I have the pleasure of writing a monthly pro tip for my buddy Pete Plasmier's website "The Outdoorsmen's Voice." I submitted my first pro tip a couple weeks ago and wanted to share it here too. Check it out below. If sea duck hunting interests you and you have any questions shoot me an email at dtmasportsman@yahoo.com.
While I have been duck hunting most of my life, sea duck
hunting is a sport I just recently got into. Over the past two years myself and
some friends have been putting more and more time into figuring out the best
way to hunt these open water birds. One of the main reasons it took so long to
get into hunting sea ducks was the burden of having to buy a new spread of
decoys.
Most duck hunters know to have continuing success it is
important to have good looking decoys, whether buying the hot new models on the
market or taking the time to make your own good looking decoys it is usually a
very costly and or time consuming process.
After researching the way these sea ducks (and scooters in
particular) are hunted we found many groups of hunters who found quick and
inexpensive ways to make a sea duck spread. I have heard of hunters using all
painted bleach bottles, to taking old worn plastic duck floaters and painting
them for sea ducks. The good thing about sea ducks is they aren’t as particular
as puddle and diver ducks when it comes to decoys. The first string of decoys I
ever made consisted of 12 laundry detergent bottles that I had saved and spray
painted all flat black. We put this string together with my buddy’s string of
black 2 liter soda bottles and went out sea duck hunting. I was amazed how the
scoters would decoy right into the spread of detergent bottles and empty two
liters. After seeing mallards fail to commit to spreads made up of high end
decoys costing thousands of dollars I almost couldn’t believe what we were
seeing.
So if you are looking to try something new, start saving
your detergent bottles, empty 2 liters, milk jugs etc., paint them black and
head out after some sea ducks. If you are in an area where a good amount of
birds travel it can be an action packed hunt. Most people don’t like killing
animals they won’t eat, myself included, and sea ducks have a reputation of
being inedible, but that is untrue. My favorite way to prepare sea ducks is to
freeze them all until the end of the season and make a big batch of jerky. Stay
tuned to the recipes section for my Sea Duck Jerky recipe at the end of this
hunting season.
Full skies & tight lines…
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