About Decoy & Drake

What Decoy & Drake is

Decoy & Drake is a gear site about one thing: duck and goose season. Not deer, not turkey, not a general hunting catalog. It covers the gear a waterfowler actually decides between, category by category: decoys and the spreads that use them, duck and goose calls, layout, A-frame and pit blinds, waders and cold-weather layering, and the gear a retriever needs to work cold water safely.

The site is organized the way a season runs. Every category has its own section, and the kits section regroups the same gear by season phase (early teal, the regular season, late-season ice, the spring snow goose conservation order) and by the four administrative flyways: Atlantic, Mississippi, Central and Pacific. A hunter working flooded timber in Arkansas and one pass-shooting a Chesapeake point don't need the same spread, and the site doesn't pretend they do.

Who writes it: Mike M.

Every article, roundup and guide on this site carries the byline Mike M.. Mike M. is the hands-on owner behind Iron Mako Media, the publisher of Decoy & Drake. That is the whole of the biography, and it is the work we ask you to judge.

And the work is all checkable. Every product card lists the published specs it was scored on, and each spec links to the manufacturer page or manual it came from. Every regulation statement links to the agency that wrote the rule. If something is wrong, you can tell us and we'll fix it and log the change on the page.

Who publishes it

Decoy & Drake is published by Iron Mako Media. It is an independent publication: no gear company owns it, and no brand pays for a spot in a ranking.

How the recommendations are made

Every recommendation starts with the makers' own spec sheets, manuals and warranty terms, researched, compared and weighed on a rubric we publish. Decoys are scored on realism features, construction, rigging options, packability and warranty. Waders are scored on waterproof construction, published warmth, fit range, the boot and the warranty. Every category has its own weights, and they are all on How we score.

What that gives you on every product card:

• Every spec behind a score is published by the maker, and links to the page or manual it came from.
• Sound, realism and comfort are quoted in the maker's own words and labeled that way.
• Where a maker doesn't publish a figure, the card says so and the metric scores neutral.
• Every pick carries pros, cons and a "skip it if" line, so you can match it to the water you hunt.

The rules for all of this are in our editorial policy.

How the site is funded

When you buy through a link on this site, we may earn a commission from the retailer at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, Decoy & Drake earns from qualifying purchases. That commission never decides a ranking: the rubric does. We never type a price into the copy: the number on a buy button comes straight from Amazon with the date it was checked, and when it cannot be verified the button reads "Check price on Amazon" instead. The full explanation is on the affiliate disclosure page.

A note on regulations

Waterfowl seasons, bag limits, shooting hours and legal methods are set each year under the federal framework and then by each state. We link the official sources instead of restating them, because a rule quoted from memory is a rule that can be out of date. Before you hunt, check your state wildlife agency.

Contact

Questions, corrections and suggestions go to contact@decoyanddrake.com or the contact form. Tell us the water, the birds and the part of the season you hunt, and it helps decide what we cover next. We're an online publisher only: there is no storefront, phone line or street address.