HUNTING OVER TRADITIONAL WOOD WATERFOWL DECOYS  by Mike Robinson

I believe that waterfowl hunting is Americas greatest heritage.  The legacy handed down from our original forefathers has few equals when it comes to providing a connection between what we once were and in many ways continue to be as Americans. The true American spirit can be found out in a duck marsh at sunrise like few other places today.  The spirit of individualism and personal accomplishment reign supreme in waterfowl hunting.  The waterfowler is an American entrepreneur and risk taker, he or she farms a renewable crop, provides for themselves and/or a family and carries on this great tradition for future generations in a hopefully dutiful and somewhat patriotic manner.

Many of us increasingly think that the essence of waterfowling is greatly enhanced by the use of traditional wood duck decoys.  The use of remote control spin wing, swimming and kite decoys leaves us as cold as a bitter northern weather front moving south without moving the ducks with it.  We wonder in awe how far can the technology go, maybe holographic imageing hand held computers that paint moving decoy birds in the sky is next.

It may also be possible that the preoccupation with modern duck hunting technology and the time, maintence and operation of the equipment also helps obscure ones interest in and cultivation of classic, time honored sportsmanship that many feel is slipping by the wayside every season.  I personally have used spin-wing and other robot decoys and feel that although they can enhance the filling of the hunters bag, the nature of the experience always made me feel like more of a participant in a video game cartoon than a real authentic classic time honored duck hunt.

Another aspect of hunting with technology is the potential loss of the learning and continued application of effective and proper decoy placement, correct and productive calling technique and a general dependence on technology to bring in the ducks, all of which leads to a loss of tradition.

There is also in my experience at least a certain freedom in just depending on classic decoys to make for a great duck hunt, especially the rich tradition of classic wood decoys.  No more bent, or lost spin wings.  No more battery charging and broken wires in the robo duck.  Sluggish motors from being wet a thing of the past.  The hassle of trying to get the robo duck decoy stakes and decoy in and out of a muddy bottom from a boat and the general fragile nature of robot decoys and the careful transportation required. I truly think that keeping it simple is a form of freedom in duck hunting and many other things.  Anymore just give me some classic wood decoys in a decoy bag and I'm a happy hunter.

Using traditional wood decoys takes one back to the wonderful days of American sportsmanship, a more simple lifestyle, and a time of the classic decoy carvers of old that had great hard won knowledge of waterfowl and all the variables of decoy construction.  There is also the allure of doing it your way, the harder, but more skilled way.  I also believe that the finest of wood decoys will bring in the most shy ducks over any plastic decoy made, especially when they show robo decoy no interest whatsoever, which is occurring more in every flyway.                                                              

All of the flyways had their local carvers, but nowhere did the art of decoy craftsmanship, decoy placement and the religion of waterfowl hunting reach such heights as Maryland's Chesapeake Bay. The bays rich habitat for waterfowl and the many rivers and inlets that empty into the bay created not only a virtual paradise for waterfowl but also decoy carvers as hundreds of thousands of wood decoys were sold and used in the most productive decades of waterfowl hunting on this, North Americans once most biologically rich waterway.

Wood decoys reached a zenith here unequaled elsewhere.  Maybe it was the hardworking Maryland waterman, many of who lived and breathed the bay winds year around in pursuing a living fishing, crabbing and waterfowl guiding who from deep generational experience learned what worked best.  Maybe it was the sport of who could produce the most alluring and effective decoys or maybe the decoy making competitions still held today.

Out of the Crisfield school of decoy carving in the lonely built upon oyster shell town of Crisfield, came the famous Ward brothers.  The brothers expounded upon their fathers decoy creations to produce the most lifelike, interesting and duck producing decoys found anywhere.  Word spread far and near and any number of their decoys were purchased by individuals and gun clubs as far away as California.  Say what one will, but the Ward Brothers were the Alpha and Omega of waterfowl carving unequaled anywhere in North America.

There were good decoy carvers on every flyway in North America.  All produced serviceable decoys.  Many worked for gun clubs in addition to sales they acquired on their own.  They created a tradition that is a true American folk art form that continues today.  Wood decoys have a presence, feel, sound and form that plastic decoys cannot compare to.  Wood decoys become friends in the duck marsh.  Many have individual traits in the way they move on the water and even the way ducks react to them, if observed closely enough.  Wood decoys are warm and bring back the vision of the great tradition of pot bellied wood stoves at the country store or duck shack where the real meaning of an American life can be somehow be felt if not partiality at least be relived somehow.

The grand North American tradition of waterfowl hunting and all it involves lives on in wood duck decoys.  Wood decoys are something special that can be handed down to your children and your children to their children.  The decoys express a time of things that mattered, unchanging and Christmas like.  In later years when set upon a shelf, they bring back the times remembered when you got that double of Mallards on that beautiful always remembered crisp frosty morn at dawn.  The brace of Cans on a two day hunt that gave you and your wife a true wild organic gourmet meal of the very finest quality that cannot be purchased legally by even the most wealthy of individuals.  The wear on the paint that documents the years gone by persueing what you loved the most, next to your family.

Wood decoys come in all price ranges.  Some may not be that much more expensive than the best plastic decoys and others are obtainable only by the most well to do sportsman.  Similar spirits, heritage, tradition and beauty are part of the allure of all wood decoys.  You can experience what waterfowlers experienced in the good ol' days once again.