# mixed spread question



## honky kong (Apr 23, 2013)

We were discussing our options and the success rates of different spreads while out scouting last weekend. Thought I would reach out and see what others think. We were running 6 dozen fullbody ducks and had 3.5 dozen fullbody honkers. The debate was about how many of the honkers to use. And also how to use them. We ran kind of a j spread with the ducks and the honkers off to the back side kind of, with minimal success. Discussed whether or not we should have used the honkers around our blinds more for better concealing of the blinds. Also had 8 robos which seemed a bit excessive but just went with it. Problem we ran into with the whole deal was we had flocks of 15-40 ducks getting close but never finishing quite right. I was wondering if we should have turned the robos off or maybe it was too many robos... Please pick this apart with any advice. Figure the more people to critique this the better. I am by far the most inexperienced in our group so I didn't try too hard to tell the other guys how to set things up. Figure with the help of guys here maybe I can throw out some valid options next time. Thanks!


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## the professor (Oct 13, 2006)

Were you on the x? if so, try 2 dozen honkers and 2 spinners. Don't need to throw the kitchen sink at ducks if they want to be in there anyways.


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## teamflightstoppersND (Feb 20, 2009)

They may have been educated birds, did the field have geese in it when you scouted it?


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## honky kong (Apr 23, 2013)

It was mostly ducks going into the field but there were some honkers out there too. We were pretty close to the x, close enough that we didn't feel like we could go wrong. Hindsight makes us question if we didn't go too many robos mostly. We ran so many decoys in hopes to distract the birds from seeing our blinds. They seemed interested but just never got em quite close enough consistently. We did have a few smaller flocks on top of us and we got some good shooting just not like we have had in the past. Usually we only run 2 or 3 robos.


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## duckp (Mar 13, 2008)

If not closing,consider trying:
Most mallards in front with 1 robo.
4 geese around each blind.(maybe a shell on top)
Dozen mallards and 1 robo behind you.
Rest of geese behind them or 35-40 yds off to the side.


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## Old Hunter (Mar 8, 2002)

The birds you were hunting were either robo shy or blind shy, maybe both. If the field has little cover and birds are blind shy I have to run a big canada spread 150 fullbodies 4 doz pro II and 3 doz silosocks You need a lot of decoys to hide blinds if they are shy.I stick a number of sillouettes in the stubble straps of the blinds or silosocks over the blind.this is a common practice.
If you think the birds are robo shy try turning them off when birds approach and use duck calls, goosecalls and flag .Ducks respond well to flagging I run 4 or 5 robos, I am not sure if more is better. I run one by each blind on a short stake(robo low) so every hunter can reach over and turn them off. Remotes suck. This is not the best positioning for shooting the ducks but I am almost always hunting geese at the same time. Robo low does not spook the geese as bad a standard height. 
Good luck oh


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## fowlfreak (Apr 15, 2013)

A lot of the birds are really educated. We have had more success late hunting the edges of fields and using large spreads with no robos or layouts. They are picking those out like crazy because everyone uses them so they see them all the time. The other thing we have done is used half of our snow spread mixed with a few ducks in the kill hole. This is because a lot of the ducks where I hunt have been keying on where the snows are.


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## honky kong (Apr 23, 2013)

I think the honkers around the blinds is something we should have tried. We had em all off to one side. Also really regret not turning the robos off. Just totally spaced it. Two of the robos were on remotes and I usually shut em down when the honkers are around. I also feel like next time we should go back to the 2-3 robo setup. Our fields were not hard to hide in with a good amount of stubble still on the ground. Also we dug our blinds in about 6-8 inches so we were pretty well hidden.


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## SDMAN (Mar 8, 2014)

What I do is I put 3 dz. fullbody honker decoys around my blinds and behind the blinds, and put the 
duck fullbodys in front of the blinds with a couple baby mojos, works really well for me. 
 :sniper: :sniper: :sniper: :thumb:


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