First Flight Decoys / Rockland Outdoors
 

Has anyone used any First Flight Decoys from Rockland Outdoors? I am thinking about buying some of their gadwall decoys and teal decoys.

Any feedback or advice is welcomed and appreciated.

Thanks
Robbie aka Big Hutch

I think the teal look good. The grey ducks kinda lack detail in my opinion.

That's cheap though i will pick up some teal and coot decoys from there for sure

I have some, the detail is ok, the quality is not ghg level but the price is great.

X2 on what everyone else pretty much said. I have their GWT. http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/...ps05a288c0.jpg

Check out Dakota Decoys. My friends in Ne. use them.
$$ Ouch !!!

Yea the Dakota's are ridiculous flocked decoys are nice but if their close enough to see that detail then they're coming home for dinner

Disagree. Late in the season when they have seen every cheap, raggedy decoy around, they will swing in for a look at those when maybe they would have kept on going.

Sometimes it's not about getting them in close enough to shoot, it's about getting them in close enough to get the opportunity to get them in close enough to shoot.

They know when food is there from high up, and know a safe roost from high up, why wouldn't they be able to spot a realistic set of birds from up there after being trained by crap dekes for the last 2,000 miles of flight?

Well I'll still Whack em with my ghg gear brotha it's really opinion and budget but to get back on topic I'd hunt over those first flight decoys.

First Flight Decoys / Rockland Outdoors
 

Thanks for all the comments. I am probably going to buy some of their gw teal decoys. I think I will either buy more GHG gadwalls or break down and buy some G&H gadwalls.

Where can you buy G&H decoys in southwest LA?

Thanks
Robbie aka Big Hutch

I have two dozen of the GWT I bought at the end of the season and will put them out this year.

Also, I can see paying a lot of $ for a nice flocked SPEC decoys since you only needed 3-5. However whom ever thinks high priced duck decoys brings them in closer have not ducked hunted too much or too long!

After thirty two seasons of duck hunting I have learned a little but I am still learning. We have killed decoying ducks while standing outside the blind when someone was in the decoys picking up ducks with the motor running. If a duck wants to come in you have to try hard to stop them. Other times nothing you can do will get them to commit.

What I am considering in the decoy choice is durability. If after 1 season half the new decoys you bought last year are leaking around the keel and have lost all their paint, is a "cheap" decoy really that cheap? My argument is that when you use as many decoys as I do, 150-200 per blind, at 2 blinds. I can't afford to replace half of my decoys every year. I also dont have time to re-rig that many decoys each year. Now if I only used a couple dozen then who really cares how much they cost or how long they last. Heck I would probably buy custom made decoys made of wood or cork just to add to the huntng experience.

Just my two cents.
Robbie aka Big Hutch

Looking at buying a few dozen Rockland decoys; are they still holding up for y'all?

I bought 10 dozen of the Gadwal decoys and the paint was off them by the end of the season. The Teals held up good they still look like they did when I got them.

Decoys
 

Kool, thx for the feedback.

X2....after 2 years the paint started to come off of my Teal decoys.

Coke bottles or bust

Speck floaters

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Quart milk jugs, flat black with white on bottom, white cap. Place these close to the blind. In just a light wind those jugs move real well with a flicker of the white bottoms. Very realistic when used with quality decoys further out.

i disagree. i believe late in the year it depends more on concealment and making your calling more realistic. yes the birds are looking at your decoys but they are worried more about where that noise is coming from.

i have hunted over the same speck decoys for a very long time. the flocking is peeling off and they are so faded that they look almost grey. i feel i would have had the same success over brand new decoys in the same situations. like someone said earlier. if they can see the paint on the decoys flaking then they are too close and should be hanging on your bird strap.

as far as ducks go, i believe it is more about the contrast of colors, white and black... when you see ducks on a pond from far, what do you see? black or brown dots and white on a pintail or spoonbill chest, that is it. all of this detail painting is to fool people into buying more expensive decoys. buy the most durable decoys you can and if you feel like they are fading, just slap on a little brown and white paint.

that is why coke bottle theory works so well. paint them black with a strip of white and what do the birds see with those bottles are spinning and floating,? the flash of dark and white. contrast...

but then again that is my opinion. and everybody is different.

When specks settle down after the opening few days,they always seem to line up on the sound and for me,it is like they don't even care about the decoys

HOWEVER,I did an experiment to see if we really even needed speck decoys after 4 seasons of using a redbone,and oh yes,even though it seems like they are ignoring the decoys, WE NEED THEM

I got cocky,thought,oh I have world titles,we don't need decoys---WRONG ANSWER--JOHN

I have and am in the process of painting all our goose decoys,nothing fancy,super flat paint

And as mentioned---make the white stand out

You can put out wood carved dekes that cost $400 each.. if you dont have the two different types of motion that are present in a natural spread of birds youre just wasting money. Ive witnessed birds choose a spread of milk jugs over another high dollar spread because the two types of motion were present, and the hunters might not have been the best callers but they knew when to call which is just as important.

My opinion is there's a place for cheap decoys and a place for expensive ultra-realistic looking decoys. If I'm hunting over a spread of 4+dozen decoys I don't think the expensive decoys make a difference. But if I'm hunting a small pothole targeting mallards, and mottled ducks with less than 2 dozen decoys I believe it could make a difference.

Coke bottles are great if your hunting over 100+ decoys and leave them out all season.

A buddy of mine kind of new to hunting said last year, man don't throw out those old nasty decoys. (These nasty decoys have worked great and will continue to work) but I was hunting his place so I played along and bit my lip. The point is, opinions are not always generated from sound experience and I'm sure he's not the only one who think ugly decoys don't kill ducks.

What about this scenario

I have a mixed spread

newer full bodies in goods shape and older repaints

My thought is to put the best looking stuff toward the periphery of the spread and the older stuff closer to the blind

I strongly believe in concealment and reading birds

Do others on here place the best looking or newer decoys toward the periphery,or just mix and not worry so much with decoy placement?

like previously stated i think it depends on situation... if you are hunting late season potholing ducks, then yea grab your best dozen you can.. same thing with geese, if you are trying to put the old sneak attack on some specks and plan on using half dozen, then yea grab your fully flocked fancy shmancy.

if you are hunting a big pond/large field cuts and are planning to use the most decoys you can then i really dont think it matters. mix in the old with new.

I, too try to incorporate that theory. When I guided, I used 400 duck decoys in the marsh. I would always put the "prettiest" ones on the edge of the hole that I wanted to them to decoy to. In the marsh that I hunted, SE or E was the predominant wind and the best for my blind, so, I'd also put some more "pretty" ones so they could bank and see those first. Not saying that it mattered. I'll never know, cause that's what I did every time I set them for the splits....

Flat black coke bottles are legit!! Takes little to no wind to move them and they do some good dancing. Once that flat black gets wet, it makes one hell of a shine on them.

Sooo what Wal-Mart is selling the $35.00 a dozen Flambeaus?

Saw some 1 liter parade pineapple pops on sale 10 for a buck. I'ma holla

Cop dat.. My pops has had a big water marsh blind for the past 8 seasons or so, and we have the best success on the entire property aside from a few pot holes on the far edge of the lease. There are about 6 blinds that basically all shoot the same birds, as in, they generally stay in the same flyway and break off that to check stuff out. No one is really directly in the flyway so I've always felt that everyone as far as blind locations go, have the same opportunities to kill these birds as we do. We share a huge body of water with 1 other blind. This blind gets dropped every year, and a new group gets on it. Sometimes they'll put out 2 dozen, but occasionally they'll have a group put out a mondo spread. Our only goal is to have at least three times as many dekes than they do. So we've been going the coke bottle route for a while now, and it works. Usually about a 20/80 bottle/decoy ratio. All we do is paint them like a scaup and throw actual nice scaup dekes around the edges of them to kind of hide them. The only downfall is when the waves get bad they flip all kinds of stupid ways, although this might actually help us out with the motion, but it looks awful. Also, if there's any paint chipping and the plastic is showing, it shines like a diamond. I've heard of people coating them with tar, and I'm sure that works better than the paint, but have never tried it. Just don't expect to finish birds in your dekes. Better stone em first pass. Besides the scaup.. they f'n LOVE it lol. On another note I just purchased all the stuff to flock decoys instead of just touch up paint.

Where is Bigizzle aka Bounce DA HEN....
I would really like his input on this....lol

x2

He couldn't be here but he sent this message....

Attachment 95741


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Not ducks, but geese, but I've had specks land next to full body specks in a rag spread, and on top of rags before. There is no one right answer. All situation specific.

Probably still staking out dat Lacassine Flyway.......:shaking:

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Borden don't make no good stickers, I aint using no milk jugs. What you going to do peel the sticker off the milk carton and put it on your back glass of your F-250 or on your yeti? I'm sponsored by Borden Baw, back up off me!



















































































J/K

Insulting! I have you know I drive ONLY Chevys and use K2s! Kleinpeters jugs are better....I use local!;)

Dude I almost forgot about the Lacassine Flyway, that was an epic thread.

Can't forget bout the lacassine flyway dude. That's the honey.

There was also a thread about hunting in west cove.

Sshhhhhh!!!