Methods of Decoying Woodies and Teal

[Duck Hunter Paul]

This is a question to all you guys who have posted up about killing Woodies and Teal. How do you hunt them? We just got some new ground that has so far had only woodies and teal and they don't seem to decoy like the mallards. What is the trick to hunting these guys? We have killed some, but they have all been passing shots. I don't mean to sound stupid, but the other spots we have, you might see 5 woodies and 3 teal all year, we saw over 200 woodies Saturday morning and we only killed 3
Thanks
DHP

[HRK]

good question i dunno! the seem to decoy to our mallard deeks just fine here in mi.

[IowaMigr8tor]

We usually set up mallards and a few teal deeks. You will occasionally have them land in the decoys but most of your shots are going to be pass shots. They will come in once and then swoop out. Most of the time they come right to the decoys though and we always have a great shot on teal. I have yet to shoot a woody this year, I havent been hunting in my usual spots due to college and other obligations.

[h20fowler]

Woodies are very tough to decoy into a "in your face" shot. Typically wood ducks by nature will fly by, through, land wide, and swim back into the group. At least that is what I have been seeing. We shot 8 this weekend and every group did this same thing.

Teal on the other hand, I don't know. I have never had a problem with teal landing in my face. They seem to decoy better for me then any other duck.

[wingslocked]

For me they would always land with my goose blocks that I have set up out side of my duck spread. For this weekend I had 1 1/2 dozen mallard dekes, 1/2 dozen woodie dekes 1 dozen greenwing teal dekes, and 1/2 dozen pintail dekes. They never decoyed with the ducks they just went for the goose blocks. I dunno if its because they feel more protected when there with them or what but thats just what I saw this weekend. Well good luck to you

[takem]

i usually find a downed tree on the water edge and through 6 woodies deocys and they decoy right in, also through ring neck decoys in front of the woodies and they come right down the shoot,

[Killer Miller]

It seems like anything works on teal. I dont know if they're just generally dumber than other ducks or if its because they're the first birds to come through, but throw a few decoys of any kind out and ur in business. At least thats what it seems like here in Iowa.

As far as woodies go, you have to be where they wanna go. In my experience, woodies dont decoy very well unless you are where they have been hanging out. You might get a passing shot or something but thats about it. Me and my dad setup on the edge of a pocket full of lilly pads one day and we shot a few mallards and a few woodies, and the rest of our limit was teal. The woodies we shot were just passing by too close and we whacked them.

[AlliZay1]

In Northern Indiana getting or limit of Woodies isn't to hard, usually I've seen them land wide of our Mallard decoys and then work thier way down the edge of the cattails or downed timber and and join the group. I've probibly shot more on the water then in the air by far. Teal aren't to plentiful around here and kind of just show up, we usually throw six teal dekes out by our mallards for confidence and if they show up their not to hard to get to land.

[Wild Wings]

For us the teal just seem to come on in but the woodies will give you more passing shots then anything.If you can find their feeding area they will decoy as well as any other duck.The best woodie shooting I've found was close to but not in a roosting area.They seem to usually fly low and in the same places.Set up an hour before dark and give it to em when they fly thru.This can be some of the fastest shooting you will ever have with six bird limits being shot sometimes in only a few minutes.

Wild Wings

[Richie]

I know for me it depends on where I am hunting. On creeks, rivers and waters such as that, the woodies seem to just fly right in unannounced and drop right into our spread. There's not much we can do to call them if they aren't interested on first pass. As for teal they do the same. Show up almost un noticed and drop into the spread. Now on lakes, ponds or large open water we don't have many woodies here that like that kind of water. But then again if they are there and want to come in they just drop right in. Teal usually pass by and land way out on the water like a merganser would, in the middle of nothing. I don't think there has been one time we had successfully called in woodies or teal.

[Justin Mcdonald]

Wear I'm at all there is are woodies teal and ring necks I have sucsesfully figurd out how to decoy in wood ducks for a 15 yard shot, no joke. You should use a combination of wood duck decoys and ring neck decoys and stick to smaller spreds woodies are small flock orinented birds I use about 1doz woodie decoys and ,2doz ring necks mostly becouse ring necks have bright colors to atrackt high flyin birds and dont use robo ducks or mojo mallards just strait up decoys. If that dont work then I can't help ya so good luck and good killin.

[Duck Hunter Paul]

Thanks for all the info boys, we'll keep you updated on what we have learned.

DHP

[TwinCreeks]

Use small groups of all woodie decoys, motion is good,but they are usually coming to fast for it to matter. I like to split my groups up into small pods in about groups of 4 and then another of 6 something like that.
Can't say the same about this season but last season there wasn't a day in the early season I didn't get my limit....and continued to have success later on.