Diver Tactics Q&A Thread

[brmuskie]

If you are in bullrushes on a big lake you have a sand bottom. You can still pound/push conduit or posts into the sand but I think you would need a sledge in some spots.

[HNTNBUX]

I had a guy weld up some pipe slightly larger that my stabilizer poles, to a bracket that is secured to the side of my boat. The pipes also have a bolt welded to the side with a hole that goes through to the pole. A handle is welded to the bolt to allow me to turn it in or out. I have one on each side and it works pretty good for stabilizing the boat. The only problem is having the right size poles for every situation so there is not a shooting obstruction.

[anchor man]

What's the typical time to start for divers on Leech? Mid-late October? Also, is there much competition trying to get on to the larger points on Leech and do the points have enough room for multiple boats. I'm a mallard guy and would love to pull the boat up from the Crosslake area for the day sometime and try divers.

Thanks

[Gordie]

to me the best time to hunt big water such as leech,winni,mille lacs is opening day of deer season not much pressure and lots of birds. most guys cant give up the deer but I did for 9 years and concetrated on divers and all I can say is WHAT A BLAST but now my son is old enough to deer hunt and he wants to hunt deer so thats what I do now. Hopefully we get our deer right away so we can diver hunt the rest odf the season.

[Lunker]

Pretty basic question.

How far do you space your individual decoys apart on a gang line?

Don't hunt a lot of divers, but we get quite a few bluebills and a mix of others on the wisconsin river where we hunt, so I recently invested in some diver dekes.

[cutter08]

I only put them about 5 to 6 feet apart. Otherwise i have had them try and land in the line and not the kill hole

[Gordie]

yep 4-5 foot apart works very well

[RumRiverRat]

If you have a small group of divers come into the decoy and you miss them with your shots, do not take that hail mary third shot.

Had a pair of Cans drop right into the decoys this morning.

I dropped one on with my first shot and my buddy missed with his 2 shots, I told him not to take his third shot as the Can flew out of range.

The Can made a wide circle and came right back down our diver line, he dropped it at 10 yards.

A lot of the time most divers will circle back even after being shot at, seems Cans and Redheads will do it more often.

[RumRiverRat]

Had a Bull Can come down the diver line this morning.

Was not quick enough to get a shot off.

He looked like he was going to land in the kill hole, made a wide circle to the left out past the end of the diver line.

Flew down the line again and I dropped him.

[dan z]

you will shoot at the flock of divers on the lake moe than once, especially cans and reds. we crushed some cans and reds last saturday 10yds every shot.... pics are in the photo album

[tylor]

I had a dozen can decoys from a DU event sitting in the shed for a couple years - rigged them and put them out this morning for the first time with a couple of bluebill deeks - killed a bill and my first can ever (I had never even seen a can, at least close enough to identify, in the area before). I'm hooked, gonna have to start chasing divers.

[RumRiverRat]

I have been using a line of 12 Oversized GHG Cans on a 100ft diver line with a blob of 3 to 4 dozen Bills and Cans at the end closest to the blind.

Looks kinda like an exclamation point.

The end of my diver line is 50 to 60 yards out.

I leave a 5 to 10 yard kill hole and then place a blob of decoys in front of the blind.

The kill hole is 10 to 15 yards from the blind.

The far edge of the kill hole is about 25 yards from the blind.

It has produced 27 ducks and 3 Mergansers in the last 2 days hunting the same 200 acre lake.

[Meyer8043]

Looking to get more into diver hunting. I only have 2 dozen mallard decoys. I'm looking to get some new decoys so how many and of what species would be a good start and can i incorporate the mallards into the setup at all? Any info would be appreciated!

[RumRiverRat]

Buy

2 dozen Oversized Avery GHG Cans.

2 dozen Oversized Avery GHG Bluebills.

Rig up 2 gang lines, use the Cans on the lines and use the Bills for filling in the J hook or the U or the W.

[onlydrakes4me]

I usually hunt puddlers, but have shot some divers. I was wondering if anyone knows of a good diver call ( if there is such a thing) and what model or brand.

[RumRiverRat]

Growl into a Mallard call.

Bump

[Moonie]

I usually hunt puddlers, but have shot some divers. I was wondering if anyone knows of a good diver call ( if there is such a thing) and what model or brand.

Cabelas sells them, gander may as well, but haven't seen them there. This is just my opinion... you don't need it. My dad gave me a diver call he got years ago. I never use it and still have had good success. I would buy shells with the money instead.

A good spread helps a lot more for divers (again, my opinion).

Back to your question tho... mick lacey makes one, so does flex tone. No clue if they sound good.

[nate larson]

Diver calls are usually pretty dang quiet...by the time they are close enough to hear the call it is time to blast away at them.

Now flagging divers on the other hand might be a good idea.

[morefishplease]

I have to agree, I have one, but this old timer once told me "best diver call is the one I left in my truck"

[onlydrakes4me]

well that answers my question, thanks

[elusivecrappiecatcher]

Some people think I am an [PoorWordUsage] for doing this but i take a dozen mallard decoys and put 4 dekes close together and then run the rest out on a super (anywhere from 50 - 200 yards out) long line out. I love the setup and it honestly works every time!

I love to see bills haul arse over a 200 yard line of mallard decoys lol.

Only reason I started this is because I have no diver decoys and didn't have the money to buy any at the time so I just tried it and been using my same 12 crappy GHG decoys ever since for divers.

[RumRiverRat]

Decoy Setups that I have used

One of my favorite diver spots consists of a cattail island in the middle of a lake.

With a S or SW wind I setup like this.

The long black line is the Diver Line 200 feet long.

If the wind is W,NW or N I just rotate the spread so I have crossing shots.

[RumRiverRat]

To the top!

[HugoBox]

I just picked up the clips made for attaching the blocks to the gangline. I always used caribiners on the demes and rings in the mainline in the past but it can be a b@tch with gloves on. I'm thinking that 1/4 inch solid braid rope will work just fine cause I'm a bit too cheap to bur the Doctori brand. Does anyone with experience have any input?

Now if some divers would actually show up....

[walleyehunter80]

no one has mentioned mojo's. do or dont use them?