I hate repainting decoys. The only reason I do it is the certainty that there is nothing worse in the marsh than a decoy which has become shiny.
Decoys don't come from the factory with glossy paint, but they get that way as the result of paint chipping away, revealing the smooth plastic underneath, or with time from being loaded and unloaded from the decoy bags so often the flat finished paint becomes polished.
Either way, the result is a shiny, duck-flaring decoy that can be worse than having no decoy at all.
I once had the opportunity to get a duck's-eye view of a marsh during the duck season while hunters were present. The plane I was in made several passes over occupied blinds at an altitude of a mere 100 yards.
I've decoyed thousands of ducks from that altitude and higher. I knew several of the hunters in the marsh over which I was flying, and I knew they had good decoys--ones with which you or I or anyone would feel confident hunting. As I peered under the wing from the clear, sunny midday sky, the problem with the decoys was glaring.
Every decoy I spotted floating near the blinds looked like a little white spot as we passed over. However, as we circled over a part of the marsh less accessible to humans--thus, more accessible to ducks--we were able to spot loafing waterfowl whiling away the midday hours. That's where the difference became evident. All the real ducks looked like little dark spots on the water.
Decoys--light, real ducks--dark. No wonder it is so difficult to lure midday mallards into shooting range on sunny days.
I've viewed thousands of waterfowl sitting on ponds, lakes, and streams; I've seen ducks flying high, flying low--ducks from every angle. On how many of those ducks could I see colors like the pictures in the books show? Darned few.
Most were merely dark silhouettes, outlined against a bright sky or bright water--especially if they were any distance away. Only if the lighting was perfect, or if the ducks very close, could I see the actual colors present on the live birds.
I'm no Michelangelo when I get a paint brush in my hand. Perhaps that's why I always dreaded the chore of retouching and repainting my decoys each year. Perhaps I just had better things to do. Regardless, it's no longer the headache it used to be.
The light-appearing decoys my friends were using showed me the problem. The dark appearing ducks I spotted while flying over the marsh showed me the way. Not only were doubts cast upon the importance of the gaudy paint jobs I labored to maintain each autumn, I suspected the bright-colored dekes might actually be a hindrance to a full bag of ducks.
Instead of getting out the bottles of mallard-head green, breast-feather chestnut, and the rest of the decoy paints the next time I retouched my decoys, I used only one color. I chose the deep, dark chocolate brown of a black duck's body feathers.
Using a wide brush, I quickly painted all of my blocks completely dark brown.
Gone were the vibrant green heads and bright blue speculums. Gone were the white borders along the drake's tails. Gone was the sedate mottling of the hens in the group. And hopefully, gone were the little white spots on the water the ducks viewed from a hundred yards in the air.
I really don't know what my decoys look like from above, I've not been able to repeat my flight over the marsh and have someone put them out for me to see from a duck's perspective. I do know the decoys still work as well, if not better, than they did in their former plumage. And surprisingly, they don't look bad, floating around the blind, from a purely aesthetic point of view, either. They look like real ducks.
Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but it does seem as though I can decoy those tough, midday mallards better than I used to.
I've never seen a duck flare from my spread of dark decoys, so apparently it makes no matter to them that the blocks they are stooling to are not multi-hued. Perhaps my theory is right. The ducks are so used to seeing their compatriots as dark spots on the water and they don't think it out of the ordinary when they see my plain, deep-brown fakes.
Getting decoys ready for the season is part of every waterfowler's chores. Check the anchors and lines, and repair or replace as necessary. Set aside any on which the paint is chipped down to shiny plastic, or with paint so burnished it has take on a sheen. Give these blocks a quick coat of dark brown paint and the job is done.
Copyright (c) 1996 Mike Schoonveld. All rights reserved.
Home | Library | Hunting | Wingshooting