We (my son and myself) really enjoy hunting the diversity of waterfowl species that are available here in Western Washington and have found that the best luck for finishing ducks for in your face shots having decoys of the species you want or expect is a big help. In short I'm a big believer in having some diversity in the spread.

While you can shot everything over a mallard spread most species seem to prefer their own if given a chance. Today 3 of us hunted some sheet water that had been used by the typical array of puddlers over a spread of 2 dozen full body mallards (placed on the shore/water edge, 20 widgeon (placed in open water), 4 teal (off to the side in shallow water, and 4 pintail (more in the center and with some separation from the widgeon). The result was a nice mixture of mallards, pintials, green wing teal and widgeon for full limits (also used both a mallard call and whistles).

10 days ago I had a solo hunt on the salt targeting teal. The spread was 6 widgeon (4 drakes and 2 hens) and 10 teal decoys. The result was a fun shoot on in your face teal (feet down cupped wings) requiring only 10 shells for a 7 bird limit (which for this so-so wing shot on teal is exceptional).

I would think if one wants to expand their spread adding a 1/2 dozen pintail and another 1/2 dozen teal would be a good additional to a basic 2 dozen mallards. If there are many widgeon in the area adding a dozen or two of them can be a plus.

However it should be noted that especially for a late season hunt a small spread (a pair of mallards or 3 or 4 teal) can be deadly. An added plus is that it allows you to be very mobile.

However a word of caution; especially for those of us that in addition to puddlers enjoy chasing various divers, some sea-ducks, snow geese, canadas and brant one can become decoy poor and storage an issue. You will find it helps to have a regular partner to share the decoy burden and you will want to build your collection with high quality dekes over time.

Curt