With duck season winding down here in the states, the Argentine lodges such as Los Crestones are gearing up for another exciting year. Here are some late season duck hunting tips to make you more successful during those last few days of the season. With the motion decoys, like Mojo, becoming almost a necessity, the ducks see these every day. Especially during late season when the ducks are more call and hole shy, I like to take the spinning wing decoys out completely. With the mojo's gone, I am only left with a jerk cord and my legs to make some ripples in the water. There are a lot of different ways to make a jerk cord, and they all do essentially the same thing. Many companies such as Rig'em Right offer jerk cords in their line of duck hunting products for those of you who do not have the time to make one yourself or just do not want to make one. Just a few quick jerks when the ducks are making their pass can be all it takes to make them commit. In my opinion, I have found that these work wonders when calling in those late season ducks.
As a general rule, I have found that the later in the season it gets, the less calling that needs to be done. Especially down there in the south after the ducks pass through the Arkansas guys hail calling and giving them everything they have to get the ducks to give them a look, this can be key.
Lastly, decoy placement and presentation might need to be changed up a bit. After talking with many guys at the duck clubs, it seems that most people use two dozen decoys and a mojo or two. This is convenient and really is all you need to be successful in the early season. Now that ducks have seen literally thousands of similar spreads, I like to either go "all out" or very small. Sometimes it takes 8 dozen decoys or more to convince that big group of ducks to commit, but my favorite thing when being creative during this time of year is to take about 6-10 decoys total. I have found that this along with some soft calling can be that special recipe to make all your buddies jealous.
Here are the multiple types of ducks you are able to hunt in Argentina. Argentina is a smorgishbord full of many different variations of ducks similar to what we hunt here in North America. Their colors are vibrant like their North American cousins. Their flight and migration patterns are very similar to the ducks in the Northern hemisphere. The only difference is that because they reside in the Southern hemisphere, the ducks migrate from South to North using the Parańa River like our ducks use the Mississippi River. It is very interesting to see the similarities in the landscape in both continents. We consider Canada the pot-hole and breeding ground regions for our duck population, where as the Buenos Aires province in Argentina serves as their largest breading grounds. There are 5 different types of Teal, two different types of Pintail, their southern Widgeon, and Argentina even has a Spoon Bill-which is just as ugly as ours in the states.
We are in Booth #4326
Show hours:
Thursday 10 am -6pm
Friday 10 am-6pm
Saturday 9 am -6pm
Sunday 10am-4pm
It is safe to say that everyone avid dove hunter has had his or her fair share of days where they are not able to make any dove fall out of the sky. There are so many factors that go into harvesting these delicious birds. One crucial step that works for us here at HookFire is when you are not hitting the birds, do something drastically different. Whether it is leading the dove two or three times more than you have been, or setting the gun down and taking a walk to relax your muscles, this could be all it takes to get back in sync. If that does not work rethink your aiming strategies. If a dove is coming into range with a strong tail wind, you will have to lead the dove nearly twice as much as if he were flying unnerved into the wind. Also, dove seem to have many different speeds. Sometimes, you can nearly put the bead on its nose and make the dove explode, but when the dove is flying like he has a rocket attached to him, a 3-4 foot lead may not be enough. After watching hundreds or even thousands of hunters in the field, there might not be a clear reason why hunters consistently are missing birds, one constant factor that holds true 90% of the time is most hunters tend to stop their gun once fired and do not follow through the shot. There is no fool-proof formula for being the best shot around, but spending time in the field with repetition simply is the best way to make your shooting better. Keep it simple and remember to keep your gun moving throughout the bird.