Blind Ambitions

Okay, so know we have our decoy spread all set, it’s time to look at how to make it come to life. An important fact to remember is that live geese are rarely dead still, but our plastic decoys are. We need to add some motion to the spread and make the decoys seem more lifelike.

This is easy to do on the water, because even the slightest wind will make a few ripples and the floaters will move a bit. If not you can add jerk string line. Making a jerk string rig is easy and cheap.  Here is how. Take an old coffe can, empty gallon paint can or something similar. Buy a bag of quickcrete (a couple bucks) a large eye bolt, some weed trimmer line or a tangle free line, some large brass barrell swivels and a rubber bungee cord. Fill your can with the wet quickcrete, then put the eye bolt in the concrete leaving the eye sticking up a few inches and let dry. The take the bungee cord and attach it to the eye of the eyebolt. Use pliers to mash the “S” hook on the bungee so it will not come loose. At the other end of the bungee cord take the “S” hook out and attach the tangle free line. I like clear weed trimmer line instead, but either will work. Either tie the line off to the bungee cord or use small crimps. Then slide your swivels down the line leaving a few feet between each one. Now all you have to do is attach the decoy line on the decoys to the swivels. Drop the weighted can in the water to act as an anchor, spread the decoys out and run the line all the way to your blind. Then as the birds approach, a few quick tugs on the line and you have decoys moving and water rippling. Instant motion.

 For land sets, adding motion is just as simple with shell decoys. You can either buy commercially made decoy motion stakes, or make them yourself. I buy 3/16″ round rod, and cut them into 12″ sections. Then buy a bunch of rubber sink washers that fit tight on the rod. Add some duct tape under the washer so it will not move (I like orange duct tape so we can see it when we take the decoys down at the end of the hunt and we won’t leave a piece of steel rod in the ground), and add some reflective tape to the rod so I can see it with the flashlight while setting the decoys. Drill a 3/16″ whole in the back of the decoy. Drive the motion stakes into the ground (a rubber mallet in the layout blind helps on hard ground) and set the decoy on the stake so it is resting on the rubber washer. Now the slightest breeze makes the shells bob around and adds tons of movement to the spread.

These are a couple quick and easy ways to add motion to your goose spreads, and put more geese cupped up, feet down over your blind. If you have questions about these ideas or want to see pictures, leave a comment here, and I’ll try and get some pictures of my jerk string and motion stakes posted up. Tomorrow we will talk a little about flagging.