Where do you guys like setting up your jerk rigs? I hunt several types of water from small puddle ponds to big lake coves and creeks. Decoy spread typically varies from 1-3 dozen, mix of mallards, pintail, widgeon, and teal. Learned to hard way last year that its always better to go ahead and set a jerk rig or two in the morning rather than praying for wind. I typically set out mixed family groups for my spread trying to keep the pintails and widgeon a little further out towards the edges. Do you guys like to put your jerk rig right in the middle of ur groups? Moretowards the deeper edges? Or in the gaps closer to the bank in the landing area?
I tend to put them in the middle of my groups, keep a little extra tension on the line and slowly let it out when the birds are finishing. Any thoughts are appreciated

I cant really give a definite answer because the birds will tell you what they like. I usually start with it close to my landing zones. If they don't like it there, then I will move it around until they start finishing where I want them to.

That seems to make more sense, thats definitely where i think they'd be focusing. Last year was a rough one for us, a lotnof mornings we would only get 2-3 groups. So, im trying to go with the best place to start so as not to waste a group. Thanks for the help! Any other tips?

I try to anchor mine to my mojo pole so it looks like some just landed and some are getting ready to land. I put them on both sides of the kill zone.

Ya, that sounds good too. Litte bit of movement and sill leaving room to land.

I don't like messing with a jerk string, hard to hold my gun, my coffee, and pull jerk string. So I only set it up if I know there will be little wind, and the water will be glass with out it. In which case I set it and it becomes the center of my spread, it hold 4 deeks, so there will be deeks all around it... The key is that ducks don't bust you pulling it. When birds are coming in and close I do not pull it, if they are circling, I pull at their back. Just give the water some ripples so it is not glass.

I got a pulsator last year, it worked great, I'll probably use the jerk string very little now.

What Guy said.

Pulsator.is.your.friend.

Ive been meaning to look into pulsator decoys. Seems like a great idea.

I have a half dozen of them. Seem to help when they're needed.

Those of you that use pulsators, do they flare ducks at all like mojos tend to do down here mid/late season?

I only use it when water is glass. I would rather have wind and no pulsator, than no wind with a pulsator. No wind is bad, pulsator helps but still not good.

Thanks for the info

I like two groups of decoys, making a spot to land where I eat to shoot. Set the jerk on the leading edge of spread inside that hole.

I just mix them into my decoys. We like to put out several dozen at least and put the pulsators scattered through the spread, nothing in the hole. Works for me but I attribute most of our hunts to luck.

Thanks for all the input fellas! Went scouting yesterday. Spots look good, just didnt see too many ducks yet.

Pulsator works well when the water is glass smooth and I'm sitting dry. If I'm humping gear a ways and need to cut weight, I'll use a jerk string. I set up where the dekes don't attenuate the ripples, typically on the edge of a spread.

Setting up static dekes and motion dekes is a matter of trial and error and preference. If you're seeing birds and they're not finishing, don't be afraid to change your setup. There's as many different ways to setup as there are different types of waterfowl hunting and typically, no two hunts are the same. If I see something someone else is doing that works better than my methods, I'll ditch what I'm doing and use their way of doing it in a heartbeat.