December 25, 2014

Mike Miller Says Nebraska Offers Some Big Water Boat Blind Hunting

MikeM4_hdr

Editor’s Note: Mike Miller from Canyon City, Colorado, is the Mossy Oak Pro Staff manager for the central flyway for waterfowl. Before duck season starts, he's an elk guide and is an avid outdoorsman year-round.  

Most of our duck hunting is in Nebraska, because Nebraska is in the duck’s flyway. There's a lot of food there for ducks, and fewer waterfowl hunters in Nebraska than in Colorado. We also have a lot of big-water hunting in Nebraska and use some big-water boats we've converted into duck-hunting boats. In Nebraska, we have an oil well boat, and my special project that I'm building. I’ve taken an old, 22-foot 1958 Bailey bridge boat and turned it into a duck barge with bench seats, heaters and a stove in it. Hunting from this boat is like hunting out of a floating pit blind. We brush the boat up with natural vegetation we find in the area. You’ll be surprised at how good these boats look. We can have breakfast on the side of the bank and can shoot eight people out of each one of these boats. 

Mike-Miller-170We put-out pretty big spreads of decoys on our river boats – generally 8-dozen Canada geese decoys made by Avian X, and 8 dozen Avian X duck decoys. When we’re hunting big water in Nebraska, we long-line our goose decoys and set-up a normal duck decoy spread with a pocket out in front of the blind. We’ll usually put out about 16-dozen decoys for our boat blind hunts – all mallard decoys, the primary duck in this area. Too, mallards are the number-one duck that our hunters want to take. 

In good weather with the birds flying well, we can limit out in about 2 hours, including the time required to set-out the decoys, eat breakfast, shoot the birds and pick up the birds and the decoys when the hunting is over. If we’re having a hard time filling our limits, or if some of our shooters don’t shoot very well, we’ll start moving our decoys in closer and coaching our shooters to help them shoot better. Also, we may change the direction of our motion decoys. 

Day 3: Mike Miller Tells about Doubling Down on Ducks and Geese

Tomorrow: How Mike Miller Hides from Ducks

Mike Miller Tells about Doubling Down on Ducks and Geese
Ducks usually come down the river first, which means we often can get our limit of ducks before the geese start flying. Then, we take our limit of geese. We’ve usually shot numbers of shotgun shells, had a lot of fun and taken good numbers of geese and ducks for a morning hunt. Although we do most of our duck hunting in Nebraska, there's some outstanding duck and goose hunting also available in Colorado.
Read More
Small Game, Waterfowl, Mossy Oak, Firearm

Latest Content

Mossy Oak's Woodsman Series is Back
The Mossy Oak Woodsman Series is Back. Rooted in everything core hunters expected from us in the early days, the Woodsman collection is thoughtfully designed, constructed with quality materials, quiet fabrics, sturdy stitching and of course, our timeless camouflage patterns. We're proud to celebrate the core of hunting, woodsmanship, and with seasonal collections on the horizon, we're excited to open the archives, add a few things and re-introduce these classic designs. The Mossy Oak Woodsman
Read More
Turkey, Big Game, Small Game, Deer, Waterfowl, Predator, Conservation, Land Management, Gear, Mossy Oak
From the Archives: Bob Dixon and Steve Burnett on the Art of Mix and Matching Camo
By Terry Madewell, originally published in the 1994 edition of Mossy Oak Bowhunting Magazine As big whitetail bucks are inclined to do, this one had done the unexpected. I'd studied this buck's pattern for a couple of weeks, being extremely careful not to leave any scent in the wrong places. I'd selected a stand site where the dense underbrush funneled into a 40-yard-wide strip. I was sure this was where he would walk and I
Read More
Turkey, Big Game, Deer, Waterfowl, Predator, How-To
Explore All Posts