First & foremost..this topic is not intended to start a war..but to get a feel of what direction waterfowling is going.
My opinion on Robo and all the other mechanical contraptions is that they are putting a hurt on the juvenile population ..no matter what species it is.I will admit I am set in my ways and after duck hunting for the last 43 years out of 53..I'm starting to question the "numbers" that are being put out every year by the USFW & Du..
What's your view ? I still use a Jerkcord.

I think jerk cords are too deadly.






Like live bait in a BASS tourny; ban it!!!!

I do not believe an all out ban on mechanical decoys is prudent or necessary. I do believe that on some public lands the robo has been a major detriment to the quality of hunting and the ability for areas to hold birds consistently.

1554 ,
I agree 100% with that statement!!

Why do you question the "numbers"? Have you hunted any where other than TX?

X2 hunt north of the Red in late season and its eye opening when you have open water

Barney,

I have duck hunted for the last 43 years,out of those 43 years I have been hunting for 30 years..the decline in numbers is remarkable,especially Teal.

No...nowhere outside of Texas.

Pretty much my point. If I only hunted in TX, I wouldn't believe the numbers either. Fly ways and crop rotations have changed over the last 43 years.

Very true..so has climate..I love hunting in Dec in a T-shirt..

Freakin Al Gore !!

I am glad people use robo. It makes my job easier. They came out strong and effective. Now, not so much. I had 6 at one time. Now I have 6 broken ones. I hate jacking with them anyway. Thump Thump Thump Thump, Knock Knock Knock Knock.

I don't have any reason to not believe the numbers. I've never flown the potholes or been a part of the census.

What I have seen is specific fields holding 100k plus ducks while the area within a 5 mile radius of that field was nearly completely void of ducks. Everyone in that area was running around griping about how this is the worst they've ever seen it. All the while a few miles away was a concentration of birds that just blew your mind.

In my experience this is often the case. If you're not killin em, someone else is.

I myself have never flown over them either..I'm just basing my opinion on what I see and observe in my area.

I believe that in my hands, a duck call is deadly weapon...

So that's what I'm missing..

How in the world can a mojo in another cove/ across a cove/ different portion of a lake or wherever affect your hunting? It doesn't; not negatively anyway.

The only way it can impact your hunting is if you are using them and are hunting birds that are shy from them. As for the birds that are mojo shy go they simply find another area to be in. Usually in someones spread that was in the right area and one that isn't using a mojo.

The same argument could be said against decoys in general. Birds see decoy spreads, get shot over them and get wise to them and land where they aren't. I guess decoys keep birds from holding on a lake consistently. Hunting pressure moves birds. Not what decoys people are using.

I use both jerk strings and robo's. They both have a place and time. If your hunting a public spot where thers one spinning every 300 hundred yards than leave them at home. Hunted public last winter and didn't use them and we killed our fair share on a regular basis. The jerk string was much more effective on public water.

On our private spot we used both depending on the time of season. Over all the jerk string was much more effective on private/public than a robo when used correctly.

On the numbers side of things, we are in the hay day of the last 40 years. Thats why this sport is so popular right now. Weather & food are the major factors that affect what we see at the end of the flyway. When Kansas & Oklahoma have mild winters & food there is no need for them to come down. This past fall when those states were getting weather earlier in the winter we were picking up new ducks regularly. When the patterns stablized late in the winter and those locations had milder weather there were a lot of ducks north of us.

You answered it. The Mojo has polarized birds in some areas. They either love it, and get killed, or hate it, and leave.

Yes, the answer is pressure impacts birds. Pressure being an impact of something added to a natural setting that is not natural and generally disrupts normal behavior. The argument against the mojo in this case is that it has a higher impact than just a normal decoy spread. Mainly, that you can see it and know of its presence from a greater distance than just your average spread. So it creates more of an impact and increases pressure.

Basically a lake full of hunters with mojos disrupts normal bird behavior more than a lake full of hunters without.

In areas of flooded timber, or decreased visibility, the motorized motion attracts birds, but only until they figure out what it actually is. The argument there is that ducks are drawn to the motion but won't commit into the trees, they dip. When people shoot at the dipping birds it increases the pressure further. When every hole in the trees has a mojo in it, the birds get hole shy faster. Then they leave or seek out areas of thicker timber thus disrupting the normal behavior and decreasing overall hunting success.

And the exact same thing can be said for ANY decoy. Birds come in, get shot at and learn to avoid that particular look.

I don't believe mojos burn out entire areas any more than any other decoy. Just my opinion.

My view is that I only use the dove spinners for early teal, jerk cord the rest of the season.

A few years ago when they were more effective I did use duck mojos during big duck season and I never noticed a relatively high proportion of juveniles. We took the same "age demographic" so to speak with jerk cords.

Its no different than the all mallard spread. They get shot at all the way down here from all mallard spreads and learn to avoid that. That's why this year the guy just down the shoreline was watching ducks drop into my mixed spread and flare over his all mallard.

There are times to use it, I usually have good success with on opening day and then put it up. I will use a mojo if I am in thick stumps or a timber hole for visibility. Teal season definitely.

Yupp and the invention of the Ice Eater has changed up the patterns up north imo. Not as many birds are making it down here to us in Texas

Try and follow along, this might be over your head.

Game management 101:
Manage the population and set limits accordingly. . . ACCORDING TO THE POPULATION.
Set other regulations so as to protect the population from non-hunting influences.
Such as: Steel shot to prevent lead poisoning of all types of wildlife. Shooting times to encourage proper identification of species. Magazine limits to reduce the numbers of cripples.

If the limits are set correctly and adjusted each year to be appropriate to that years population, it does not matter what "technique" you use to kill them. In fact, hunters are encouraged to use techniques that will improve their success. If hunters are restricted in the techniques they can use (i.e. don't use Robos), thus making it more difficult for hunters to be successful, the result will be fewer hunters purchasing license and stamps each year.

Take for example allowing deer hunters to use feeders. Good game managers want hunters to be successful within the limits they have established by understanding the population. If waiving a pink ribbon over your head resulted in an instant limit of green, game managers would be all for it. If they see a population impact, the limits would be adjusted.

None of the supporting regulations are in place to make your hunting more difficult.

That's a great response littledog..

Only thing I can say is the "Hunter" numbers are not down...it is now "cool" to be a duck hunter.. Thanks to Duck Dynasty.

It's easier for me to catch more Reds if I use 4 hooks...but I won't .