Species question around Abilene.

I do all my hunting east of DFW. Going out to the deer lease around Abilene this weekend and want to do a little duck slamming one morning on one of the ponds. I know it holds ducks at times, but haven't duck hunted it in abt 12 yrs or so, back when I was new to the game. What type of decoy spread would y'all pack in the truck. Gaddies, teal, pinnies, widgeon, mallards are what I got to work with. And plenty of each. The pond is maybe 2 acres. What ya think?

I wouldn't go overboard. Try and scout the day before and setup a similar spread as to what you see. There has got to be ducks in that area now.

Abilene is west of DFW

I would shoot some clays first if its been 12 years. Scout it one day if you can.. Then if you were to decoy I would put out gads and widgeon possibly mix in teal but on 2 acres I wouldn't take a lot. I would guess there isn't as much cover on 2 acre stock tank near Abilene as you are used to either. Take some sort of portable blind.

I definitely worded my question wrong. Let's try it again


East Tx duck hunter here headed out around Abilene to do some deer hunting. Place I hunt has a couple acre stock tank that holds birds. Hoping to get a duck hunt in one morning, but don't want to go overboard on carrying all kinds of gear and dekes with me since it's mainly a deer hunt. What would be the spread y'all would carry with ya.

For instance, my pond or slough spread for east tx is 6 gaddies, 6 woodies, 4 teal, and 6 mallards. What would y'all go with for out there?

Id throw out your teal and Gaddie decoys. No woodies and very few mallards especially south of Abilene. Before the front most of the small tanks weren't holding ducks but it may be different now.

Sprigs and widgeon if its close to Albany, a few mallards wont hurt. Gray ducks could care less what's floating

The fun part about hunting that far west is you'll probably shoot 5 different species of bird. One time we hunted out there and shot either 7 or 8 in a 4 man limit

I'd go with 18 or less dekes. Teal and Gaddies are pretty versatile dekes. Just pile up under a mesquite, be still and bust em when they come in. Good luck, should be easy hunt if you have birds. Also hunting with wind at your back on small tanks can be crucial to success.

We shot a 5 man limit Saturday near Abilene of wigeon, pintail, redhead, mallard, and teal. It was odd we didn't get a gadwall or spoonie in that mix. We shoot all 7 of those species regularly except for mallards.

Ducks showed up at my lease North west of Cross Plains. Lots of widgeon, redheads, ringers, gadwalls and a few teal. Should be a good weekend.

Looked good this morning when I was out scouting some places. I'd use some teals, gaddies, and mallards if you have them.

I've hunted ducks mainly around Abilene and just once up north of DFW. We shot teal, gadwall, mallard and hooded mergansers north of DFW.

My question is what ducks do we have here that hunters further east or north would not?

I've seen 12 species and shot 10 different species all around Abilene.

Shot
Redheads
Spoonies
Mallards
Gadwalls
BWT
GWT
Pintail
wigeon
Hooded mergansers
Ring necks

Seen buffleheads and canvasbacks but never shot one.

I wouldn't worry too much about which decoys to use. I've seen puddle ducks drop in spreads of just about every decoy specie imaginable as well as painted plastic soda bottles, foam blocks, rough shaped wood blocks, etc. I have some grey foam dekes that pulled birds for years that have zero resemblance to any particular duck. They're roughly shaped like a duck, that's about it.

The fancy, highly detailed dekes work best decoying credit cards out of wallets.

0 women for you?

Sorry man..guess your to busy being a dick as well

Cinnamon teal used to show up every now and then out there. We also had a client shoot a goldeneye.

Asking a question. And answering your own question. In the same post.

A duck huntin Einstein. I'm impressed...

Obviously I was asking what else anyone has seen and if those species are not seen around DFW because I've only hunted there one time. Didn't think it took a "duck huntin Einstein" to figure that out.

I am just interested and one of the things I love most about waterfowl is the variety of species.

Obviously he's not einstein! Haha buddy just had to pull your leg. But I agree it is interesting to know what type of ducks are in areas other than where we hunt.

Where I hunt we typically see gadwall, woodies, teal, mallards, spoonies and some pintail....in roughly that order give or take what type of scenario your hunting. Also do have some widgeon, and divers at times.

First day i checked the pond, it was frozen over with no ducks. Second day had 7 gaddies on it. Pond was way lower than it usually is, didn't see enough birds to make me want to hunt it. Thanks for the advice tho