Pickleweeds - The carry-on luggage of waterfowl hunting

MLBob Furia

MLBob Furia

Well-known member
As many of you know, I have a good sized rig of puddler pickleweeds that I use in stubble fields as well as carry in the boat during the season. We sometimes get our inspiration from unlikely sources, and late last winter, my finding an interesting looking antique box in a little out of the way shop sparked the idea for this set of pickleweeds. Another one of those things where one sees the possibilities before they have become obvious :)

A variety of circumstances led to the final decision that the species would be a mixed group of Florida whistlers; but it was fun to let the whole thing evolve in the shop as time went by. Another one of those ideas that starts out simply enough; but then gets swept away with those: "Well what if I did this?...." add-ons.

It's these little exercises in "head scratchin'" that keep this decoy thing fresh and fun.

I posted some pictures of the beginnings of this project last month. It started with the carving of a bunch of heads for a number of projects - the whistlers for the pickleweeds among them.

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When they were done, I went to work on the necks & breasts and after a while had them ready for paint

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In between painting on these birds and a few others, I got back to doing some major repair & restoration on the box that had started all this, and which would eventually house the set for transportation to the field or in a boat. The outer canvas cover of the box was weathered, but not damaged, and that was part of its appeal. The inside of the box, however, was trashed, and that called for restoring and a complete re-line.

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Then it was back to turning my attention to painting the birds, while thinking of what additional things could be added to the box to make it truely a "one-off" item. At this point, I hadn't yet decided on a "remarque" for the lid ...just knew there would be one. I also needed to figure out a way to nest the stakes for setting the pickleweeds inside the lid of the box.

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With the painting of the heads mainly completed (...I kept going back to add little details to the heads while waiting for other stuff on the box to set and dry ), I turned attention to the choosing of an appropriate remarque.

I finally settled on a Chocolate Lab holding another duck commonly found where these whistlers abound - the ringbill. This was definitely the tense part of the project, 'because I knew if I screwed up the canvas on the box, there wasn't going to be any way to have a "do-over" - and there was no other box! So this operation was done very slowly and carefully over a number of sessions. I think it worked out pretty well.

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A few days after the remarque had been completed, I sealed and treated the canvas exterior of the box with a silicone-based waterproofing. When that had thoroughly dried, a second and third application were added for good measure.

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The problem of storing the stakes in the lid was solved by the installation of a hardwood rack system that securely holds them in place. Then I decided that drawstring bags to protect the heads would be another nice touch. I may have gone a bit overboard when I made Elk-antler pulls for the drawstring on each bag; but, hey! they didn't take all that long - and besides, I had some antler laying around in the shop!

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Here is a picture of the heads out of the bags, showing how they nest in the box. They fill it perfectly. For those of you that are horrified at the "unecessary" and "blasphemous" detail on the underside of the bills - it's done with paint and took less than 10 minutes to do. ;-)

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Now the only thing left was a "sea trial" to see if these looked any good in a hunting environment.

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I took some time to set these out this morning and shoot some pictures of them. The only whistler decoys I have here right now are in the studio in primer, so I took a few ringbills from my own hunting decoys with me since they were the "most likely suspects" I had that qualified as Florida ducks which might be seen sitting with whistlers. Here are some of the pictures I took:

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Bob, Very cool. The extra detail and effort always shows in your work. Kudos again!


Gene R
 
That is absolutely awesome. Can't imagine hunting those beauties, but that would be a lot of fun indeed. You need to turn the pickleweed idea into "bobbers" for me, McCullough, and Special K to use on Barkley with the layout rig!!!
 
Bob,
Very interesting project. Like always you did a fantastic job. The lab looks great. I bet there were many small steps to get that right. I stress over an ordinary canvas I can replace if I need to.
This gives me some great ideas and would work well with a rig of canvas dove decoys. Now I have one more thing to look for in antique shops.

Tim
 
Bob~

Really wonderful work! I love them all - but that Drake Ringneck with the half-dropped wing is inspirational!

Question: Is the "pickleweed" concept your brainchild? (and the name reminds me of one of my gunning canoes I call "Sweet Gherkin"....) I had never heard of them until I saw your work on this site. It reminds me of the "stuffed Mallard-on-a-stake" in Joel barber's book. I can imagine a few hunts where they would really effective.

I sort of hope TSA insists on inspecting this luggage....

All the best,

SJS
 
This gives me some great ideas and would work well with a rig of canvas dove decoys.

Tim
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Tim,
I have seen some nice boxed dove sets. If anyone could pull that off it'd be you. That 3 panel painting you did where the panels can be re-arranged shows you have no problem with thinking outside the box!
 
Question: Is the "pickleweed" concept your brainchild? It reminds me of the "stuffed Mallard-on-a-stake" in Joel barber's book. I can imagine a few hunts where they would really effective.

SJS
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Steve,

I just followed the age old decoy-makers custom of stealing a good idea ;-) Pickleweeds were around long before I started making them. Matter of fact, I believe there were some goose stick-ups found along with those cans in the Lovelock Cave excavations, and those decoys were ancient, so the concept is pretty old.

I believe that in the modern era they were popular on the West Cost salt-marshes where hunters would replicate pintails sitting in the pickleweed beds. The germ of an idea that sparked the original set I did goes back to my seeing them portrayed as part of a shooting rig depicted in a couple of Dave Hagerbaumers paintings. Struck me as a great idea for some of the conditions I encounter during the season, and that was that.

You are absolutely correct when you observe that they can be highly effective under the right circumstances.... but most of all they're sure fun to just take along and set out.

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Bob those are even nicer than the ones I saw at the house last year buy what I really loved is the box! see what happens when you teach a kid to love reading? Imagination, that's what!
 
I really liked the way you tied the whole thing together with the chocolate lab suitcase and the pickleweeds. Well done Mr. Artist!
Al
 
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