I figure I'll just get this over with. The ducktoon flared big ducks like a SOB.

We did shoot 4 limits of ringers and teal but the gaddies, wigeon and of course the pins wanted nothing to do with us.

I was dead wrong about them not caring about it.

Functionality wise it worked great so I guess before we totally give up on it we are going to try and brush the crap out if it. If that doesn't work we will tear it down and use it as a layout platform or something like that.

For now it's back to layouts at that particular place anyway.

sucks, I figured you would at least get one or two good shoots before it became off limits to the pato's

Hat's off to you Brady...I know that was tough to admit. Not sure which was tougher though...admitting to the blind flaring birds or having to clean a limit or ringers

I think it will work if you brush the heck out of it and make it look like an island.

be sure to break up the square edges real good

I've heard the crow and ringers taste the same so you seen basically already there.

As for the brushing, I've seen a guy take t posts and drive them a few feet out from the blind and then attach larger branches. Really helped avoid what garret is talking about and it looked like a natural island instead of a square box of brush.

Brush it out, like you said you will, and see if that helps. No reason to give up, especially if you can use layouts in the meantime. Good luck.

Are there any cedars around the pond/tank you hunt on?

We had a watershed loaded with ducks and geese one year. Water was way down on it with 30+feet of bare bank from the water to the original grass line. There was no way to hide one guy much less 6. My buddy swore up and down we could brush a boat with cedars since the water shed was surrounded by them and the ducks/geese wouldn't pay them no attention. I told him it would never work. Even as I sat in the blind, and we killed several birds feet down I wrote it off as it just being early. We finished with 6 limits of geese and ducks that day. I'll admit I ate crow. I never thought it would work. Birds were finishing 10-15 yards from the blind and never flared once. Pic from that day:

Somebody slap the life out of me, I painfully agree with Barneywho.

This man crush betweeen y'all is becoming pretty evident

I aint a hater

Mesquite and few big willow and oak trees is all that is around. No good cover near the water.

Thinking about loading up a trailer full of salt cedar from a near by lake or trying regular cedar from around the property.

Have you tried bread?

A woman at a small lake near the house consistently pulls dozens of mallards to within a few feet of her park bench blind. Something about that bread is what does it, and those ducks, they act as though they can't see her and will literally land at her feet. Shame she hasn't brought a shotgun with her, she'd limit in one shot.

Seeing how well that bread works, the thought crossed my mind that maybe she was hypnotizing those mallards but now I'm beginning to suspect there's some ingredient in the bread that makes people invisible to ducks and that they are rendered 100% invisible by the bread slices. Not sure if it's the gluten, wheat germ, or the way the slices are cut but I did notice some of the slices look errily similar to a stealth fighter so that may be what makes them invisible.

First experiment in the park bench blind was when I tried using straight bakers yeast like they use in bread, but it didn't work either so I'm pretty sure that's not it. I had plenty, more than enough to cover all my exposed skin. I smeared it all over (hunted naked that day) but the only thing it attracted was hundreds of flies. And cops. Quite a few few actually, My experiment successfully established the fact that yeast has some special property that attracts certain types of people. For yeast, it appears to be cops. I plan to continue my research to determine the yeast-cop connection next year if I can get the city to let me go back.

It's something else seeing her work those birds using nothing but a peice of bread. Though I have to admit she wasn't too happy about me getting a limit out of her birds.

Judd now if I can just get him to make gumbo and not that dang duck soup the world will be right!

When I said around, I meant area. Meaning it won't stick out like a sore thumb since there are no cedars within 100 miles. There was none near the water shed we used them on, but plenty in the area.

Should have waited for legal.

I thought you would be fine the first few hunts given the number of birds you were seeing. Respect for being straight up about it!

You could tack weld or screw concrete remesh to the entire thing, all sides and the roof. Then stuff it with two cedars worth of branches. Might have to re brush the top once they start dying but if you stick the cut ends of the side ones in the water they'll stay pretty green

That's what made it even worse. I wanted to throw up because of how many birds were out there. No wind and the 500 coots didn't help. We've had issues with coots pulling birds but we usually still get some to decoy. They would give us a look, act like they might want to decoy and then flare. Didn't even have any decoy before LST.

Ramball36, that is the plan right now. Cover in goat fence or something like that.

Buck, scout the day before and place the ducktoon as close as possible to the X, but within ~100 yards of the nearest place to set up in layouts on the bank. Throw out a large spread at said spot on the bank. Probably not the best long-term solution, but I would bet this will get the job done in the meantime.