attention diver/seaduck hunters

Gary Lee

Gary Lee

Active member
I'm new to this site and would appreciate as well as enjoy seeing the rigs you use while hunting divers/seaducks. The areas I hunt don't produce many divers during a normal season, but I LOVE hunting for them when I get the chance. Motherlines? Y-boards? etc ? Anything and everything is of interest!
Thank You
 
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Last years Pictures, never really got any good ones this year, need a new canon D!
 
I like the variation in poses, they look great ! Motherline (if so what type of rig for that?) and singles used to fill in? Do you use flags, and calls, voice calling?
 
This is a collection of Sea Ducks I've carved over the years. Some are from my rig, some from my brothers, and some from one of my friends. On the day of this picture we drove over 2 hours to not have the boat start, after I was hopefull to get to shoot over a rig made entirely of my sea ducks...oh well, just not meant to be that day I guess. Unfortuneatly this was taken in the parking lot...not on the water.
SeaDuckRig.jpg

this is a brant Y-board I made for a hunt late this season. It worked perfect, as 15 brant almost landed on it just before I missed 3 times....
BrantY3.jpg

folded up
BrantY1-1.jpg

Last day of the season, my brother and I hunted over a scoter rig composed entirely of decoys we made ourselves, less a few herters bodies with heads we made, not a barrel heating day but we enjoyed it none the less:
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I have lots and lots of decoy pictures...I think I like decoys more than I like hunting haha......
 
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I like the variation in poses, they look great ! Motherline (if so what type of rig for that?) and singles used to fill in? Do you use flags, and calls, voice calling?
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Thanks Gary,
Do both just depends on where we hunt that day. Use 1/4 stiff braid line for the main and 18"-20" stiff braid droppers a little smaller diameter so the dogs can swim though. Use H style weights when I hunt on my own. Use zip ties to secure the lines to the decoys that way I can change them as needed.
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Nice blocks Bill, Like the King!
going to do a King Eider this year. I know we don't get a whole lot of them here in Iowa but ya never know!

Craig
 
Those are some fine decoys in the pictures.

Here's my layout boat rig. The decoys are broadbill, redhead, and a few goldeneye. Most are on longlines with a few singles to break it up.

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Here are a few I've made. The scoter and bufflehead are cork. The rest are wood. White pine is my favorite wood.

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Here is my Y-board diagram. I used buffy Y-boards for about 6 seasons with great luck. I made some bluebills ones but sold them before I ever used them. Hear Y-boards work really well for seaducks as well. Great thing is you can scale them up or down for your sillouhette size and they fold, dont take up much space.

[inline YBoard-CF-12292004.JPG ]


[inline BuffyYB-OnWater.jpg ]

View attachment YBoard-CF-12292004.JPG
View attachment BuffyYB-OnWater.jpg
 
Thanks for the replies guys!! Y'all hunt over some awesome decoys, thanks for sharing. I have read about Y-Boards but have never seen them in use. How do they ride on the water? Any particular way that you hunt over them? Use flags? If so what do they consist of? Anything and everything is of interest. The area I hunt isn't known for diver hunting and I know of nobody that goes out specifically for them, other than myself. I figured this was the best spot to ask such questions since it's obvious there are hardcore waterfowl hunters here. Thanks again.
 
As you can see from my second pic, they ride the water really well. I used to just place them in a group outside of my main block of diver decoys, so they stand out. Buffies like to land with the buffies (most of the time) so that seems to work well.
I have not used a flag before other than waving my hat at passing divers. It seemed to get their attention more than once. Heck, if they are going to pass you by anyway, why not wave?!!!
It used to be that nobody here targeted diver much either. That has changed in recent years, since we have had very few gadwalls (our main bird). If you already have a bunch of puddle duck decoys, you dont need to buy/make a ton of divers unless you really want too. Just use the puddlers for the bulk of the spread with your divers on the outside so they stand out.
Here are some spreads I use:
This one works good in relatively calm wind when you can setup the boat side-wind. We use this when hunting open water spots with gadwalls & divers on it.
[inline CalmWindOpenwaterSpread.jpg ]


This is a good layout spread if you have a layout boat:
[inline LayoutSpread11032003.jpg ]


When it is windy & you need to anchor bow into the wind, this works well. I use this when hunting two guys. If hunting along I move the whole spread farther down wind, so the J hook side landing zone right off the stern, the gadwalls are to my right and the buffies are off the stern.
[inline DiverBoatSpread11032003.JPG ]

View attachment LayoutSpread11032003.jpg
View attachment DiverBoatSpread11032003.JPG
View attachment CalmWindOpenwaterSpread.jpg
 
Tips for Gary onthe 1x2 try doing a da do cut in the center to receive the silo at least 1/2 deep into the1x2 to receive the silo then drill thru at the front and back of the silo and 1x2 the diameter of 1/2 to 3/16 dowel push thru and cut ,this will save on harware cost if the silo gets damaged over heavy use and has to be replaced simply puch out the dowel. Using wood dowel cuts down on V-board weight.Of course this is only my 2-cents worth. P.S. I like your pics
 
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Those spreads look great ! When you are hunting big water you just hunt right out of a boatblind away from shore? Thanks for the tips guys !! keep em coming please .
 
Most of the time, we are hunting is 6"-2' of water, on eel grass flats, 100 yards to 2 miles from the nearest shoreline. We stick phragmites in around the boat to break up the outline and help hold the boat in position & put up the boat blind. It works great for divers and good for gadwalls until they get smart. Then the gaddies get tough to decoy until the next front pushes new birds in.

Hunting the bank down here can get you in trouble quick. We only have 1 high & 1 low tide/day, so if you get on the bank & get get stuck, you are stuck for hours.
 
This is a collection of Sea Ducks I've carved over the years. Some are from my rig, some from my brothers, and some from one of my friends. On the day of this picture we drove over 2 hours to not have the boat start, after I was hopefull to get to shoot over a rig made entirely of my sea ducks...oh well, just not meant to be that day I guess. Unfortuneatly this was taken in the parking lot...not on the water.
SeaDuckRig.jpg

this is a brant Y-board I made for a hunt late this season. It worked perfect, as 15 brant almost landed on it just before I missed 3 times....
BrantY3.jpg

folded up
BrantY1-1.jpg

Last day of the season, my brother and I hunted over a scoter rig composed entirely of decoys we made ourselves, less a few herters bodies with heads we made, not a barrel heating day but we enjoyed it none the less:
2858211120100426493S600x600Q85.jpg


I have lots and lots of decoy pictures...I think I like decoys more than I like hunting haha...... Love those Old Squaw dekes! The hen looks awesome
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thanks Nick, here they are when I finished them up a few years back. Cork from the Duck Blind, the dark parts of the birds are burnt, the colors are oils. Cedar heads.
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Carl you hunting saltwater/brackish ? I've always hunted with the boat tucked up to the bank, against a high brushy bank if at all possible. Most of the time I hunt along shore sitting against a tree, blowdown, etc ..... or in some brush, or in a layout blind. Never have hunted like you mention, figured it may flare alot of birds. Nice to hear you have good success hunting like that. I really appreciate all the information, and suggestions you guys have been giving. Have anymore for a "wanna-be" diver hunter?

Those Old Squaw decoys remind me of the Herter's series, NICE !
 
Carl you hunting saltwater/brackish ? I've always hunted with the boat tucked up to the bank, against a high brushy bank if at all possible. Most of the time I hunt along shore sitting against a tree, blowdown, etc ..... or in some brush, or in a layout blind. Never have hunted like you mention, figured it may flare alot of birds. Nice to hear you have good success hunting like that. I really appreciate all the information, and suggestions you guys have been giving. Have anymore for a "wanna-be" diver hunter?
Click to expand...

Glad to help.

I am hunting brackish & saltwater down in Coastal Alabama. Like I mentioned, this technique has worked great for us for divers.
Also as mentioned, for the gadwalls (which down here, are feeding on the same shallow grass flats as the divers), it works well until the birds start getting blind shy. If we don't get "new birds", at some point it gets almost impossible to the gaddies to commit or come within shooting range with a boat blind. When it gets like that, I either just switch to divers or wait until a front pushes more gadwalls down. In years past, that was about once a week and it worked fine. The last 3 years, we havent gotten but one or two mid season pushed of gadwalls and very few at that. Nothing like our "good ole' days" back in 97-2002 when limits of gadwalls were easy. When they get tough, some guys switch to marsh-style layouts, tyring to get on the bank or if the bottom is hard enough, just sitting on a bucket (look like a log). The latter works surprisingly well and its warm enough down here that you dont freeze your nads off.

I think the best advice for diver hunting is be mobile. Just like puddlers, you have to be where they want to be. Even with a 100 diver decoys and a perfect blind, if you aren't on THE SPOT, you won't get much action. So, get some diver decoys, get your boat set up and then start scouting!
If like you said, not many guys target divers in your area, you will probably have them all to yourself and do very well. Good luck!
 
Here's a couple of my boat on the water.
I normally use more cane than in this first one, but the bottom here is pure sand. It's really hard to stick the cane, so I didnt stick as much.
View attachment BoatBlindonWater1B.jpg


Here's another typical blind, this one is mostly bamboo, stuck by someone else. Some guys stick a ton of cane, some just a little. This one was so thick, the boat blind was overkill.
All our waters are first come first serve, no private blinds, but you also cant build "permanent" blinds.

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Here is my typical diver spread, dzn each cans & redheads, about 2 dzn bluebills, some ringers, some buffies and some GEs. All plastics, mix of G&H, flambeau & carrylites. Hope to make some foamers this summer. I use all single lines. The water is not that deep ( I have 5' of line on them) and we change spreads up a lot. So singles make more sense for me. If you are hunting deeper water, then motherlines may make more sense for you.
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Thanks again Carl, I really appreciate it. I have diver decoys, but like I said. I've always hunted from shore. I have some areas where that may be the ticket to get into some better shooting. I believe I'm going to make a few Y-Boards up, as well as paint some older Mallard decoys up to look like Goldeneyes over the summer. I have tons of Mallard decoys and never use them all, so instead of buying more decoys I figured it would be the thing to do .... I have too many decoys as it is. This area isn't what I would call a Gray Duck spot. Some years i shoot them on a regular basis, but makes up a very small percentage of birds harvested. Most years I dont harvest but 1-5 of them a whole season. Bulk of the birds I shoot are Mallards, and Greater Canada Geese. Early season and the start of the regular season Wood Ducks can be thick in spots. The divers dont make it down in any good numbers until later in the season most years (this season it didnt happen). But when they are down I really enjoy hunting them. With the information y'all are sharing with me I may be able to enjoy seeing more birds decoy and fly down the diver lines doing Mach 1. Most of the time when I set up for divers I dont use nearly as many decoys as you do. But I'm going to guess we don't have nearly the birds you get there. I like to use a hook type pattern, with the raft of birds upwind from where I sit. Seems to work good for me anyhow. That or I''ll make a main group of puddle ducks, and place out a line of divers, or small (2-5 decoys) groups of divers on the outside of the main spread ... to look like they have landed and are swimming in to feed, or are resting out away from the main group of puddlers. From what I have seen calls don't help too much, ON MOST BIRDS(divers). They are either going to do it, or they aren't. Is this what you have seen? Flagging seem to help much for you? Any motion decoys?
 
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