Eric Davis
Mayhood's Sporting Goods

CHENANGO COUNTY – New York, the season is slightly earlier (November 11- December 31 this year) but can still be a very fruitful season.
The biggest factor to determine if the late season is really good or not will be the weather.
The weather we have locally and the weather north of us, where the ducks are migrating from, influence how many ducks are in the area and how huntable they are.
If it has been cold up north, the birds will migrate down to the Finger Lakes ahead of the snow and ice line. If the weather in New York has’t been very cold, the swamps and smaller bodies of water will be open, giving the birds places to spread out and be harder to locate.
If it has been cold and the smaller bodies of water are frozen, it will limit where the ducks can go and concentrates them on places that are not frozen (like the Finger Lakes or on rivers).
When the birds are concentrated on these waterways, the hunting is a little easier but it also concentrates the hunters. The increase in hunting pressure can make the birds more skittish to coming in to your decoy spread.
The best hunting usually comes with an incoming front of either high or low pressures. Low pressure fronts bring in weather changes, such as rain or snow. High pressure fronts will be “blue-bird” days where there are few clouds and bright sun. In bright sun, or heavy rain/snow, ducks cannot see very well and are less likely to circle your decoy spread multiple times before coming within range. The sun also creates reflections off the water, making it harder for the ducks to see hunters hiding as well. My favorite late season hunts are super cold, sunny days.
When hunting these late season birds, I like to have a few different strategies in my bag of tricks.
As the ducks are migrating, they are starting to look for potential mates with the final determinations getting made on their wintering grounds. Therefore I like to leave a couple hen decoys out in the open of the decoy spread with no drake decoys around them to imitate females that could be looking for potential mates. This gives some enticement for any drakes that are considering going into the decoys.
Another decoy tactic to try is to put our Canada goose decoys with the duck decoys. Geese are a little more warier than ducks so their presence gives the ducks a feeling of everything being alright. They also offer greater eye appeal since they are larger and more visible from longer distances.
Generally, puddle ducks like to hang around geese but not diving ducks. I like to have a pod of decoys on one side of the pocket that has goose and duck decoys mixed and a pod on the other side of the pocket with just duck decoys. This allows the incoming ducks to choose whether to land in-between the pods or to land with one of the pods.
This late in the season, most of the ducks have seen decoy spreads from Canada all the way down to New York. Sometimes they will become shy of the spinning-wing decoys, such as ‘Mojos’ or ‘Lucky Ducks’. If ducks are working your spread but not committing fully, consider pulling your spinning decoy. To add motion to the spread, use a jerk rig to create moving decoys to make it look more lifelike.