You must know something that I don't.

I think as time goes on Brady will want to start brushing his stuff up

Why just pick one? If I was hunting this place I would build a permanent blind in the best location possible...Brush it in if you want.

If they start to flare from it later in the season or they change where they want to be use a layout boat or layout blind. You need to be able to adapt and change your strategy.

If during the season our ducktoon isn't getting the job done we will go back to how we've been doing it the last two seasons and brush in layouts as close to the x as you can get.

Maybe so. It's just hard to say its necessary when I just watched literally thousands of ducks drop in on top of a huge metal box ducktoon with absolutely no cover around it.

I'm not to proud to admit it if throughout this season hunting out of it I'm proved wrong.

You just have to realize, season hasn't started yet and the ducks are still kinda dumb.

Maybe. I started hunting a place second split last season. It had a big white pontoon boat sitting on the edge. The first morning I hid in some trees down from it and watched ducks land right by it. Next few times I sat right in the middle of that white pontoon boat with no cover, in camo and with a dog.....Limited every time I hunted it into January.

It also matters to some HOW you are limiting. Growing up we sat on the bank in the wide [censored] open and took 40-50 yard shots at nervous ducks. Now if I can help it I prefer to shoot them as close as humanly possible. That's where I learned the importance of hiding yourself well

Brady - To me, what you are proving is that you hunt some good spots. When the ducks really want to be somewhere, you would almost have to try to get them to go somewhere else. Once you have hunted in a larger variety of situations and environments, I think you will understand why pretty much every other duck hunter on the planet believes in brushing blinds.

this is a good post, even from a UT guy

This statement brings to mind how most of the areas I hunt are like. same deal, flooded cotton fields. What I did was buy a thin piece of plywood, the cheap stuff that is around $5 or 6 per 4x8ft piece and place my layout on top of it. My layout blinds are rubber coated inside and out at least 6" so I can sit in it and be completely dry while im laying at the water surface.

John boat with 2 inches of water in the bottom. Little bit of scouting.

I would 100% not build a permanent blind. As the seAson progresses they'll stop coming near it, especially geese.. But mostly because on a tank that size you may need to switch because of wind, or ice..
Buy a couple of neotubes for your layout blinds and be done with it...
Either that or make a couple of "body booting" goose decoys and gun em that way.

I would kill a lot of birds in my momarsh on that place, but probably not as much as buck in his boxtoon.

No doubt Guy.

Serious question though because I've been thinking a lot about this. I drive by a lot of tanks on my way to work and around in general. How many times do you see ponds covered in ducks with a big ol fishing dock protruding out in the middle, a boat, a draw down tube or even a shed of some kind on the shore. I see it a lot. None of those structures are natural. The largest groups of wild migratory mallards I've seen in this area were going into the Zoo to feed.

One big soil conservation lake I grew up fishing on a lot but have never duck hunted holds lots of birds year around and it has a pretty big floating dock right in the middle. Ducks do not seem to care one bit about that dock. If I was to hunt this place the first thing I'd do is hunt from that dock as long as I was concealed. A floating layout boat that's easily visible that wasn't there the day before is going to be more conspicuous than a structure they are used to.

When we first put out our "boxtoon" I thought it might flare ducks. Within a few days ducks were swimming and flying all around it. Maybe later in the season they will start to flare from it but I doubt it. Would it hurt to brush it in? No it wouldn't hurt one bit but no amount of brush on that thing is going to make it look like it belongs. Haha

Maybe I'm a newbie and don't have a clue what I'm talking about. I just take in my observations of duck behavior in this area and apply it.

As long as the docks don't start trying to kill the ducks they will remain unafraid.

x2

This

I'm gonna try a dry point that sticks out into open water in the morning. That point was loaded with pins and gads today, some in the water and a bunch just standing in the mud. Saw some green and sandhill too.

Taking my neighbor for veterans day, he is a good friend that fought in Vietnam. Hell of a guy with some crazy stories and he likes killin ducks...

A terrace runs out on the point and has some big tumble weeds growing on it. We will try to just brush in around those and hunt from there. I have plenty teal and pintail deeks so we should fool a few at least. We will see.

just make your decoys look like what you saw today, if that's how/where the birds want to be, do it. Do you have any full bodies?

good luck and good on you for taking a vet out.

No full bodies but I've had success putting a few regular pintail deeks on the mud the way I saw them today. Not going to be picky, we will slap a string of grey if that's what we get.

Still need a long term solution and want a huntable spot in the middle eventually...

Really really need to come up with a plan for this spot. Saw hundreds of ducks, but we weren't on the X. Still had fun and killed a few..

Ruddies!!!

Alright so new update....

First hunt last weekend- layouts on the shore, pic above, not on the X results: ugly 5 bird strap and a lost crip. Friends strap looked a little better with a pintail over my spoonie, but he pass shot that sucker(sky busting topwater/Barney )..

Second hunt was Saturday-tried Nav's idea of just dragging some tall brush out there and sitting in the water. Sure was rough dragging all that crap 200yrds in knee deep water over butt deep mud in some spots , but we made it to the X. Figured out we just flat out didn't have enough brush and wasn't about to go back for more. Flared group after group, scratch out a few dumb ones and wiffed on a couple fat mallards. Had some geese want to come in really bad, but they could see us...

So back to the drawing board. Pallets stacked up with layouts on top would work. Once we started talking about hauling some pallets out on a little john boat I have, we thought why not just make the boat into a big floating layout? Ever try it?

Threw out the ideas to the land owner of a big permanent blind out there in his field or backing an air boat in there somehow and both were shot down, he did think on the air boat for a second...haha

I have a number of different small hunting boats to cover different situations. It probably is not something you want if this is a one season deal, but if this is a place your hunting from year to year with similar conditions, I would go to layout boats. There are all sorts of home brew and commercial, old school and new school designs out there.

My decked pirogue would do well there. With the flat deck and a shovel I can match most shoreline terrain. It can be pushed, pulled, paddled, or poled. I simply slide a layout or blanket blind into it. And there is room for the dog to lay down behind me. Some of these type places the mud is so deep you don't want to move the boat or get out of the boat to retrieve birds without a dog. But everyone needs to have something low profile that conceals them well. The best layout boat is only going to be as effective as the worst layout boat in the hunt party.