Our Story
My name is Blake Boland and I am eternally grateful that you’re checking out my website. Like many people who are just starting their own business, I have a day job that is completely unrelated to Boland Decoys. I graduated college with a B.S. in Animal Science and put it to use after graduation working full time in the swine industry. In my spare time, you’ll find me in the outdoors. My favorite past-time has always been hunting waterfowl. In high school I grew an interest in carving and painting my own decoys. With the help of a good friend of mine, I carved a rig of blue wing teal out of cork and tupelo, and I was hooked! Fast forward to 2018, at the age of 22, I decided to pursue a concept that the big man upstairs put in my head after a particular hunt.
On the last day of the 2014 Missouri season conditions were ideal, our hide was perfect, and the duck numbers were exceptional. We were set up in a drainage ditch in the middle of a corn field kept open by a couple thousand ducks next to a large feed. In our minds, it should have been a slam dunk. Unfortunately, as with most late season hunts, the ducks knew the script. We reduced the number of decoys in the spread, pulled mojos, and eventually ended up with only 6 decoys. Nothing seemed to make a difference, group after group flared at 70 yards in the snowy 15 mph wind. It took 4 hours of shooting singles at 40 yards to finish a 6-man limit of mallards. Before we even made it out of the field, the ditch was already black with ducks. It was at this point I realized, ducks can absolutely distinguish between plastic and feathers.
I had heard stories of hunters using goose stuffers to dry field hunt. I wanted to take that same concept and apply it to ducks, but in the water. In my mind, if I could find a way to use real feathers on a floating decoy while keeping the skin dry, I would have the upper hand for educated ducks.
Enter Franken-duck, a decoy made of cork, spray foam, bondo, and flex seal. Hatched in our basement from a drawing and brought to life through trial and error, I had created my first Boland Decoy. As with starting any new process, there was a big learning curve. I owe everything to the mentors who gave me advice along the way and to those who had faith in me and purchased my original decoy model. The first model was rough, at best. With many late nights, failures, discussions and even more determination, I have made several improvements over the years.
Over the last couple of years, everything has been built in our tiny basement. While my wife and I still complete a large part of the production process in our basement, eventually, Boland Decoys outgrew our basement and I was able to hire someone locally to help with the base production. This brought several new challenges to the table both personally and professionally. Throughout it all, God has directed me and provided new opportunities to grow my business. At the end of the day remember “In everything, give thanks.”
