Clear Decoy Line Useful?

S

Steve O

Active member
It's long past time to overhaul the rigging on my decoys. The vast majority of the time I hunt on saltponds and salt marches. Many times the decoys are set over a sandy bottom.

Given this, does anybody know if it is useful to go with clear (I guess monofilament) decoy line? Also, wondering if any folks on here who frequently hunt in these types of places have found any rigging system to be clearly superior in such circumstances.

Thanks for any input.
 
Steve, I have used both.

The water gets pretty muddy out here and the clear line is tough to see in silhouette against the blast of a flood light off of the bow. I can at least tie the knots on the fly with the dark stuff.
 
I switched a bunch of my decoys over to "Texas Riged" lines last year. That systm uses 300-400# clear mono. I set mine up for 7' of water, but thats a bit too long. I didn't have any flair off from them set up like that. Do a search for texas rig & ck it out. I think it's a good set up if ya keep the lines 5' or so.
Dennis
 
i rigged some of mine a few years back with clear tangelfree hated the memory that it had wanted to keep bird nesting
 
I have found that tarred black twine works just fine and dont see any advantage to clear line.

I have heard of guys saying they used clear line because the ducks can see the dark line. Had one guy tell me to make sure that none of the decoys had line wrapped on its neck cause the ducks will see it. I personally call BS on all that, if the ducks are close enough to see the decoy line, you should be shooting. Plus thats really giving the ducks a lot of credit to think they make a connection between little dark lines in the water and danger.

In regards to rigging, what issues are you trying to deal with? Does the water depth vary greatly? I use all singles with around 5' of line and that has always worked fine for me.
 
Glad I asked about this, and very thankful for the input.

With my existing setup there are multiple issues:

-Those little, bendable mushroom anchors (the ones you can wrap around the decoy's head) have almost all now broken

-The thin, string decoy lines I've been using for ages tangle like a bucket full of eels

-Because I hunt mostly on saltwater the water depth can vary tremendously, so this rigging really needs to be adjustable
 
I'm with Carl, don't see a real advantage except for maybe the convenience of the texas rigging. I hunt over crystal clear water for the first half of my season and have yet to notice a problem...then again, haven't tried clear...so maybe I'm missing out! I've been using a much thicker/stiffer line on my newer decoys and found a lot less tangles. I keep thinking about texas rigging some mallards for a super shallow spot I hunt, but thinking is as far as I've gotten.
 
All I can say is the Texas Rig style are awesome for shallow water applications. Love um! I just went through 500 feet of clear line rigging geese and I think it will make a difference on a light bottom. We'll see.
 
We use paracute cord for shallow water and also as droppers on our long lines, like the man said if the ducks can see the line in the water or around the decoys neck they should be floating with their feet up.
 
Thanks to all for the helpful input.

Nick, I'm wondering if the thicker, stiffer line to which you've switched is a name-brand product, or is it something you've improvised?
 
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The clear tanglefree line is not as good as the green product. First off, it is a different diameter. This makes it a litle more difficult to work with as far as using their crimps, and weights. The clear line also has a memorey and doesn't stay flexible in very cold weather. Finally, I think the clear line is more easily seen in shallow clear water verses the colored product.

For what it is worth.

Mark W
 
every year we get a ton of redheads in the area during our late season here in the fingerlakes. these birds are smart adult birds that raft by the thousands. our lakes are very clear and when these birds are here they attract attention from alot of hunters so these birds can be real tough to decoy. these birds normally feed in less than 10' of water. im convinced that super stealth rigging can make a difference. ive considered using mono droppers on my longlines instead of para cord. id also like to try trappers die on my clips and vinyl paint on my anchors. seems worth the effort to me. best, mark
 
When I first started duck hunting again I rigged a bunch of decoys with some 40 or 50 pound mono I had left over from tying bite tippets for bluefish. It seemed to work just fine, but was not quite as easy to work with as nylon twine or parachute cord. After 5+ years, I think I've now converted all the mono-rigged dekes over to black nylon.

The Texas rigging is nice, and I'd go that way if I only hunted non-tidal shallow water, but for those of us who hunt areas with big tides (as much as 9 feet in some areas I hunt), it's just not practical.
 
Yeah, sounds like the Texas rig is not going to work well where I hunt. I don't think I've ever seen a 9 foot tide here, but the range is big enough to be an issue. Thanks for all the help.
 
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