Five Opening-Day Secrets

Is there anything better than the opening morning of waterfowl season? After months of anticipation and preparation, that first hunt provides a rush of adrenaline unlike any other day of the year. The final minutes before legal shooting time seem to crawl by as you listen to the sound of wings whistling overhead and watch layers of color build in the eastern sky.

Despite all the excitement and high hopes, it’s almost inevitable that some things won’t go exactly as planned. That’s not surprising, considering that most hunters haven’t been in the field or marsh in months. Everyone gets a little rusty during the off-season. To help you get your season off to a strong start, we asked five veteran waterfowlers for their best tips on how to have a successful opening day.

Don’t Overdo the Decoys

Waterfowlers are notorious gear junkies. Blind bags, calls, boats, waders—if there is a piece of gear that could potentially improve our hunting success, we want it. That is especially true for decoys, as many hunters firmly believe in “going big or going home.” But when it comes to setting a decoy spread on opening day—and throughout the first few weeks of the season—New York outfitter Mike Bard advises hunters to think small.

“Using a smaller decoy spread at the start of the season is a good idea for a couple of reasons. First, because the birds haven’t seen a lot of hunting pressure, they are more
susceptible to basic hunting techniques. You simply don’t need a bunch of decoys to get them to finish in the hole,” Bard says.

The other reason to use a downsized spread, he says, is that it allows you to make changes later in the season. “If I put out every decoy I own during the first few weeks of the season, I limit my ability to change things up when the going gets a little tougher, particularly when I am hunting the same bunches of birds that have been around since opening day,” he explains. “If you don’t show your hand too early in the season, you have a few more tricks to use later on.”

Rather than going for large numbers, Bard focuses on placing smaller numbers of lifelike decoys in realistic positions to imitate what the birds are doing naturally at this point in the season.

“This is especially true of Canada geese,” Bard says. “Later in the year, these birds are more social and pack together more tightly, but in September and even into early October, you will see them separated into smaller family groups in the field.”

Location, Location, Location

Everything looks perfect. With a fresh layer of vegetation stuffed in the stubble straps, your portable blind blends in seamlessly with the fence line behind it. You picked the location for the blind based on where you thought the birds were feeding the night before, but it was tough to see their exact location. You may not be exactly on the X, but it’s the first day of the season. It should be close enough, right?

You hear the first flock of Canada geese in the distance well before you see them, and the birds are headed your way just as you had hoped. When they reach the border of the field, however, they start to slide off to one side, ignoring your calling before finally landing out of range. The frustration builds as the next two flocks do the same thing. What happened?

“Location is really important early in the season,” explains South Dakota waterfowler Tyson Keller. “For ducks and even more so with geese, at this time of the year being off the X—even by 50 yards—can be the difference between a great hunt and a tough morning in the field. Birds are less social and don’t respond to calling as well as they do later in the year. It is really important to set up right where they have been feeding or loafing.”

When it comes to scouting, Keller recommends marking the exact location of feeding birds in the field by dropping a pin on your GPS where you find the freshest droppings and feathers. A five-gallon bucket or utility marking flag will work just as well, and it helps to take note of any natural landmarks that can help you find the X in the dark before setting up.

“Before marking the location, however, be sure to allow the birds to leave on their own. If you disturb them, they may not return the next day,” Keller says.

No Wind, No Worries

Opening day weather is often mild with little or no wind, which is typically the bane of waterfowlers. But Colorado waterfowler Vance Stolz notes that hunters can still find success on dead-calm days if they adapt accordingly. “Without wind, birds will work the decoys from every direction,” Stolz says. “So I position my blind close to the water with all the decoys out in front of me. That allows me to see where the birds are working and when they are in range.”

A lack of wind also gives hunters the freedom to position their blinds with the sun at their backs, which helps conceal them in the shadows cast by surrounding vegetation or terrain, or they can face their blinds toward the roost or feeding area where most of the birds will be coming from.

“Early-season birds present unique challenges because they are still in family groups. Having little or no wind only makes things harder. Being able to keep your eyes on the birds gives you the ability to take shooting opportunities when they are available,” Stolz says.

Make the Most of Motion

On many levels, opening and closing days of the season have very little in common. For example, early-season hunters often have to contend with heat and mosquitoes, while during the late season keeping warm can be a serious concern. There is one similarity between hunting early and late, though, and that is the importance of motion in the decoys.

“I love to call. It is one of my favorite parts of waterfowl hunting, but there are times when I just have to put the call down and rely on motion to do the same thing for me,” explains Drake Waterfowl’s Jim Ronquest. At the end of the season, using motion is one way to work birds that have grown leery of calling after months of hunting pressure. According to Ronquest, calling can also produce similarly lackluster results on opening day, especially in northern states and in Canada.

“There is a switch that will flip at some point in the season when the ducks start to bend to that call, but until they do, I’m focused on being in the right location and using motion to get their attention,” Ronquest says.

Flagging works well for geese, and motion decoys are highly effective for ducks in the field, but Ronquest’s favorite tool for motion is the tried-and-true jerk string. “If you told me that I had to leave either my call or the jerk string at home, I’d leave my call,” he says. “I pull that string when the birds are on the corners just like when I would blow on the call. It just works.”

Focus on Fun

We spend the off-season dreaming of those perfect moments, when a big flock of greenheads or honkers lowers their landing gear and drops into the decoys at close range. But reality often doesn’t live up to our expectations, especially in terms of the number of birds that end up on the strap. That’s why Missouri waterfowler Clint Roby encourages hunters to stay positive and remember that hunting isn’t supposed to be a contest. It’s about having fun with your hunting partners and enjoying the outdoors.

“It takes a hunt or two to get your feet underneath you, so don’t get frustrated if things don’t go exactly as planned,” Roby says.

That is especially true if you are handling a young retriever or hunting in unfamiliar surroundings. “Opening day is not the time to surprise a retriever with a new dog blind or stand, so it’s really important to introduce those things before the hunt, even if it is just in your backyard,” Roby says. “The same goes for hunting from a layout blind for the first time. Don’t turn opening morning into a training session. You’ve waited all off-season for this. Enjoy it.”