What do you guys use to rig your decoys

[Al Bundy]

For open water. I would like to set up a drift line and put a dozen or so on it. I see short lines and texas rig lines, neither of which seem to be what I want. Have not found one yet that is for a long string to reach out far. What specific product do you use??

Decoys are fairly new to me and I am still dialing it in. More often than not, birds flair. I got shooting this weekend and had a great time, but was not happy the way the birds passed up my spread over and over and over. I had a few Canada decoys out and one of the bills on one was twisted and looked weird to me. I wonder if this was enough to make ducks stay clear?

Thanks!!

[The_Real_TCIII]

Are you leaving a gap on the line? We put two big GE, then leave about 12', then ten more GEs and six buffies. We use the 1/4" Tanglefree decoy line and Hard Core Gang Rig clips

[Al Bundy]

Right now all I have is  a dozen or 2 mallards and blacks each on its own line with its own weight. Looking to figure out how to dramatically improve this.

The line you have is not pre-rigged? I see the spools but was thinking it might be better to get a pre rigged line where all I need to do is attach a decoy.

[The_Real_TCIII]

I thought you were setting up for divers, my bad. if you are using a line for whatever decoys youre putting out the gang rig clips make it easy. You arent pre-rigged but it takes seconds to clip em on, then at the end you take them off. Pre rigged is one of those things that sounds better than it is, theyre always a tangled mess in your bag

[BigVal]

We run a few lines from twenty to fifty yards long. Weights on the ends or end and quick clips. If we're on shore we set it all then drag out and in a boat we run a little by little until all set and drop it off. 

Nice thing about lines is you can make whatever spread your looking for be it a u, T whatever with less effort 

Edited January 3, 2017 by BigVal

[sodfather]

I run about 2 dozen blue bills on 2 separate lines with a couple lines of red heads and couple lines of canvas backs when and if there in area. The Golden eyes and buffleheads I drop loosely in groups. I leave space in between the lines for the birds to skirt. But I'm learning as I go also diver ducks decoy rig is nothing like setting up for dabbling birds.

[reeltime]

Some pics off the phone note to ref. Pic next


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[reeltime]

everyone does things different when rigging, sometimes it just boils down to personal preference.

 

when puddler hunting all my decoys are on individual lines. I do have a 4 pack of fully flocked mallards rigged for a both individual placement or on a jerk string for swamp hunting.

 

for diver hunting all my decoys are on long line clips.  the lines are all 32" long so the dog can clear the long lines.  

I generally rig one of 2 ways;

feeder pack with leaders into the pack,, I use dog crate fencing (approx. 2"x4" holes) 4'x5' sections.  the screens are tethered together with a 5' cord with a long line clip on each end. I clip  9 bluebill decoys on each screen, 6 redheads, or 5 goldeneyes respectively.  generally I do 5 screens of bills, 5 redheads and 1 or 2 goldeneyes.  

the feeder packs have a window weight attached to the front screen and rear screen and are placed in the kill zone.  

 

from the tail of the feed pack i leave a 20' open space,  drop a long line of same species decoys placed 4-5' apart  generally 2-3 dozen bills, and redheads  and maybe 1-2 dozen goldeneyes.   we use window weights and home made pvc weights to anchor each end of the long lines.  I run spring loaded clips on each end of the 5/16"  long line.  I spool them together on extension cord reels i think one has 6 150' lines and the other one has 3 300' lines for when we want to cover water to grab birds attention.

I will have to see if I can find some pics of some of our massive decoy rigs setup, usually done first days when we had big groups and all night to rig.  I might have to really dig but I have a picture someplace where we had had out a little over 400 decoys. 200 is not uncommon if we have a good number of birds around which have been lacking for a few years,

 

[reeltime]

here is a pic of ziva doing a 100 + yard retrieve , it was the 3rd of a triple and by then the wind had pushed the drake whistler out that far.  notice how she swims over the long line without issue.  

Edited January 4, 2017 by reeltime

[The_Real_TCIII]

Crap I can't see the pics?


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[Paula]

If you see the ? click on it and video will open

 

[Al Bundy]

Great info here. Thanks everyone. I think my spot has potential to be a very good duck spot. I see birds and I get some shooting. But.. I think if I get the decoys right it will be lots of shooting. Keep it coming...  I need schooling.. I am planning to be back out this coming weekend.

[dgram36]

Long lining puddle ducks is probably not the most realistic spread especially if you only have 12 decoys and one single line of birds. You never see birds in a perfect line in nature. There are several other reasons why birds may be passing your spread up. You may be seeing a lot of birds at your spot, but it's late season now and the birds are going to circle and circle and circle and then just when you can't take it any more, they are going to leave. That can happen if you do everything right. Hell I see birds doing that to other real birds quite often. If after the first circle you call and it's not realistic calling or over calling they will surely just leave. If there's no motion this late in the game, they will leave. If your hide is not good, they'll leave. Unless of course u are in a spot that they absolutely have to be in, than they will ignore all those things and come straight in;)

Chances are the birds are being sky busted all day and they aren't exactly eager to repeat the process of being shot at.

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[BigVal]

Agreed we saw a couple thousand  birds today and only a few committed