Duck Hunting: Wing Magic Decoy Works

Opening day of duck hunting season was on October 6th in Klamath County. Opening day is very much a tradition for my family. I first started heading to the marsh when I was 8 with my B.B. gun. By the time I was ten I was shooting with my first shotgun.

As the years went by the hunting was always good. But ducks started getting harder to find in Klamath marsh in the mid to late 90s. Low water conditions and changing flight patterns were to blame. The past 5 -10 years have seen some abysmal hunting years.

I've always stuck to the old ways of duck hunting; motoring out at o dark thirty stashing the boat, throwing out duck decoys and waiting for shooting hours to begin.

I always resisted the urge to buy into the high tech duck decoys that created movement within the decoy spread. There were battery operated decoys that you controlled with remote control, kite decoys that mimicked wing flapping when the wind blew, even magnet ducks that vibrated when activated. Most of these gimmicky decoys were eventually outlawed in most states.

This year though, I did buy one decoy that looked like a good idea, the Wing Magic Decoy. The simple design and easy operation of the decoy was what sold me on the wing magic. The fact that it's legal in most states was also a deciding factor.

Basically you plant the wing magic decoy into the marsh mud with a long pole and pull on a string that is attached to the simple plastic wings. When you pull the string it pulls the wings straight at you and creates a flapping motion in the water. Along with the flapping a lot of splashing is created. The splashing looks good and creates a lot of wave movement in your spread.

I watched the video on the wing magic decoy site and was sold on at least trying it out for the opener. It costs 70 bucks but seems well made and certainly well thought out.

When we found our hunting spot I put the wing magic decoy in the middle of our spread and started yanking the cord. I felt kind of silly at first but it really gave life to the decoy spread.

As the shooting started the ducks got pretty wary of flying anywhere near land, as they tended to die when they did so. Whenever I saw ducks that were considering our spread, I'd give the wing magic decoy a couple of pulls and it would splash away. It seemed to take all doubt out of the ducks' minds. They'd swoop in close and decoy right into our waiting guns. My brother and I were instantly sold on this decoy.

As the day progressed the day became very calm. There was no wind and the lake was flat and glassy. Our decoys sat still and stagnant, but whenever ducks were in the area I'd give a pull on the line, adding life to the decoys. The splashing worked like a charm.

The only drawback to the wing magic decoy was the line getting tangled up. They give you 75 feet of line, and you have to unwind all of it from the decoy in order for the pulling motion to work. We were only using about 30 feet of line, so the rest of it was getting tangled up at our feet. Keeping the line coiled took care of this, however.

Another drawback was the fact that my Labrador was totally confused as to how to deal with this flapping duck decoy. She couldn't take her eyes off it; to her I'm sure it looked like a wounded duck flapping around on the water. She never messed with it, but she may need some additional training around the decoy.

I'm sold on this product. It definitely performed up to the hype on the wing magic decoy website. I would highly recommend this product if your interested in pulling in wary ducks.