need advice on wood ducks

oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
complete rookie, just love to hunt wood ducks.

hunting a creek that they are definitely using. if we guess wrong and set up in the wrong place first thing (or if we hear others land in a different section), what would you do next. the creek is not floatable by boat but can be accessed by the bank along it's length. other hunters will not be a factor.

all i know to do is go up stream off the creek then come in on the creek, walk down stream and try to flush them back to a waiting shooter.

what do real duck hunters do in this case?

Thank You and please forgive my ignorance here.
 

Wildlifer

Old Mossy Horns
I love hunting the swamps and small water. The key is to scout. I know that sounds like the typical answer but I don't just mean to generally locate birds. I will try to get in a day or 2 before I plan to hunt and sit in a vantage point with my binoculars. I will try to narrow down exactly where they are landing down to the exact tree. A lot of time I end up in these tiny openings what I would never set up in otherwise. With wood ducks especially if you are not going to pass shoot them you need to be where they want to be. They tend to fly pretty hot right at first light and that ends up being your only chance. If I have more than a few groups consistently go a different directions, like the spot I picked was close but not close enough I will move if its reasonable.
If they are not landing in an area you can hunt they typically will use some type of funnel and you can pass shoot them there. I have a great spot in a swamp where a point of trees juts out towards a hard treeline. They tend to rather fly through the swamp and dead trees than over them.
 

nekkedducker

Ten Pointer
I have a similar situation on my property. I have two adjacent swamps divided by a beaver dam. Some days they use the left some days the right some days both. I usually walk down the morning before we hunt and inventory from a distance. Most of the time its two or three of us hunting maybe more if i see lots of ducks, but we just spread everyone out like a dove hunt. No decoys, everyone on the same side facing the direction they more likely will fly in from and everyone is in ear shot. Most of the time if a person doesn't get an approach shot they will get a pass shot at the leaving ducks within a reasonable distance. We approach wood ducks in a completely different manner than other ducks, like i said almost like dove hunting. In your case if you dont have enough people to spread out, nothing wrong with trying to sneak up on the birds on the water and either jump shoot them or as you said flush them to an awaiting shooter. As long as its within the laws and everyone is safe go for it.
 

bryguy

Old Mossy Horns
One of the permit hunts I do is basically walking a creek and jump shooting whatever is on the creek.


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ScottyB

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
complete rookie, just love to hunt wood ducks.

hunting a creek that they are definitely using. if we guess wrong and set up in the wrong place first thing (or if we hear others land in a different section), what would you do next. the creek is not floatable by boat but can be accessed by the bank along it's length. other hunters will not be a factor.

all i know to do is go up stream off the creek then come in on the creek, walk down stream and try to flush them back to a waiting shooter.

what do real duck hunters do in this case?

Thank You and please forgive my ignorance here.

I first need to know what it takes to be a “real” duck hunter?

It is tough with Woodies.....some times you can jump them up and other times they just swim away from the danger.....usually they get up before you have snuck up to where you want to be to shoot......it’s great exercise trying to get on them though.....it’s a total crap shoot on the creeks
 

Smitty010203

Twelve Pointer
Ive heard if your in an area where woodies have a couple spots to potentially land then you can take some of those foil pie pans, out them on a string and tie them to a stick so they are a few feet above the water and that will basically scare them away from landing in that area. Which in turns brings them down your direction.
 

Clark

Ten Pointer
We play 'leapfrog'. Guy1 walks into the creek while guy2 walks downstream, stays back so not the flush the ducks, then walks into creek. Guy1 walks down to push the ducks. Take turns.
 

nchunt101

Ten Pointer
I have a similar situation on my property. I have two adjacent swamps divided by a beaver dam. Some days they use the left some days the right some days both. I usually walk down the morning before we hunt and inventory from a distance. Most of the time its two or three of us hunting maybe more if i see lots of ducks, but we just spread everyone out like a dove hunt. No decoys, everyone on the same side facing the direction they more likely will fly in from and everyone is in ear shot. Most of the time if a person doesn't get an approach shot they will get a pass shot at the leaving ducks within a reasonable distance. We approach wood ducks in a completely different manner than other ducks, like i said almost like dove hunting. In your case if you dont have enough people to spread out, nothing wrong with trying to sneak up on the birds on the water and either jump shoot them or as you said flush them to an awaiting shooter. As long as its within the laws and everyone is safe go for it.

This is generally what we do. One of the best ways I have found to scout them is to deer hunt the swamp and see where they want to go.
 
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