Decoys for Eider hunting??

Chris Pratt

Chris Pratt

Member
I'm thinking about planning an Eider hunt next season up in coastal New England. Do I need Eider decoys to hunt Eiders? If so, how many do you recommend? I already have a dozen scoters, dozen long tails, bluebills and other B&W divers. Are they sufficient? How smart are Eiders?


Chris
 
Chris-
We dont hunt eider a ton-but when we do the more dekes the better.
They will decoy to other birds-like your bills and old squaw.

Let us know when you plan to come up and maybe we can host or loan you a couple dozen dekes....

We hunt near Cape Cod in MA-and always have room for another Jersey Boy!
Maybe you can keep your eye out for some pond boxes for us??

Best
Tim Shields
 
Early season we have found they will decoy to pretty much anything, but later in the season we definitely find eider decoys far out-produce a mix. We hunt Boston harbor and north (Cape Ann, up to Maine) and the more the gunning pressure (a'la Boston harbor), the smarter they become-quick.
 
Chris,

I have been using a 'small' set for the past few years....I hunt Southern Maine (Casco Bay south and into NH actually)....my typical set that I will be using Saturday will be 14 mixed scoter on one line.....another scoter line of sleds.....two lines of eider one having 8 and the other 6....then a line of a half dozen old squaw.

This is small compared to many of the late season guys, but I have had excellent success with this......last month I didn't use the long-tails and we were taking limits regularly. One great thing about here in Southern Maine is the mixed bag....there are still alot of scoter around these parts and there are also alot of eider......last weekend the number of old squaw increased tremendously as they are usually only in numbers in January.
 
chris, you definitely want eider decoys in your rig if your gonna target eiders. a string of BIG sleds and a string of traditional dekes should be sufficient. the sleds make a HUGE difference in my opinion. they really can attract birds from a distance. plus there fun and easy to make. best, mark
 
Chris,

The earlier in the season you go (late October to mid November), the better the gunning will be. This is the time that the birds from the north are starting to show up and are not really accustomed to seeing boats and decoys together. Later in the season you will start to see eiders giving boats a wide berth. They are catching on! That said, eider can be some of the wariest birds I have hunted. They will often swing wide and give the boat/set up a couple passes before deciding to settle in or fly on. They are smart birds.

For decoys, I would say you need at least 2 dozen birds - either sleds or full bodies, or a collection of both. Sleds are great for pulling birds in from long distances. On the water, you will see your sleds from a half mile away, while the full-bodied decoys tend to get lost. If you search the forum for "eider sleds" you may come across a thread or two on construction. I can post some pics of my sleds that I built last year.

What do you have for a boat?

Nate
 
Hey guys, thanks for the info!! We are planning to hunt outside of Westerly, RI. Tim, great to hear from ya, I didn’t know you were up in MA! We will be hunting out of my BB3. I’m sure the boat will handle the water if the weather is good. If it’s really rough our plan “B” is to hunt the protected salt ponds. Looks like I’ll be carving some Eider decoys and making some sleds this summer:))

Chris
 
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