# To Mojo Or Mojo No No



## RailRoadRetrievers (Feb 4, 2004)

When they first came out I ran a spinner and can't say I saw a difference, hunted behind one two weekends ago and ducks were committing pretty quick

Do y'all use them or no, use them religiously, use them sparingly, and so on

This might belong in the review section, Im not sure

I have some me money from Christmas so I'm making a shopping list


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## Newf (Jul 13, 2010)

I know up here in Alberta they work like duck magnets. I use them on any duck hunt I go on. However I would be inclined to think that the migrating birds have probably been educated a little by the time they make their way down south.


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## Phil_MI (Nov 22, 2014)

We use them for field hunting in Michigan with good success. On the water, not so much. Seems to flare ducks more than suck them in.


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## Gordy Weigel (Feb 12, 2003)

When spinners first came out, most were hand made, no Mojo Company or Lucky Duck, this would be the late 80's early 90's , bird would literally drop from the sky. If ducks saw the wing motion from even a mile away they would pile in. Those days are long gone. Lots of ducks are pretty wary of spinners, some not so much and some not at all.


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## Steve Hamel (Mar 1, 2004)

use them all the time ! put the mojo where you want the ducks to land.


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## fishduck (Jun 5, 2008)

I hunt in AL & LA. In AL they absolutely flair ducks. Don't use them. In LA we run 7 at our primary pit. Have killed lots of ducks!!

My personal opinion is spinners will help to get a ducks attention. They will come and take a look. This can bring them in shotgun range. Although they swing into range & fly through the decoys, ducks rarely land. If you are a feet down, in your face shooter then use a jerk cord. If you are happy killing ducks use a mojo. Maybe a remote is the perfect compromise but I can't keep up with gun, calls, transmitter and dog. Don't need any more equipment.

Geese hate spinners!


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## DarrinGreene (Feb 8, 2007)

Try not to use them on bright sunny days but give us some real duck weather and I'll run 2.


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## Parker M. (Mar 6, 2014)

Down here in Oklahoma I only use them in field hunts. Like others have stated it seems to flare the birds. Now a good tool for us is the wonder duck, been sucking em in tight!


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## M R Ducks (Nov 26, 2011)

If you don't have one, you can get a baby mojo on ebay for not a lot of money. Not a bad tool to have in the shed. Do they work? Maybe? I've shot a lot of ducks over a mojo, and had an equal number flair. What I noticed is that if you happen to be where the ducks also want to be - a mojo will keep them hovering in the air as everyone is shooting. We typically run them at first shooting light and then turn them off. That seems to work OK. They are not a substitute for scouting, though. Bottom line, if you dont have one, not a bad purchase to make with some "me" money.


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## Jerry S. (May 18, 2009)

From my experience they work great on fresh birds. If you are hunting the same birds they will get wise in a hurry. I wouldn't hunt in a field without them.
Look at the ones that are either remote controlled or on an intermittent timer as opposed to constant on. Roger's Sporting Goods usually has good deals.


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## BigKahuna13 (Mar 6, 2009)

When your the only guy in town running them, they work great!!!! When every booboo is using them and most are sky busting, birds get wary quick. A jerk string and good calling work much better plus much cheaper.


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## nogie1717 (Sep 15, 2014)

Motion is a very important element to any spread. Mojos make more sense in a field, where ducks actually hover. I use them early season for local birds on sloughs and then in the field, but a jerk cord will make a spread appear that much more realistic.


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## MissSkeeter (May 17, 2013)

Newf said:


> I know up here in Alberta they work like duck magnets. I use them on any duck hunt I go on. However I would be inclined to think that the migrating birds have probably been educated a little by the time they make their way down south.


In Alaska, duck season starts Sept 1 and I usually run 2 spinners and a splasher. They seem to help pull in ducks that
are flying far away and otherwise would not see the dekes.


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## JRinNE (Nov 11, 2014)

We have better luck with them in the field than on water but, it boils down to reading what the birds want, just as it does with calling and flagging. I also agree that geese don't like it, so get one with a remote.


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## Mark Teahan (Apr 1, 2012)

I was running a combo spread yesterday with goose decoys on my left running in a short L with my blind on the bend and 3 spinners with 2 dozen duck decoys to my front and right.
Geese didn't have any problems coming in and "trying" to land. Bb's cut em short.
Ducks were diving in, in droves.
I am using lucky duck jr's, with curved propeller type wings. With a good wind, they spin by themselves. Yesterday was pretty windy and the geese didn't mind the spinning wings.


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## Don Lietzau (Jan 8, 2011)

I have not used one on sea ducks but I will next season. We do flag them at times so I bet it would be the bomb !!!
Don and Crew


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## paul young (Jan 5, 2003)

Black ducks hate 'em....................


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## JMitchell (Dec 28, 2012)

I usually run 10 mallards and 2 green wing teal and a green wing teal mojo. This year we got in fresh birds and I limited out and picked up all floating decoys and got a phone call so I went to the blind and left just the mojo teal out there running. I had a flock of 25 mallards land by it and swim around it. I got up and they flew off. I was getting stuff put away in my blind and look up and a dozen mallards landed right by it. I think they work but that day I think I could have limited out without it. Buy a teal they are smaller and lighter to pack and wings spin faster which attracts the ducks.

Geese hate them if you use a goose duck combo spread and geese are coming in use a remote. Turned the spinner off when geese are out 150-200 yards. There always is an exception where people say geese come into them, but that is not what I have seen, I believe a flag is a better option for geese. 
Good luck and good hunting.


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## Coachtd (Mar 18, 2013)

Seems like the later the season the less effective they are. They are good to get the ducks initial attention to your spread. When the ducks are wary you need to have the remote so you can cut them off when the birds start working your spread.


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## Kyle Garris (Oct 27, 2005)

I hunt in Canada every year. Seems to work really well in the fields. This past year, found a nice pothole and set up the mojo. The birds came over a little hill on the other side of the water cupped up, went straight where they wanted to be....75 yards away from the Mojo. Never paid it any attention.


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## DarrinGreene (Feb 8, 2007)

paul young said:


> Black ducks hate 'em....................


true fact


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## M R Ducks (Nov 26, 2011)

I read somewhere that the number of hens killed went way up in spreads w/mojos than traditional spreads and that is why they are banned in several states. Think I saw that in the DU magazine. I have not kept track of that personally, but I also do not intentrioanlly shoot at hens. Kind of hard to tell w/black ducks. Speaking of which, I have not had any better or worse success w/black ducks over a mojo than any other.


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## Corey019 (Jun 14, 2013)

Depends on what is working. I don't put them out if the ducks are committing to my decoys but I always have them just in case. They work well for traffic hunting or gloomy days just to add movement and attract passing flocks. But geese hate them.


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## Rick Hall (Jan 21, 2003)

I run one for teal and don't believe it can be beat for them. During the regular season, I've much more faith in calling for big ducks, so my spinner is hard-wired to an on/off switch, rigged to stop white wing side down, and has the wing tops and decoy body painted to match the pond. Sometimes us it like a flag for recalcitrant big ducks, but if I'm leaving it on while working them, it's because my guests can't or won't hide, and I feel it's the lesser of evils.


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## JRinNE (Nov 11, 2014)

Rick Hall said:


> I run one for teal and don't believe it can be beat for them. During the regular season, I've much more faith in calling for big ducks, so my spinner is hard-wired to an on/off switch, *rigged to stop white wing side down*, and has the wing tops and decoy body painted to match the pond. Sometimes us it like a flag for recalcitrant big ducks, but if I'm leaving it on while working them, it's because my guests can't or won't hide, and I feel it's the lesser of evils.


Curious as to how you get the wings to always stop how you want them to.


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## Brad B (Apr 29, 2004)

Just depends here, more often that not we kill ducks without them.


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## copterdoc (Mar 26, 2006)

Researchers at MIT think they found the world's most difficult tongue twister.
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2013/12/05/mit-tongue-twister-trickiest-to-say/

But I think, that the title of this thread, could easily be a runner-up.


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## Rick Hall (Jan 21, 2003)

JRinNE said:


> Curious as to how you get the wings to always stop how you want them to.


Use the metal wings and affix them to their shafts with the dark side against the shaft. (Mojo usually does/did the opposite.) The weight of the wing will almost, but not, always stop with the wing under the shaft and dark side up. High wind can flip the wings vertical, but a bit of experimenting with which wing's on which side will result in the dark side then facing downwind, toward approaching birds.


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## Mike Perry (Jun 26, 2003)

Rick Hall said:


> Use the metal wings and affix them to their shafts with the dark side against the shaft. (Mojo usually does/did the opposite.) The weight of the wing will almost, but not, always stop with the wing under the shaft and dark side up. High wind can flip the wings vertical, but a bit of experimenting with which wing's on which side will result in the dark side then facing downwind, toward approaching birds.


I have been trying to figure this out for years because we usually hunt in fields with ducks and geese. The geese generally hate them and flare but early season ducks can't stay away. 
Are you saying you put the wings on "backwards" i.e. left on the right and vice versa? I don't think I understand your explanation.
PM me a phone number if you like and I will call you.
MP


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## Rick Hall (Jan 21, 2003)

Mine's in the marsh, but I'll try to check its configuration in the morning and maybe get a photo, if the predicted high winds allow me to position the boat in the spread to do so without dragging decoys. Aside from having the dark side against the shaft, I have it in my head that the inboard attachment screws are in the bottom of the three possible holes. Can't recall with certainty which way the wings curve when correctly installed, just that I set it up in high wind and experimented until it did what I wanted - most of the time.


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## Terry Britton (Jul 3, 2003)

fishduck said:


> I hunt in AL & LA. In AL they absolutely flair ducks. Don't use them. In LA we run 7 at our primary pit. Have killed lots of ducks!!
> 
> My personal opinion is spinners will help to get a ducks attention. They will come and take a look. This can bring them in shotgun range. Although they swing into range & fly through the decoys, ducks rarely land. If you are a feet down, in your face shooter then use a jerk cord. If you are happy killing ducks use a mojo. Maybe a remote is the perfect compromise but I can't keep up with gun, calls, transmitter and dog. Don't need any more equipment.
> 
> Geese hate spinners!


We had geese committing to land all morning on a sheet of ice thanks to two mojos. The ducks were too smart to commit to land on a sheet of ice. We came home with geese and no ducks.


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## SjSmith (Oct 25, 2011)

DarrinGreene said:


> Try not to use them on bright sunny days but give us some real duck weather and I'll run 2.


I'm 180 degrees from this. We've been using them for quite a few years and what I have learned is that on cloudy days, no spinner. It flares more than it fools.
Sunny days are great for em but then again, the birds work so much better then, they're probably overkill. It does get the attention of those far away flocks though, so we'll use em.
More than once I've sat and watched birds flare on cloudy days, pulled the spinner and we shot our limit.

I wish that they were banned, nation wide. Then I could get rid of another item that needs batteries charged or replaced all the time.


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## DSemple (Feb 16, 2008)

SjSmith said:


> I wish that they were banned, nation wide.


x 2

Line that should never have been crossed.


Don


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## Scott Krueger (Jan 25, 2008)

they arent allowed anymore at our local public spot which has had great results with them..people would ruin entire areas by having too many up and not knowing when to take them down......when hunting fields for ducks use them without a doubt,,,the geese here do not like them..


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## Rick Hall (Jan 21, 2003)

Rick Hall said:


> Mine's in the marsh, but I'll try to check its configuration in the morning and maybe get a photo, if the predicted high winds allow me to position the boat in the spread to do so without dragging decoys. Aside from having the dark side against the shaft, I have it in my head that the inboard attachment screws are in the bottom of the three possible holes. Can't recall with certainty which way the wings curve when correctly installed, just that I set it up in high wind and experimented until it did what I wanted - most of the time.


Here's a couple shots of the configuration that works for me, moderate wind for the first and strong for the second:




Second shot shows that the wings have been adjusted to the bottom holes of the three available, instead of the stock top one.


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## Mike Perry (Jun 26, 2003)

So do you have the white side painted camo and the other side with the factory pattern? I can thinkmhow this would work as when they are spinning there is enough white and pattern to get their attention which is all you really need.
Not sure what you are referring to by the bottom holes of the 3 available. My wings or body don't give me that option.
Thanks for the pic. Just need a little more info.
MP


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## Rick Hall (Jan 21, 2003)

Mike Perry said:


> So do you have the white side painted camo and the other side with the factory pattern? I can thinkmhow this would work as when they are spinning there is enough white and pattern to get their attention which is all you really need.
> Not sure what you are referring to by the bottom holes of the 3 available. My wings or body don't give me that option.
> Thanks for the pic. Just need a little more info.
> MP


I leave the white side as is, as I want lots of flash for teal. I've been convinced by pretty much side by side experience that the full sized Mojo outdraws the Baby, Teal and Dove versions. 

If you have a full sized Mojo with the original aluminum wings, the wings are attached to their shafts with two lock-nutted screws, the inboard one of which goes through one of three holes in the wing. Here's a shot up one I dug out of the shed that clearly shows two of the three machined adjustment holes, with the one producing the best wing attitude when turned off being the one the inboard screw is in:


If yours have no such holes, they probably aren't Mojo brand standard sized aluminum wings (which in current Mojos have been replaced with chloroplast wings).


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## Mike Perry (Jun 26, 2003)

Thanks for the effort Rick. It looks like the wing in the pic might have somne stories to tell. The ones I am using now are the chloroplast wings, hence the confusion on the holes. 
However I have a bunch of old shells and parts in my Mojo box that I am going to dig out and see if I can put one together like you have. When hunting combo fields, it will be worth the effort if I can turn it off and the white side is down and won't flare the geese.
MP


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## JBURCH (Jan 5, 2015)

We use them here in Arkansas. I even use dove mojos when hunting dove out in Texas. Works better on dove but they still help the birds see them from a distance. I have remotes on mine that always stop the wings with white down. So if I see a group coming in that we already have their attention I can turn them off from a distance. I think this is a must especially if you are trying to pull in ducks and geese


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## DarrinGreene (Feb 8, 2007)

calling for 2" snow falling while we hunt this morning.. DOUBLE MOJO!!!!!!!!!


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## fishduck (Jun 5, 2008)

Terry Britton said:


> We had geese committing to land all morning on a sheet of ice thanks to two mojos. The ducks were too smart to commit to land on a sheet of ice. We came home with geese and no ducks.


Awesome! Use what works. We killed limits of mallards & pintails running 8 mojos yesterday. Even managed to kill 2 specks.


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## RailRoadRetrievers (Feb 4, 2004)

Okay, so my last fee hunts of the season I put out a Mojo dove. I own two and to keep from spending anymore money this season I went with them. First hunt I had gadwalls trying to land on them, second hunt same results. Paired with a whistle and the fast spinning wings I got good results. 

But here's an odd observation. I hunted a new spot on Sunday, I hunted up the channel to the lake closer to the mouth, 300 yards away a group was at the end. Both had spinner, I had the dove out and the had a full size duck. They would lock up high and cruise over us and go into their spread or land just outside of ours out of gun range. I decided to pull the mojo up and they would circle over them high and land into ours. They were set up on the proverbial "x", but why when I yanked up the mojo did they not like their spread.

Later in the season, if the winds aren't blowing hard out of the north I use solely a drake whistle to get birds attention. Drakes in my pen talk sometimes more then my hens


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## adubs (Jan 8, 2015)

I hunt the rivers in WI and they worked great for us this past season. It gets their attention and slows them down even if they don't drop in it gives us time to get on 'em. I wouldn't set up the dakota x-tremes without adding my mojo in the mix. I'm a newbie though so take it for what it's worth.


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## brsutton86 (Apr 19, 2013)

Love em in the field. Overcast I use em on water first hour otherwise not. Remote is a must, and as soon as I see a goose or hear one they get shut off. Geese hate them.


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