I hunt central Texas every Christmas on my wifes families ground. All I have is a dozen flocked mallards, so thats what I use. I've killed greenwings, bluewings, ringnecks, mallards, wigeon, gadwalls, woodducks and mergansers over them down there. Just got a new dozen greenwing teal but haven't even rigged them up yet.
My calling is very limited, simply because I'm not confident in it, and because I haven't had to.
For the 'deep' retrieves, like mentioned above, a spinning reel and a topwater bass plug works very well, have done that several times.
I have no shame in shooting a wounded bird on the water to keep it from swimming off and being lost.
A comfortable chair does wonders. I started off with a 3 legged foldup stool. Its too low to the ground and just uncomfortable. I upgraded to a directors chair like thing. It folds up and goes in my decoy backpack. It is comfortable to sit in. The legs have bars going front to back so it won't sink in the mud. Having a backrest lets me sit out there a lot longer.
