Diver Decoy Spread

[mpester]

I got a bit hooked on divers this year. I am thinking of setting up a small diver spread for next season. What species of decoys would you buy for a small spread? I am thinking of getting three dozen bluebill or ringneck decoys.

I saw a lot of ringbills and buffleheads this year and a few bluebills. The ringnecks and buffleheads will come into any decoys - even my boat when I am out picking up a dead duck. I do not see too many canvasbacks where I hunt and only a few redheads. Do you think a spread of only bluebills or ringnecks will work OK for other divers?

[Guest]

I used to have about 8 doz bluebill decoys.. all divers would come into them without a problem.

[hanson]

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Do you think a spread of only bluebills or ringnecks will work OK for other divers?

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Yes.

A spread of Bluebills is what I would go with. Drake bluebill decoys have more white on them than drake ring-neck decoys.

As for manufacturers, I would highly recommend G&H Bluebills. Love 'em! We also hunt with some Greenhead Gear Bluebills but once you get them all out together, its really hard to tell the difference from a distance.

We'll also usually put 3-4 Canvasback or Goldeneye decoys off the end of our line since they have the most white on them. I'm looking for something thats really visible out on the end.

We've shot just about everything over Bluebill decoys, from cans, redheads, bluebills, ringbills, buffies, goldeneyes, mergansers (yuck), to a scoter.

[Sartell Angler]

we have a mixed rig of bluebills and canvasback dekes...have some magnum G&H can and bluebill dekes and those babies stand out!

also got a few goldeneye dekes this year and with all the white on those dekes I feel they help a lot as well, especially since we see quite a few whistlers on the river each year.

long time until you can hunt divers though~

SA/wdw

[Fish&Fowl]

I too would suggest mostly bills for the spread if you are sticking to one kind. But it is fun to do what the others have mentioned and throw a few others (cans, goldeneyes, redheads) into the mix for a little more confidence and variety. Also agree that G&H or greenhead gear are the way to go.

[B. Amish]

i would go with a majority of bluebills or ringnecks (since there are more of them around) and then as others have suggested add other species. i like to keep all of my bluebills together and then in one clump to the side i may have 1/2 dozen mallards, goldeneyes, or geese

[mpester]

The set up with some divers on one side and some geese or ducks off to the side is the setup I had when I decided I liked diver hunting. Also, I am a really bad caller so I like it that dives either come in or do not come in with no calling. I was on a lake near Waconia at the end of the season when I had a good bluebill hunt with some buffleheads around that only came into the decoys when I was out getting the dead bluebills. Also, some geese came in that I should have taken but I passed on the closest approach thinking they were going to come all the way in.

I will get a set of three dozen bluebill decoys for next year with maybe a dozen redheads or golden eyes. I am too cheap and lazy to buy or set out five, six or seven dozen decoys. I am hoping to get a good sales price online when the duck season ends down south. I have only been to one store in the area that had any bluebill decoys and they were not on sale.

By the way, if I have three dozen bluebill decoys, how many and how long of a gang line should I make up? How far apart should I put the drops and how long should I make each drop? Thanks for the ideas.

[Eckie]

For my line, here's what I do...

I used an old coffee can filled with cement for my anchor. Starting approximately 6-8 feet up from the anchor, I tie on a swivel connector about every 3 feet. I usually run 10-12 dekes on the line and place the set up on one side of my spread depending on the wind. It's a very simple way to always have a nice, long straight line of decoys for the birds to "bank" on as they're coming in, and they never get tangled. After the hunt, picking them up is a breeze, and I wrap the line on an old waterski tow rope carrier (you can use anything for this, obviously)...

[eyepatrol]

Hanson said it all. Get the 'bills, mix in a few others and you'll be good to go. For the most part, I like the Greenhead Gear decoys. My only complaint is that there was a day this past season where I was knocking ice & slush off the GHG decoys and one of the weighted keels came off. Other than that, the GHG's are a good decoy.

[hanson]

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My only complaint is that there was a day this past season where I was knocking ice & slush off the GHG decoys and one of the weighted keels came off. Other than that, the GHG's are a good decoy.

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Gotta agree with you there. You really have to get those Snap-Lock keels to snap in.

Since we're talking diver decoys, do any of you guys feel the need to use magnum size decoys at all for divers? I guess where I hunt, I don't feel the need. I'm typically hunting small bodies of water from a canoe or small boat and believe location and an appropriate decoy spread are more important than anything. I may change my opinion though if I'm on a larger body of water and really need my dekes to be visible to catch the eye of the ducks.

Only reason I mention this is GHG Bluebills are really a pretty small decoy. I should say they are Life Size. G&H Bills arent' much bigger however. But when you put a raft of them out there, they look pretty good.

[eyepatrol]

That's a good question. One I've pondered for many years. I hunt a 1000 acre lake and many times it's all about location. When the birds hit the lake, they typically fly a certain route and if you're on that route, you'll get shooting.

Now, to hunt something like Winnie or some other large body of water, magnums may be the ticket. On a big body of water you might really need to stand out to be seen.

[burl]

When i was really into diver hunting a few years ago i went to garage sales in the off season and bought up all of the used decoys i could find.Did not matter what kind or size.Then i took spray cans of white and black paint and repainted the dekes,the whiter the better.Made set lines with snaps and anchors on each end,the small plasic planters make great anchor molds.Used the plastic extension cord reels to hold all of the lines.We never had any problems with getting divers into our spread.Hunted with one guy that made all of his dekes out hilex jugs and they worked just as good.Numbers of dekes and location is the big key to great diver hunts.Burl.

[SIMCOX28]

Albeit true that you can get divers of all kinds into bills, I would say that you go with as many cans as you can muster up. In the past we have used mostly blue bills and we thought it was great. Then this year we switched to more cans and it was hands down the best hunting we ever had, we had all divers coming into the spread with no hesitation. We ran two lines out ( anchored with grapple anchors) and than one line perpendicluiar to those two line (makig a big T) and than put out a bunch of singles. Seeing how that you want a samll set for divers I would use more cans than anything else as anything will come into cans more readily than if you have only bills out. It is a good idea, like others have said, to add birds to that spread. lok at what is around you and add those decoys. The only real problem that we ran into was widgen. They really only came into there own and not real readily at that. Another option is to use less divers and more coots. As the coots rip the bottom up the divers come behind them to eat at the buffet they are leaving behind.

Just my thoughts.

Terry

[BoxMN]

Hey Mike,

As you may know, Erik painted up ALL our bluebill G&H into ringnecks. They look great, to say the least. We have just seen more ringnecks lately. When we were up north, they came in great for us, using about 4 dozen give or take. I personally think having too much white is not good. You want their attention, but having too much out there is not what real flocks look like.

We also have our 2 dozen or so cans and some redheads, and about 2 dozen G&H mags. We use cans when they are around, and up by Fergus. We only use the mags when we put out the monster spread or for scattering when in very deep water (each wrap around the body holds more line than standards).

Another thing we like is having some different brand dekes mixed in , so head etc. is slightly different so they don't all look the same. The G&H with the swivel heads helps a bit in that respect.

For the strings... we have tried several different lengths between clips, and you need at least 6-8 feet between them, I think. We did 4-5 and they were clustered. Erik started using a hammer for a weight and it has worked great - holds up to 15 or more dekes just fine, and up to 7 geese just fine.

Then you need a half dozen buffies (paint them yourself using small bluebills or ringbill dekes) and a dozen goldeneye for late season (again, paint them yourself using slightly larger bill dekes).

You can never have too many just ask my wife... even though you find yourself using about 3-4 dozen most the time. I think it is how the spread is set that brings in the divers - long line for cans, medium to long for bluebills (they don't like approaching over land, so you need to set it right with wind) and ringbills will fly more crazy like. Redheads get decoy educated early, but once the commit they just keep coming. We have shot all of them historically over nothing but crappy old decoys up by Fergus, but that was when there were more around. I do agree that putting whiter dekes in the string is good idea, but not having too much, which is why the ringbill dekes are nice, plenty of white, but plenty of gray.

You need to build an additiona on your garge soon Pam will love it!!! ha!

-Box

[tearin' lips]

GHG Bluebills for all the reasons mentioned above. We run 5-9 dozen dekes and they are a great deke, every sort of diver will come into them. I like to mix a few redheads on the end along with some magnum bluebills that used to be my dads from back in the day.

[mpester]

Box - The only reason I need to spend more money after buying the boat and all the gear for the boat is from hunting with your brother this year! It is his fault I want to hunt dives. I had never really given divers a directed effort until this year. I had the good ring neck hunt on Pelican by myself, the fair hunt with him and the guys from his office near Waconia and the good bluebill hunt also near Waconia. Since I stink at calling, I think I need to change over to hunting mostly divers.

You are correct about the addition to the garage. Roger's pole barn has too many things in it for me to store the boat this winter. Four extra snowmobile trailers are stored at the lake this year. Maybe if it snows, the trailer will move out and I can take the boat up to Roger's over New Years. A few dozen more decoys may mean I need to park a car in the driveway for duck season. Pam sure is going to be [PoorWordUsage]ed when she has to scrape the frost off her car every day!

[sachem longrifle]

When I used to hunt ducks, we would have divers that would fly over the mallard dekes and land with the goose decoys. We also would have divers that would try to land near my long dead black labs head while he was retrieving ducks