Make Your Own Customized Motion Stakes

Here’s a simple and very inexpensive way to make your own motion stakes for your full body or shell duck decoys (the same method works for goose decoys as well). This method allows you to make stakes that can be used on land or in the water depending on your particular situation.

Start by purchasing 3’ or 4’ long hardwood dowels that are either 3/8" or ½" diameter. You can also use fiberglass dowels like the ones pictured below (we purchased these 3’ orange fiberglass driveway marker rods at Lowes or Home Depot).

Next determine how long you want your stakes to be. We have 1’, 2’, 3’ and 4’ long stakes and we will use different lengths depending on water depth and how soft the ground is.

Using the 3’ fiberglass dowels shown above, we left some of the dowels at 3’ to use in deeper water, but also cut most of the dowels in 1’ and 2’ sections to make two motion stakes from one dowel. If you are using a 4 foot dowel determine how many of 1’, 2’ and 3’ motion stakes you want or need and cut accordingly.

Please note, when cutting your dowels, we recommend using a hacksaw with a metal cutting blade and cutting them slowly. This reduces splinters and cracks in the dowels. Also, once you’ve cut your dowels you can spray paint them black, brown, orange or gray.

Once you have cut your dowels to the size you desire, you’ll need something that will hold your decoy in place on your motion stake and allow the decoy to sit properly on the stake and give it life like movement in the wind. We recommend using ½" Hard Rubber Flat Faucet Washers (see the picture below).

You’ll need to drill out the center hole of the faucet washer to enable it to slide on your motion stake. **Please note - make sure you don’t make the drilled hole to big. Instead, drill the hole so it is challenging to slide on. This insures that the washer will stay in place and won’t slide down your motion stake.

Place the flat faucet washer on the motion stake approximately 1" from the top and spray paint the top 1" black, brown or gray.

And there you have it! A quick, easy and inexpensive way to make your own customized motion stakes.