Last weekend we had a steady 10-15 north wind for a morning with cloudy skies, wind going from our rt to left. We had the J hooking going into the wind with a single mojo in the pocket. We had about 10-15 yds of open water all around the mojo in the pocket. Right at first LST all the ducks that came in landed right in the middle of the decoys of the J hook up wind of the pocket to the right of the blind. They dropped in without any hesitation at all. The birds that landed to the right though were just out of range and we missed out on shooting numerous groups first part of the hunt. But as the hunt progressed the were landing right in front of us just as planned in the pocket. Any suggestions to improve upon the spread?

put the "J" right in front of the blind

Try a cursive J

Capital J or lower case?

I think the dot over the lower case j really helps.

If you use the Mojo for the dot then it gets really crazy.

On a serious note, when I started I used to do the "J" thing but then I began to notice that the birds never did this when they were on the water. It always seemed the were in mixed circular groups on the water especially if they were feeding and there was more than one species present. I run up to 36 decoys in my spread. I'll put about half to my left and half to my right in about 10 to 20 yard diameter circles and leave a gap about 5 to 10 yards wide in the middle, with the outside perimeter @ about 30 to 40 yards so I have an idea of "go" or "no go" on shooting distance. They'll usually land right in front of me everytime......my two cents

stop thinking so much and just throw the deeks out

J hook = mallard steaks

every time most of the time

When I started duck hunting 45 years ago, I also use to try all the J Pattern, X Pattern, etc. and always seemed to have the wrong letter, at the wrong time. After a few years experience, I just went with common sense. Wind blowing right to left, set up decoys just to the left of blind. Left to right, set decoys to the right of blind.

Lots of hunters like ducks decoying straight into blind, personally I don't care for that, due to ducks looking right at the blind when coming in. I am a puddle duck hunter, mainly mallards. The right to left, and left to right method, let's me set decoys close, and only haft to worry about hiding from which ever way you are expecting ducks. By the time they are in the hole it is to late for them. Anytime I can get the sun behind me, I make that happen also, but not a requirement.

I also like decoys set loosely, no decoy closer than 3' of each other. Ducks tend to huddle up tight when they are nervous, and ready to fly. Match your spread to the what the ducks are showing you in the area. If ducks are in groups of 2-10, my decoy spread reflects the ducks in area. Maybe 18-24 dekes unless there are large numbers of ducks moving with the front. If ducks in the area are sitting in groups of 12 or less, they are skiddish of 3-4 dozen spreads, when they haven't seen groups like that since the were in Canada.

Once I started matching my spread to what I was seeing in the area I'm hunting. I have been MUCH more seccussful.

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Use a more natural spread instead of focusing so hard on the shape. Just leave openings where you want them to land, and remember that they are likely to land short of the decoys when you are hunting a crosswind.

Life was much more simple once I took up this mentality.

J pattern is a diver rig. Divers need a tail to follow to the pocket. If divers are what you are targeting stick with it, if it puddlers use a split pattern. Half the rig to left and half to right with a toller in the middle