Steve Sutton Pictures Page 4
A limit of scoters with the shadows. A set of shadows consists of 12 birds on six spreaders that nest inside of each other. Because they ride so high on the water they are highly visible and very effective. When I have the full rig out I use two sets of shadows and three dozen full bodies. Most scoter shooters do not use anywhere near this number of decoys nor do they rig scoter decoys. This is why the average scoter shooter shoots passing birds at long range and loses as many cripples as he picks up.
E Allen's bungeed on the bow of one of the Barnegats. One boat carries the full bodies and the other the shadows. This boat is used to shoot out of and the other is used as the tender. Normally, only one boat shoots at a time. This situation is dictated by the fact that the tender has a new Yamaha 15 hp on it that is far easier to start than the old low profile Johnson on this one.
Jet Sled after a scoter shoot. That's my 13 year old nephew, Matt, with his first scoter limit. The two mallards were a real surprise and decoyed beautifully to the scoter rig in about 40' of water. Go figure! This boat has a camo net blind on it when shooting.
This is what happens to your decoys when you shoot decoying scoters in close, 20 yards.
