Wood ducks are a type of duck that likes small ponds and rier channels. This type of duck can hide in the reeds on that little pond where nobody will see them. The male is a brightly colored duck with a feather arrangement on his head that resembles a hood or hat. The hunter uses decoys in remote wooded ponds and rivers to attract this type of duck.

The wood duck decoy has been around many years dating back to the 1800s. They were made of crude shaped pieces of wood and slowly advanced. The first ones were hand carved and then were made in factories. There have been decoys made of cork as well and these generally had wood heads. Paper mache decoys were lighter weight but a little fragile. They started molding wood duck decoys out of plastic many years ago. This process is still the commonest way to make lightweight easy to handle decoys. The details have gotten better over the years as have the paint and techniques used. Today there are soft sided decoys that look like the real duck.

When the hunter gets his decoys he must put cords and weights on them. The weights keep the decoy in one location on the pond. He also has a bag the decoys go into when moving from place to place.

The hunter takes his bag of decoys and his other gear to the lake, pond, or river. Using a boat, canoe, or waders he takes his decoys out on the water. They unwind the weight and cords so the weight will rest on the bottom of the pond and hold the decoy tight in one place. He places the wood duck decoys close to the reeds on a point or in a bay. He places a few decoys out in a pattern and moves to the reeds to conceal himself and wait for ducks to come. The hunter wheres camoflauge to help him or her to not be seen. They also can use a duck blind to hide in while waiting for the wood ducks to fly by the decoy spread. When the wood ducks fly to close the hunters will pop up and shoot at them. At the end of the day the hunter picks up his decoys and heads home. Another great day in the duck blind overlooking the decoys.