flattie decoys

Why flatties? In my case I was intrigued by the reduced time to make one as compared to a full thickness cedar decoy. If I start with a sharp drawknife and spokeshave and a bandsawed body, I can shape the body in 12 minutes and that includes sanding. The fact that they work well was a pleasant bonus. After I started using my flatties, I noticed that that groups of feeding birds (and I'm talking whistlers and buffies) would always have several birds in them that were riding much lower than the others. These were birds that had just surfaced. To my eye, having variety of that type in the rig was very appealing.

I've made somewhere between 65 and 70 flatties of all types so far, although I only own 8 or 9. I've sold quite a few to guys all over the country and many have told me of the buffies in particular zeroing in on the flatties as they land.

I'm in the middle of trying to put together a 6 bird rig of goldeneye flatties and 6 buffies to use in that plywood hunting kayak I built last summer. Given the limited space in that boat, I expect these flatties will be the perfect size for it. The goldeneyes will have a hollowed bottom much like the aqua suc decoys discussed earlier. I expect the combination will be very effective.

John
 
Decoy Magazine Jan. Feb. 1997, article by Larry Lunman. "Spring Hunting" A hunter's response to new game laws. Shows a Flattie, "poacher" decoy. How, where, and Why they were made.
The Bluebill shown in the article, looks as bout as Good As it Gets for Flatties. It's All Been Done. We are just keepin' the heritage Alive & Well.
 
Neat thread.

The plan for this year is to re-trestle coat them and repaint them. They need a revival!!

I sent a note to Rick, and I am able to do the painting class weekend of April 27th.

Best,
Steve
Click to expand...


Hey Doc,

when you pull them out of storage to repaint, how about a few pictures of your now famous decoys? I would love to see a few pics of them. Thanks.

Uncle Mike,

Trestle coating has many flavors, it often is a mastic of one sort or another and then some sort of material (cork/dust/chips/rubber pellets, whatever, all depends) that is mixed together and then applied to the decoy. Said to make the decoy stronger and more resistant to shot/damage. Think of it as a sacrificial layer.

Chuck, works of beauty...
 
Long before aqua suc decoys Animal trap wooden decoys and pascagoula wooden decoys were offered in a model hollowed from the bottom on the spindle lathes that made the bodies with a strip of solid wood left running down the middle of the decoy for keel weight and anchor line fasteners. The idea was to reduce weight in a simple manner that didn't have leakage issues like the two piece hollow decoys. I have no idea how well they rode the water, rigged out, or worked, but I saw a bunch of them piled in sheds and basements as I searched for good old wooden decoys.

I briefly flirted with making something similar in flatties, but decided if I did cedar flattties, I would more model them on the St. Clair flats decoys, just not as thick.
 
I am going down to Steve's on April 26th. If he doesn't post up pics of them, I'll take some and post them up. I might even try to borrow one to bring back to WI. If I do, I'll bring it over to Green Bay sometime and you can handle one................

Mike
 
Eric,

You might try a Google search for INVADM decoys (think that's the name) and see if any images come up.

I'll see if I have any pictures of the flatties from the layout excursion last fall.
 
Lee L. PM'ed me on trestle coating, and having seen his decoys and seen their durability, I can vouch that his system works. He paints thinned tight Bond (with water) on the decoy, then sprinkles saw dust over the glue, when dry, he brushes off the loose sawdust and recoats with the glue again and does another layer of sawdust. when dry, he brushes off any loose sawdust and paints with thick Golden's acrylics.

I have seen decoys he has used for years that show little or no wear. I have even seen him pitch a wood and cork decoy, trestle coated and painted, down the concrete launch ramp, then pick it up and show me that it had sustained no gouges or scuffs.

Steve McCullough has some of Lee L.'s dceoys in his rig and can vouch for their ability to be abused and hold up.

The only negative I see in it is that you don't have a very smooth decoy to paint, so you are limited in some of the techniques you can use for feather painting, blending, etc.......
 
Invadm Decoys was made by Vito Angelone almost 20 years ago I'm guessing. Ure A Duck has the molds to the low profile decoys. I think he has them listed as long liner decoys. I have a few of Vito's decoys. They made for a light diver rig.
 
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