Divers?

[kuec1kyl]

I have been duck hunting ever since I can remember in central MInnesota. However I have recently moved to northern Minnesota and have never hunted divers before. What is the difference in hunting divers over puddle ducks? And what strategies do I need to change?

[carpshooterdeluxe]

I have been duck hunting ever since I can remember in central MInnesota. However I have recently moved to northern Minnesota and have never hunted divers before. What is the difference in hunting divers over puddle ducks? And what strategies do I need to change?

Don't be afraid to shoot your decoys...

[Muthagoose]

CSD is right.. Its why I went to foamers.....

[dan z]

dont shoot the first pass if there into your spread they will be up close and personal in a couple more turns.... trust me its worth the time to waite

[BoxMN]

dont shoot the first pass if there into your spread they will be up close and personal in a couple more turns.... trust me its worth the time to waite

Amen! And don't bother with calls, and if they circle over and don't come back, or try to come in a third time even and "can't make it" you need to change your spread.

Ringbills need a smaller lead (string or tail or whatever others call it) than bluebills or cans, and buffies like to hang together, as do goldeneye. Redheads are dumb birds, but they get educated quickly if you have a raft sitting on your lake and they get shot at alot.

We find that bills will stay over the lake and make their swings but ringbill will come up and fly over land more, making them more unpredictable when they make a swing, and ringbill are less likely than redheads or bills or cans to come back for a second swing, so if you have decent shots at ringbill you might as well take them unless you know your dekes are working, then it is like clockwork.

I love divers. Fast, many times predictable but sometimes just do funky stuff. One day the cans only wanted to sit in the goose decoys, go figure...

If you are getting new decoys, I would probably get some ringbills first, or combo bluebills (lots of white) and rigbill, since we see more ringbill than others these days. Good luck! You will find many diver guys love talking divers

[Gordie]

Yep Dan hit sometimes those diver birds will make three passes before they commit and if you have 20 or more coming in let the first coule hit the water then take the ones behind those and RELOAD typically the others will try to come in.Ive reloaded several times on a big flock as they kept coming back.

Get ready for some real waterfowl fun Divers are a obssesion also

Decoy spreads are typically a J style formation or a line with a break in it and thats where the birds will want to set down.

its fun to watch them follow the lines

[Sifty]

Get use to the words "On the deck".

Most divers hit the shoreline and cruise about a foot off the water.

They are a challenge to hit and are alot of fun when you get into them.

Sifty

[kuec1kyl]

How many decoys am I going to need and can I get away with using my mallard decoys?

[life=outdoors92]

if your mallards are bright white than yes use em... but honestly, go on hsolist or craigs list and buy some cheap decoys for sale, and paint em all black, then paint white on the wings. they see that black and white from a long ways away. a few times i have put out a couple lines of bills with a mallards closer to me and it works.

someone up above mentioned ringbill decoys. maybe it works for them, but i found it makes no difference if your using ringbills or bluebils when shooting ringers. they just wanna see that black and white. ringers don't usually need long lines, they are more of a marsh duck. by the time they see the detail on your dekes, it will be too late for them

[kuec1kyl]

How many decoys do I need?

[BoxMN]

How many decoys do I need?

13 would do it, but 25 fit in most bags pretty nicely. Our old timer mentor always told us to use an odd number, so if a single flies by he will feel welcomed In all honesty about a dozen and half will cover you most of the time, but we have put out spreads of up to 8-9 dozen

If me and my brother (with others hunting with us) we usually do about 2 dozen early season, and 3-4 dozen (two bags) later, but 18 would probably work the same, haha!

FWIW, we like G&H decoys best, but I see they are not even carried in most catalogues anymore. Too bad. They just wrap so nice and last a long time, and have nice profiles. Others are fine too, we used to have old carrylites and flambeaus, back when they would crack for no reason, but were cheap, ha!

[Gordie]

18 is a great number to start with. I just got a bunch of the GHG's ringbills for my spread and hope to add a few more.

I still have mallard decoys that I have painted to look like divers for when we start throwing out numbers of decoys.

[mn_bowhunter]

I put out about 18-24 mallard dekes and add a half dozen bills. Sometimes I'll use a dozen. I'm not rigged for longlines and have individual lines/weights on each decoy. If using 6 bills I'll put them off to the side angling toward the blind and farther from shore than the mallards. I have many divers come in on the string and sit in the open space between mallards and bills. If they won't light the pass shoots can be a blast. I'd like to get more divers, but $ is an issue. I plan to paint some old mallards to look like redheads. I'd get a few bufflehead and goldeneyes to put in the mix.

[honker23]

Big difference is with mallards you interact more with the birds using the call. Divers react to the spot and decoys, most of the time they will swing lakeside or towards the larger part of the lake. I'll use 50-60 dekes and some days wish i put out more, leave a big spot in front of your dekes so they have enough room to land. Lead them more than you think:)

[Finlander]

I cut my duck-hunting teeth on Bluebills in central Minnesota and having 100+ decoys were the norm and sometimes more were needed as back in the late 60's and 70's you had to compete with the mega rafts out in the lake so the more decoys the better.

Also if you have 100+ decoys in front of you and the other hunters only had a few dozen, they just watched us shoot as they paid no attention to them.

And another thing about divers is to buy alot of shot shells as they will humble you in you're shooting to say the least. First shot will be 10 feet behind, second will be 5 feet behind, third shot will be in there beak as you will see where the shot hits the water as they always fly right above the water!

Good Luck!