Black brant rig

Brad Bortner

Brad Bortner

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This is a post to Worth M. Several years ago Brad F and I purchased a working brant rig from Worth. As some of you know, Worth lost a brant hunting partner in a tragic hunting accident and he lost interest in boat hunting for brant. When we bought this rig from Worth, we were happy to see that Worth had tagged the decoys with the names of the carvers. Many of the carvers were/are long-time Pacific Flyway brant hunters who put together working decoys. Brad and I have been occasional hunting partners ever since he adopted me as a carving mentor. But since Brad lives many hours from the salt, he sold me his portion of the rig. I have augmented the rig with a few more recent decoys including a couple of beautiful birds by Brad and last weekend I got around to christening another new addition to the rig. When I took a promotion a couple of years ago I received a decoy from my colleagues for 20 years of work with them. This decoy has lived in my office for the past 2.5 years and the carver has been threatening to take it back if I didn't take it hunting. Well last weekend I got a chance to float it in this rig that I am proud to be the current curator.

Getting the rig on the water again. Not bad weather for a January day in the Pacific Northwest.
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My trophy decoy works!
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Signatures on bottom of decoy. Because of the sentimental nature of this decoy its been retired after 2 days of successful granting.
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A couple of Brad F birds (from a couple of years ago).
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Here is a picture for Worth of the augmented rig. It includes a number of birds by Saylor, Pinches, Boys, Welton, Kell, a few others and now Forgey, Coats, Hayden and Nicolai. Worth, I promise to keep these working birds working like they should.
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I sure enjoyed this, Brad. Glad to see you were so successful. Got a kick out of that "threat" to take back the decoy if it didn't hit the water!
Al
 
Ron Saylor was my carving mentor....when he was a Alaskan Tug Engineer he'd just sit in the engineroom and carve buckets of decoy heads. Then later when he got home he'd do up the bodies. Awesome guy and had a shop to die for. That's a fantastic rig, you're a lucky guy. I still have one of his bucket's of rough cut head's I need to stick on some bodies. My favorites were his high head can's.-Seth Freeman
 
Brad, Thanks very much for the photographs and memories. I had some wonderful days over many of the decoys pictured. And they were done by some great waterfowlers. Just a bad sign of aging that I didn't recall selling them when you first contacted me. After viewing the pictures, it all came back, that I took them up to Washington for the Brant Festival to be sold. Aside from selling those, I think you know that I gave a collection of much older brant decoys to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. I still have a small working rig of brant, but it is very unlikely I will ever use them again. After the day Dave died, and I came very close, I haven't hunted the bays again. I also still have a nice collection of old brant decoys. At some point these, along with all my guns, art, books, etc will go to Delta Waterfowl to be sold. And the money raised go toward a wet land. Regarding the decoys of mine that you have, I am very happy they went to someone who appreciated them. Best, Worth Mathewson
 
Yes Worth I have seen the Wes Batterson collection you placed at ODFW. It would be a dream to have one of them in my rig.

Jack, I hunt brant out in the open bays. Usually near a oyster bar or sand spit so there are also scoters, oldsquaws and goldeneyes flying around as well. I usually hold off on them until the brant bag has been filled. That skunk head was carved by Brad F. Its a sweet bird.
 
Brad, The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife made a mistake in labeling all those old decoys were made by Wes. They weren't. In fact, none were made by Wes. I have told them that several times, and they haven't corrected the mistake. I do have several of Wes's decoys in the collection I kept. A few I used, as when I first started branting Wes would loan me his rig. Regarding something by Wes for your collection, I have a few unique three headed silhouettes that Wes used to hide behind when shore shooting at Tillamook. I would like to give you one, since you appreciate how important Wes was to northwest branting. Let me know if you plan to come to the Oregon Waterfowl Festival this year and I will have one at my table. Best, Worth Mathewson
 
Wow Worth that's incredibly generous. I will try to make it to OWF this year.
 
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Hey Worth, I am wondering if there is a way to tell if a brant decoy was made by Wes? I have over 30 of the floating full bodies and more than 20 single and multiple bird silhouettes that came from Wes. My dad and I hunted with him in the bay and as he slowed down he gave them to us and some of the other Game Commission guys he had worked with. My dad, Francis F. Ives died about a year and a half ago and I am deciding what I might do with the. Not sure if my brother is interested in hunting with me or not or if we will have the time to use them again.
I will post some pictures later
Thanks
Ken Ives
 
Wonderful post Brad! Glad it was resurrected. Pretty awesome rig and, what a keepsake in the decoy with the signatures. It's the memories that make the decoy. Each time I look at decoys I floated, I think of the great memories and, the guys I hunted with.

Keep pecking away at that bucket list... pg
 
Worth, had a great chat with Bill Pinches at ocean city last sunday-Pretty much centered around brant, both atlantic and pacific. He did kick my bum in the brant competition! Nice gent, for sure.
 
Ken, Thanks for the photos of Wes's brant rig. I couldn't tell for certain how many were made by Wes by looking, but will say that several (many?) were made by others. Best, Worth Mathewson
 
I have a culinary question for you Brad. Are the pacific brant good eating birds? Atlantic brant in NJ get on the cabbage soon after they get here, and their flavor deteriorates when that starts. You can usually tell by looking at their vent after you shoot one. There are good places to hunt them here where you don't need to cross big water, and they are really fun to watch and hunt, I think, because they are so different from other ducks and geese. I have not hunted in brant country(along the coast behind the barrier islands) for several years and I don't come across them where I hunt now.
 
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