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Don't know about ya'll but without 6-7 dozen of these in the diver spread or 6-8 in the puddler spread....I'm not killing too many ducks in my area

I think between my brother and I we have roughly 125-150 cork cooters. Enough for us to run 2 different spreads if we have to. I love these little birds. Sorta comical to watch on slow days.

Last season I watched an eagle get played by a group of about 50 of them in open water. It would swoop down, they'd dive. Thus went on for 20 minutes.

RickC wrote:Last season I watched an eagle get played by a group of about 50 of them in open water. It would swoop down, they'd dive. Thus went on for 20 minutes.

Watched the same thing take place last year in a rice field north of my blind. I was cheering for the hawk but the coots were making him look bad. Cool to watch.

Scott R wrote:...or 6-8 in the puddler spread....I'm not killing too many ducks in my area...

Might want to try reversing your duck to coot ratio for puddlers and put out a raft of those black beauties with just a handful of duck decoys. Was blessed by the opportunity to hunt with an old Cajun when I first moved down here 30 (Yikes!) years ago who gunned over a standing spread of 100 or so coots sweetened with 6 or 8 mallards and teal he'd put out and pick up each hunt between the "poule d'eau" and blind. He mostly let the coot raft do our calling, and we enjoyed a lot more shooting than others in the area seemed to.

Fast-forwarding to today, my permanent marsh rig bows to popular perception with around three dozen duck and a few goose blocks, but there's also a good sized raft of coots on one end of the "kill hole". By late season, even the specklebellies are as apt or more so to land by the coots than target the decoys of their own kind.

And knowing my predilection for poule d'eau, a regular from MD brought me a carved coot to add to the small rig of carved mottleds and greenwings I use for puddle jumping. Could hardly have tickled me more.

Last year was the first time I tried them and there is no doubt they work. I ended up putting a raft off to the side where I didn't want them to land. More of an eye catcher then let them come in to sit with their fellow ducks where I wanted them.

Rick wrote:

Scott R wrote:...or 6-8 in the puddler spread....I'm not killing too many ducks in my area...

Might want to try reversing your duck to coot ratio for puddlers and put out a raft of those black beauties with just a handful of duck decoys. Was blessed by the opportunity to hunt with an old Cajun when I first moved down here 30 (Yikes!) years ago who gunned over a standing spread of 100 or so coots sweetened with 6 or 8 mallards and teal he'd put out and pick up each hunt between the "poule d'eau" and blind. He mostly let the coot raft do our calling, and we enjoyed a lot more shooting than others in the area seemed to.

Fast-forwarding to today, my permanent marsh rig bows to popular perception with around three dozen duck and a few goose blocks, but there's also a good sized raft of coots on one end of the "kill hole". By late season, even the specklebellies are as apt or more so to land by the coots than target the decoys of their own kind.

And knowing my predilection for poule d'eau, a regular from MD brought me a carved coot to add to the small rig of carved mottleds and greenwings I use for puddle jumping. Could hardly have tickled me more.

Rick I probably should have mentioned that...I only throw 2 puddler decoys..usually gadwall..with those coots. We use very small spreads on the lake I hunt because everyone else goes big. If I have over 10 decoys out in my puddler spread I feel like it's alot.

RickC and bootlipkiller we see the same thing with eagles working on the coots. I pulled into one of favorite sloughs last season and all the coots were in a group right in middle dang near climbing on each others backs. Looked up and saw old baldy eyeballing them from a tree.

I watched for ten minutes last year two bald eagles dive bombing about 300 buffies spread out on this lagoon. The buffies would dive at the last minute. Them damn eagles had no clue. Was fun to watch

I watched something similar a few years ago. A 100 acre lake had froze up, except for a 10-15 yard wide hole out in the middle. There were probably 50 ducks in there, mostly goldeneyes and buffies. 3 eagles kept diving on the group and they would all dive, had to suck with no where to go.

When an eagle works our marsh, the coots hide, but the ducks get airborne. If the eagle perches in a tree, what ducks are still around will sit back down until the eagle flies again, then they're back in the air.

Funniest coot and Ice thing I've seen happened when my pond froze up around a raft of coots one morning. Little by little they bailed out until there was only one left with too little room for a running takeoff, and as the ice closed in around him, repeatedly bumped the ice around him like a dodgem run amok for gosh knows how long before finally just stepping up onto the ice.

I catch the eagle and tell him who's boss.







Right after I piss down my leg and have a mild stroke.

We had an eagle take one of our crips one time.

Coot decoys are a regular part of my late season spread. 2 to 3 dozen set by themselves or mixed in a little seems to work pretty good.

We watched an eagle last year chase a cripple for what seemed like forever. He never did catch it, but the show he put on trying to was awesome.