What's working for you now?

What strategies are working for you now? Small spread or large spread? Jerk cords? Spinners? Call or Quiet? Sitting with decoys or moving up wind? Small water or big water? Share you productive strategies. No names or places, just proven tactics.

Bigger the water and groups of dux I see, the bigger the spread. ALWAYS a jerk rig unless it is really windy, never a spinner. Call only when they turn away.

That being said, if you're concealed and where they wanna be the other stuff don't matter much.

I like to wait till legal time and liste to who is shooting the most, then go set up 50 yards from them. Then I blow hail calls at every bird, especially water turkeys, I have 17 Mojos and shoot only 3.5 inch black cloud BB's out of my extra full choke. Don't forget the face paint either, you gotta make sure to put cool designs too, it only works if you paint cool designs. You also gotta have a black hoodie and make sure when the birds aren't flying you play fetch with your dog in between you and the guys you set up by. Since I have 3.5 inch black clouds I can hit anything within 100 yards, so everything gets shot at, including water turkeys and ibis and any other shorebirds. Blinds are over rated so standing on the bank with no cover seems to work alright, besides when you get there after daylight there's no time to build a blind anyways, sometimes I hunt from my boat in the open water with Mojos in my rod holders. Good luck

These are all the fun things I witness on a daily basis here in the good old centex.

True, but not really a strategy for full straps. That more like a way to have a fist fight at the boat ramp.

On a serious note, just scout, find the birds and set up on the x. After that it shouldn't matter much about anything else besides being hidden.

We have a lot of birds roosting on a slough at our place and have yet to determine how to hunt them successfully aside from a PM hunt that could potentially spoil the roost. There are a lot of birds flying in the area, but are showing little interest in our sets. I have added a remote for spinner that can flash at a distance and then shut off as they approach. Jerk cords, calling and wishful thinking have all been applied to try and draw the birds in close enough for a shot. We are having fun working the puzzle.

A roost hunt once in a while won't really spoil them too bad. Especially if you smack the first couple groups that come in and then bail out before dark.

As for trying everything else? Scouting and being where the ducks want to be when they're feeding/loafing in the morning is what works. Otherwise, I'd say hunt it from 3pm-5pm once a week.

Ive been having luck with a dozen or so decoys and 5 higdon duck butts on calm days...looks like a hot tub but the ducks seem to like it.

8 floaters on a jerk rig is what we've mostly gone with, not seeing many more birds than that on our spots anyhow.

If you shoot the roost but stop at sunset you won't hurt anything. The hard part is actually stopping at sunset

We are hunting private, and have switched from big spreads to a total of 3 decoys. If there is wind no jerk string, if no wind the 3 on a jerk string. No calling if the birds are working. If they want to leave, a few little quacks and feed chatter to try and change their minds is working for us. Having much better success getting them in the decoys and not flaring off at 50 yards.

Scout and find ducks, and where they want to be, that is what is most important.

But if there is no wind, I'm not liking the spinner, say 5 mph or less (the water is glass), I just go with jerk cord, it has good effect on glass water, and spinner I do not think is good, maybe first 30 minutes, but pull down after that. No wind you can hear the spinner, no good JMO.

Love the spinner when it is windy, I put mine on a long poll like it is landing in my spread pocket, and with the wind mine kinda swings back and forth, and looks just like a duck hovering to land into the wind.

Well we tried the roost hunt and nothing showed up until about 10 min after legal. We watched the show and for 20 minutes it was amazing, a lot of ducks roosting on the place. The next morning, 10 min before legal they are all up and out of there and don't come back till the evening. Should be just keep trying and assume one night they will come back earlier? We were hoping since it was overcast that would help them come early, but it still didn't help.