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 we keep it that way on purpose: we don't attach credentials, titles or years of experience that we can't show you.

What you can check instead is the work. 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

Most gear sites say they tested everything. We didn't test these, and we say so. Our scores come from the makers' own spec sheets, manuals and warranty terms, 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.

That approach has limits, and we state them plainly:

• A published spec is the maker's claim. We report it as the maker's claim.
• An unpublished spec is never guessed. It scores neutral or low, and the card says it isn't published.
• Sound, realism and comfort are described in the maker's words, labeled as such.
• Every pick carries pros, cons and a "skip it if" line, because no decoy or wader suits every hunter.

The rules for all of this, including what we won't claim, 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 don't print prices, because we can't verify a current price on this site yet. Buy buttons read "Check price on Amazon" so you see the live price on the retailer's page. 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 mike@blackironathletics.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.