Anyone ever see a decoy weight like this before?

Joe Friday

Joe Friday

Well-known member
I was in Boone, NC this past week, and while there I went into an antique store. There was this canvasback decoy with a decoy weight setup I'd never seen before.
Has anyone here ever seen something like this? I'm not sure how to describe it.

I didn't buy the decoy. $345 was a bit much, I thought. The name of the store is "Front Porch Antiques" located on highway 105 near Foscoe, NC.



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Joe, that's cool, never saw that before but now I will keep an eye out for one. But No Deal for me at $345...will likely sell to an App State parent who feels they deserve a treat too after paying tuition . Did you get to the Mast General Store? Also there used to be a really good bookstore nearby that had a very good Sporting section...picked up a couple good ones there at decent prices...
 
Have never seen a recessed weight, but the "swinging keel" were common to Lake Erie, Lake Ontario rigs on the Canadian side. Ken Anger rigged many of his divers this way. Sometimes front to back like your photo, others side to side.
 
Looks like a Michigan Bobtail. I have seen a few blocks with weights similar. Just a little pricey, not knowing the carver. I wonder how it migrated to NC?

RVZ
 
Tom Johnson said:
Have never seen a recessed weight, but the "swinging keel" were common to Lake Erie, Lake Ontario rigs on the Canadian side. Ken Anger rigged many of his divers this way. Sometimes front to back like your photo, others side to side.
Click to expand...


Agree with this statement. Very common and efficient decoy keel weight for that area, and also at times in the states bordering those Great lakes. Still works very well but not favored in contests where many a "decoy" now sees action cuz of BS about fouling the line.

This carver took extra care to protect the weight and other decoys during storage and transport. Could well be a Michigan decoy. No matter a mighty fine gunning decoy.

More than a few northern waterfowlers brought their decoys south when gunning. It also is possible that the decoy was a trade with the guide, or local carver which has been a custom. When I hunted south I often brought decoys to trade, or give as gifts. It's a very good practice no matter where a carver/maker migrates to hunt waterfowl.

my 2 cents
 
Thanks for the replies, friends! I thought it to be a genuinely brilliant set up, and a pretty good looking decoy.

David, I did not make to the Mast General Store, this trip. But have been many times before. It's one of my favorite places to visit in the area.

We spent the last week up there and I tried to get a little fishing in, following 2 days of ice and snow...managed a couple of wild brown trout on dry flies.



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Joe,

Congratulations!

Beautiful Brown Troutlings on dries, as good as it gets in Vince world. I'm gonna wait out the last days of a bout with covid, and this weekends cold snap. Monday hope to do as well as you did.

Two Thumbs Way Up.


Best regards
Vince
 
Joe~


I have a pair of Broadbill - from Massachusetts circa 1930:


Broadbill - 1930 Mass - with pendulum keel.JPG



As others have mentioned, I imagine it helps the bird ride well - but would be a fouling nuisance when picking up - or even setting the rig.


Broadbill - 1930 Mass - with swing keel - bottom.JPG


You can see the maker sacrificed the head of an eye bolt for the ballast.


Broadbill - 1930 Mass - with pendulum keel - closeup.JPG



A similar approach was used on Bellport Bay - the east end of Great South Bay - with a few inches of galvanized chain. I do not have a photo handy - but I think Joel Barber shows one in Wild-Fowl Decoys.


All the best,


SJS


 
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Nice color on those wild Browns! Reminds me of native Brookies I caught as a kid (where a 10 inches was a big one) but the fins are a dead giveaway. Thanks for the report...
 
[size 5] I first heard that type of swing weight referred to as a "toilet paper roller."

First introduced to the concept when Joe Wooster showed me how to make one when I was looking for a way to effectively weight some black cork, duck-butt feeder decoys for a rig I had made.

Always neat to see a makers solution to how he keeled a decoy for the conditions being hunted under. I would've added a tab on a pivot to lock the weight into that routed channel during transport or storage.
 
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Served a dual purpose of ballast to a heavy high headed decoy and space saving room in a boat or gunny sack. I have a rig from the late 1980s that were all fitted with swing keels and floated well. Mine swung from front to back rather than side to side. I thought they represented a swimming bird a bit better.
 

During the 1980's gunning partners and myself were layout shooting Bluebills off of Turkey Point, Ontario.

Long story short. When we returned there were a pair of hunters in a burlap/broomstick shore blind hunting Bluebills over a good rig of old hollow hand craved decoys. All the decoys had swing weights and they worked just fine.

They set their decoys carefully, not toss em, and never had a anchor line fouling problem. We enjoyed talking with each other and I learned much from them. They thought we were Nutz laying out (Doing all that damn work just to shoot Bluebills. Hot Dog Eaters.) I wish I could have spent more time with them they were a wealth of waterfowling knowledge.

Canadian hunting decoys are pretty high up the list of decoys I admire the most in every category.
 
That is awesome, I've seen this style in Maryland a few times before and if I remember saw a decoy very similar at the Tuckerton decoy show in NJ
 
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