right in like we thought they would, they banked hard to the left and disappeared back towards the river.

After a quick analysis of what just happened, we were convinced we were not hidden well enough. So we backed further into the corn and hunkered down even lower. It wasn't long and a second group began descending on us. This time the birds weren't mallards they were gadwall and the only question I had was which two I would take. To my amazement the birds reacted the same way the mallards had and once again we were left empty handed.

Looking over the situation, we started to go down a checklist of what the possible cause of this dilemma might be. As we studied what had just happened to us we were sure that it wasn't concealment as we were hidden very well. It definitely wasn't the location, the birds were here and they definitely wanted back in and it wasn't our calling, we were using our calls sparingly and when we did use them the birds responded very well. That only left one other thing, our decoys.

As I stared at our decoy spread, I was impressed at the number of decoys we had hauled out to the middle of nowhere. Then, while looking over the spread, I realized what was wrong. We had not created clear landing zone for the birds to dump into.

The birds we had flushed, far outnumbered our decoys, but unlike the real things, our decoys didn't swim into the corn to feed. Once the ducks that landed swam into the corn, they cleared a path for incoming flocks to land in the same spot. It wasn't the fact that the birds that had been working us didn't want to land; rather they couldn't find a place to land.

We quickly dispersed the majority of the decoys into the first few rows of the flooded cornfield and left a couple of dozen decoys sitting in the hole creating an enticing landing zone. As luck would have it, another group of mallards were starting their decent upon us just as we finished rearranging our decoy spread.

As the ducks rapidly approached they started to spill air and loose altitude quickly. They overshot the hole on the first pass and we hit them with a quick series of comeback calls. They responded and instead of continuing to circle like the other groups had done, these ducks dropped right in. Each of us dropped a double on greenheads and, as they say, the rest was history.

As the example demonstrates, to create an effective decoy spread, you must create a landing zone for the ducks or geese to use.

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