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The very first thing you should do is tag along with an experienced friend or professional guide, to see if you even like the sport. Waterfowling is quite a unique outdoor adventure. It involves cold weather, rain, wind, and most of Mother nature's hazards that she can throw at you. Go with someone before you go out and buy all the expensive equipment needed, and it is expensive. I've been doing it for over 50 years and things sure have changed. Get some videos on calling, shooting, and actual hunt videos.Youll be glad you did.

The most important piece of equipment is your shotgun. Buy a good automatic 3 1/2" modified choke chambered gun. Remington is a good one for beginners. No sense in spending the big bucks and you find out you don't like the sport. this particular gun will be good for all your waterfowl, all you have to do to go after geese is change your shell shot size. Buy good insulatd chest waders, preferably camo to match your surroundings. Buy your waders large enough so they go over all your clothing. Several manufacturers out there make good quality waders and some places you hunt you may be able to get by with hip boots, depends on location, waders are a safe bet. Once you get cold out there, you stay cold and it's not a good feeling.

Here come the decoys. It depends on the duck movement at your location. I never put out less than 200 dekes on a lake setup, and sometimes many more. I hunt a lot of backwaters where you can get by with maybe 2 dozen or less. Bird movement and body of water arre the main factors. Mix them up as far as drakes and hens they don't have to be paired up like some people think. Throw a dozen teal dekes in your spread out to one side or right in front of your blind and a dozen or two geese decoys to one side. You have to weight down your dekes so get some good treated twine and plenty of weights such as pieces of rebar. Make your strings long enough so you can use decoys in deeper water when needed and last but noot least mark your decoys somehow. Decoys can be bought on sale before season pretty cheap, like $25 per dozen for Flambeaus and that's a good decoy.

Depends on your hunting spot whether you'll need a boat to get to it or not. That's another big expense in itself. Private ground to duck hunt on is almost unheard of today. You either buy, lease or hunt state ground. Waterfowl hunting is very expensive and you have to really like it to get up at 3am, eat breakfast, pack some goodies to eat in the blind, coffee, and all your gear and be in your in your blind ready before daylight. I'm one of the lucky ones, all I have to do is get up, grab my gun and shell bag and go. I do it everyday of the season and have for years. Like I said waterfowling is very expensive and you really have to like it. My best adise is to go with someone several times in all kinds of weather and see how well you like it before you spend a lot of money. Good luck and good hunting.

Learn more about this author, Larry Rahn.
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