I have been a member here for over a year and have enjoyed reading everyones posts. I have not had many posts of my own but am in need of some advise. My friend and I are going to venture away from the marsh for a bit and try our hand at sea duck hunting. We are currently in the process of working on a rig. I was hoping someone would be kind enough to give us an idea of the amount of decoys necessary, paint scheme, and decoy placement.. We are currently figuring on 6 long lines with 6 decoys each on the line spaced approximately 8 feet apart. We are using old magnum mallard decoys painted black with some white on them. We plan on placing the long lines in rows 10-15 feet apart We are not sure if we have enough decoys, if we should have some other decoys species, and if we should place the decoys in any particular pattern. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks..
Sea duck hunting
- Thread starter gbaechler
- Start date
Bill Savoie
Active member
We typically run three strings, spacing the birds every 3-4 feet. If you watch the birds when they are on the water, they stay pretty close together. Too many lines means a lot of extra work setting up and breaking down. When the weather changes and you gotta go, 6 lines can take a long time to recover.
On the big water, think safety. Plan for the worst, all the time. Good luck and have fun.
On the big water, think safety. Plan for the worst, all the time. Good luck and have fun.
Capt. Brian Rhodes
Well-known member
I run 3-4 dozen decoys 99% of the time for sea ducks. I always put out at least 3 lines with 10-15 decoys on each line and I put mine about 3-4 feet apart. I set the lines 15-20 feet apart.
Like Bill said, the less lines in the water the less mess and time to get in and out!
I use slot bags for all my blocks with the clips tied to each decoy and I keep the mother lines wrapped on a spool. I anchor both ends, tried doing one end but have seen the wind and/or tide switch and mess up the spread enough times to know 2 anchors is better then one!
Sounds like your going after scoter, those repainted mallie decoys will work just fine!
Good luck and be safe!
Like Bill said, the less lines in the water the less mess and time to get in and out!
I use slot bags for all my blocks with the clips tied to each decoy and I keep the mother lines wrapped on a spool. I anchor both ends, tried doing one end but have seen the wind and/or tide switch and mess up the spread enough times to know 2 anchors is better then one!
Sounds like your going after scoter, those repainted mallie decoys will work just fine!
Good luck and be safe!
Last edited:
CGeminski
Well-known member
My father and uncle taught me to do it this way and we always shoot a lot of Oldsquaw & Scoters....
We actually took clorox bottles, scratched them up with sandpaper and painted them black, any paint that chipped off left small white patches which was perfect. We used clothes line to make our strings.... it was easy to handle in the cold and didn't tangle much. Bottles were spaced 3-4 feet apart, 12 birds on a string. When we pulled the strings into the boat we carried three old broom handles... each clorox bottle slid onto the broom handle, it made it easy to handle each string that way... 12 bottles all on a stick.
We would run three strings in a triangle with the boat in the middle. Keep your boat anchor clipped to a large ball, then clip the boat to that, this way you dont have to pull the anchor every time you chase a downed or crippled bird.
Our boat was an open 16ft johnboat with two of us sitting in the middle, never even trying to conceal ourselves.... We had birds routinely decoy as close as 20yds on a regular basis, they aren't the smartest birds.
We actually took clorox bottles, scratched them up with sandpaper and painted them black, any paint that chipped off left small white patches which was perfect. We used clothes line to make our strings.... it was easy to handle in the cold and didn't tangle much. Bottles were spaced 3-4 feet apart, 12 birds on a string. When we pulled the strings into the boat we carried three old broom handles... each clorox bottle slid onto the broom handle, it made it easy to handle each string that way... 12 bottles all on a stick.
We would run three strings in a triangle with the boat in the middle. Keep your boat anchor clipped to a large ball, then clip the boat to that, this way you dont have to pull the anchor every time you chase a downed or crippled bird.
Our boat was an open 16ft johnboat with two of us sitting in the middle, never even trying to conceal ourselves.... We had birds routinely decoy as close as 20yds on a regular basis, they aren't the smartest birds.
I've been scoter hunting exactly TWICE, so take this for what it's worth. I hope I'm not giving away a secret technique, but get a 3ft piece of broomstick, and attach a 2ft x 1.5ft piece of BLACK cloth to it. When you see a flock, Idunno, a mile away, start waving that flag.......it works
Lou Tisch
Well-known member
View attachment DekeSet02.jpg
Layout-Set ups & Rigging (Divers)-Apply to your Sea Duckin'
Here's the set up we use. There are a few things to note:
1. We use 200-250 decoys but you can typically do a good job getting started with about 4-6 dozen. I'd go with BlueBills & Cans as my first purchase......along with at least ONE Goldeneye Drake and at least ONE Buffy Drake. One of each is truly "magic".
2. Notice that I've shown the "shore". This is critical if you want Buffy & GE. We did a lot of work for 3 months with the USFWS and this is what we observed 100% of the time. The Buffy were always on the "shore side" of the rig of Bluebills & Redheads and the Goldeneye were always on the "lake side" of the Bluebill & Redhead. Why........I don't know but I know that's the way they are. Both BFY & GE will come right down the center of the rig and then swing to "their own", giving you a nice coming in shot and a crossing shot.
3. Also, be aware that these divers come in Low to the Deck and will almost always "lift" up and you'll think they are flaring. What they're doing is checking for landing zone. If you let them, they will come in, lift up and then drop right into the rig.
4. Definitely use a call for divers. It will work wonders and it's the only way to draw them in to you if it's foggy.
5. Note that we have open spaces around the boat and behind it. These are passage zones for the tender boat so the tender can come in on either side of the layout and escape whichever way is necessary out the back.
6. We use a "blocker" line of big scoters and eiders. We get these birds into Lake St. Clair so it makes sense to use them but they are also there to "tell" the birds to "drop down". It's kind of the "end of the line".
7. We use 125' mother lines (1/4” Black, New England Line) with heavy duty carabeener clips on the end with the upwind clipped to an 8 lb. mushroom and the downwind clipped to a sash weight. We put 12-14 decoys on a mother line, clipped to loops in the line. We will often clip two lines together. The decoys have a 3' dropper of 1/8" military parachute chord. Tie a bowline to the deke and a bowline to the 5" lobster line clip and the clip goes onto the loop in the mother line. This keeps the mother line about 3' below the surface and away from you prop. Prop caught in a mother line will kill you.
If you are hunting deep water, merely keep "deep extender lines" (Loop on end and carabeener the other end) available to merely clip on when needed.
I never use single dekes. We lost a lot of single rigged dekes in a storm. It was so dark at 1pm in the afternoon that we had to use a spotlight to find the dekes. Mother lines were easy to find but the individual dekes were lost to the storm (all hand painted E. Allens)
8. We put all our decoys (still rigged) into 55 Gal. Plastic Drums with holes drilled in bottom for drainage and 2 fold down, carriage handles (home depot) riveted onto the drum. When retrieving, we set the sash weight into the bottom (still clipped to mother line) and start feeding all the decoys down into the drum. You don’t have to worry much about order.......it takes care of itself for the most part. When you get to the end of the line, remove the upwind 8# mushroom anchor, place the anchor in a milk crate with other anchors and clip the carabeener to the handle. Voila.
When setting decoys, unclip the carabeener and clip on the mushroom anchor and drop at the uppermost, upwind end for the set. As you drift down, you can set the dekes. As you remove the dekes from the drum..........do NOT grab the decoys and pull them from the drum. Grab ONLY the mother line...and the decoys will follow and not get tangled. If you lift the decoys out, they will not be in sequence and you will tangle. When you’ve set the entire rig, hold the sash weight for a bit to stretch the mother line (it will also right any decoys that are upside down) and then drop the weight.
Now, move upwind again to set the next line..............etc.
9. Don't set your rig in the dark. That's a sure way to get tangled in your mother lines and then you're in big trouble.....it can kill you. Divers move all day long. Wait to see where they want to be and then set up there or at least "pre scout" and set up as early as you have light to safely set the rig.
10. Carry a true Ship to Shore radio in every boat and have a backup if necessary. The coast guard doesn't like cell phones though they are better than nothing. A ship to shore radio can be triangulated by the Coast Guard and they can find you in an instant and that matter of minutes can be the difference between life and death.
11. Use a large Danforth anchor for your upwind boat anchor and a mushroom or small navy anchor as your downwind anchor. The Danforth will keep your layout boat in the proper place in the rig. The smaller downwind anchor can be pulled in and reset to adjust to a changing wind.
12. Be safe out there.....most duck hunters (especially layout shooters) don't realize how close to dying we are out there all the time. We're in a harsh environment and at a harsh time of year. Nature is unforgiving.......be safe.
Layout-Set ups & Rigging (Divers)-Apply to your Sea Duckin'
Here's the set up we use. There are a few things to note:
1. We use 200-250 decoys but you can typically do a good job getting started with about 4-6 dozen. I'd go with BlueBills & Cans as my first purchase......along with at least ONE Goldeneye Drake and at least ONE Buffy Drake. One of each is truly "magic".
2. Notice that I've shown the "shore". This is critical if you want Buffy & GE. We did a lot of work for 3 months with the USFWS and this is what we observed 100% of the time. The Buffy were always on the "shore side" of the rig of Bluebills & Redheads and the Goldeneye were always on the "lake side" of the Bluebill & Redhead. Why........I don't know but I know that's the way they are. Both BFY & GE will come right down the center of the rig and then swing to "their own", giving you a nice coming in shot and a crossing shot.
3. Also, be aware that these divers come in Low to the Deck and will almost always "lift" up and you'll think they are flaring. What they're doing is checking for landing zone. If you let them, they will come in, lift up and then drop right into the rig.
4. Definitely use a call for divers. It will work wonders and it's the only way to draw them in to you if it's foggy.
5. Note that we have open spaces around the boat and behind it. These are passage zones for the tender boat so the tender can come in on either side of the layout and escape whichever way is necessary out the back.
6. We use a "blocker" line of big scoters and eiders. We get these birds into Lake St. Clair so it makes sense to use them but they are also there to "tell" the birds to "drop down". It's kind of the "end of the line".
7. We use 125' mother lines (1/4” Black, New England Line) with heavy duty carabeener clips on the end with the upwind clipped to an 8 lb. mushroom and the downwind clipped to a sash weight. We put 12-14 decoys on a mother line, clipped to loops in the line. We will often clip two lines together. The decoys have a 3' dropper of 1/8" military parachute chord. Tie a bowline to the deke and a bowline to the 5" lobster line clip and the clip goes onto the loop in the mother line. This keeps the mother line about 3' below the surface and away from you prop. Prop caught in a mother line will kill you.
If you are hunting deep water, merely keep "deep extender lines" (Loop on end and carabeener the other end) available to merely clip on when needed.
I never use single dekes. We lost a lot of single rigged dekes in a storm. It was so dark at 1pm in the afternoon that we had to use a spotlight to find the dekes. Mother lines were easy to find but the individual dekes were lost to the storm (all hand painted E. Allens)
8. We put all our decoys (still rigged) into 55 Gal. Plastic Drums with holes drilled in bottom for drainage and 2 fold down, carriage handles (home depot) riveted onto the drum. When retrieving, we set the sash weight into the bottom (still clipped to mother line) and start feeding all the decoys down into the drum. You don’t have to worry much about order.......it takes care of itself for the most part. When you get to the end of the line, remove the upwind 8# mushroom anchor, place the anchor in a milk crate with other anchors and clip the carabeener to the handle. Voila.
When setting decoys, unclip the carabeener and clip on the mushroom anchor and drop at the uppermost, upwind end for the set. As you drift down, you can set the dekes. As you remove the dekes from the drum..........do NOT grab the decoys and pull them from the drum. Grab ONLY the mother line...and the decoys will follow and not get tangled. If you lift the decoys out, they will not be in sequence and you will tangle. When you’ve set the entire rig, hold the sash weight for a bit to stretch the mother line (it will also right any decoys that are upside down) and then drop the weight.
Now, move upwind again to set the next line..............etc.
9. Don't set your rig in the dark. That's a sure way to get tangled in your mother lines and then you're in big trouble.....it can kill you. Divers move all day long. Wait to see where they want to be and then set up there or at least "pre scout" and set up as early as you have light to safely set the rig.
10. Carry a true Ship to Shore radio in every boat and have a backup if necessary. The coast guard doesn't like cell phones though they are better than nothing. A ship to shore radio can be triangulated by the Coast Guard and they can find you in an instant and that matter of minutes can be the difference between life and death.
11. Use a large Danforth anchor for your upwind boat anchor and a mushroom or small navy anchor as your downwind anchor. The Danforth will keep your layout boat in the proper place in the rig. The smaller downwind anchor can be pulled in and reset to adjust to a changing wind.
12. Be safe out there.....most duck hunters (especially layout shooters) don't realize how close to dying we are out there all the time. We're in a harsh environment and at a harsh time of year. Nature is unforgiving.......be safe.
Troy Fields
Well-known member
Sounds like you will have plenty of decoys with the 3 doz you have. I've lined as few as 8 and as many as 12, about 3-5' a part, I also run droppers. I use window weights for my anchors and also anchor both ends when possible. Sea duckin' is a blast but never under estimate the weather and keep an eye open. I've seen some pretty flat 3-5' marine forecasts and some awfully rough 1-2' days. Good luck and safe trips.
jehler
Member
Lou, I started diver hunting (without a mentor) in and around the grand traverse bays of lake mi in about 1996 and Have since hunted huron, superior and countless inland lakes around the state. I can not tell you how many miserable, tangled, almost drowned shoulda woulda coulda school of hard knocks hunts it took us to learn what amounts to almost verbatim your above post, if I just could have read that in 97!! we do a few things different but not much.
We have done quite a few scoter hunts over the years and we set our blocks on the upwind side of our other divers like lou suggest but use 3 or 4 lines of them in a kind of starburst configuration instead of a perpendicular line. we keep them fairly close to the boat with the farthest deke being roughly 25 yards from the blind as the scoter are usually not shy. If we are seeing oldsquaw we will dedicate one whole side of the blind to oldsquaw dekes.
The marine radio is a must, we have a hardwired marine radio on the blind boat that is wired to the gps with a distress button and a waterproof portable marine radio for the layout and tender.
we do often set lines before sunrise but we do them well away from each other then tow them into position after twighlight
We have done quite a few scoter hunts over the years and we set our blocks on the upwind side of our other divers like lou suggest but use 3 or 4 lines of them in a kind of starburst configuration instead of a perpendicular line. we keep them fairly close to the boat with the farthest deke being roughly 25 yards from the blind as the scoter are usually not shy. If we are seeing oldsquaw we will dedicate one whole side of the blind to oldsquaw dekes.
The marine radio is a must, we have a hardwired marine radio on the blind boat that is wired to the gps with a distress button and a waterproof portable marine radio for the layout and tender.
we do often set lines before sunrise but we do them well away from each other then tow them into position after twighlight
Keep rockin'.
John Fraser
Well-known member
You have already gotten some good advice. Especially regarding safety.
We mainly target oldsquaw with the occasional scoter on Lake Ontario. Up there we often see scattered small flocks of birds, so we usually set out 12 to 18 oldsquaw and a couple of scoter decoys. This is a much smaller spread than the 60 decoys we use for broadbill and redhead since the broadbill and redhead are often seen here in bigger flocks. Most of the oldsquaw decoys are set on 2 to 3 long lines via three foot droppers clipped on the mainline at 6 to 10 foot intervals. The 6 foot spacing keeps the 3 foot droppers from tangling with each other. Although we usually throw out a few singles, we have gone without them and the birds didn't seem to mind. I prefer to set up with a cross wind and having the decoy lines running parallel and off to one side of the boat within decent shooting range. Our mainlies are usually set 15 - 20 foot apart, closer spacing can get a little hairy when trying to set them out as the boat can tend to drift towards the lines that are already set. You don't want to catch a line in your prop. As far as the numbers and species that you should use, try to mimic what you see out there. Within reason though, don’t try to carry more decoys and gear than your boat can carry.
As was mentionned, using a float on your bow anchor can really speed things up when trying to get the boat back into position after making a retrieve. Just cast off the anchor line, make the retrieve, and pick up the float when you come back.
We mainly target oldsquaw with the occasional scoter on Lake Ontario. Up there we often see scattered small flocks of birds, so we usually set out 12 to 18 oldsquaw and a couple of scoter decoys. This is a much smaller spread than the 60 decoys we use for broadbill and redhead since the broadbill and redhead are often seen here in bigger flocks. Most of the oldsquaw decoys are set on 2 to 3 long lines via three foot droppers clipped on the mainline at 6 to 10 foot intervals. The 6 foot spacing keeps the 3 foot droppers from tangling with each other. Although we usually throw out a few singles, we have gone without them and the birds didn't seem to mind. I prefer to set up with a cross wind and having the decoy lines running parallel and off to one side of the boat within decent shooting range. Our mainlies are usually set 15 - 20 foot apart, closer spacing can get a little hairy when trying to set them out as the boat can tend to drift towards the lines that are already set. You don't want to catch a line in your prop. As far as the numbers and species that you should use, try to mimic what you see out there. Within reason though, don’t try to carry more decoys and gear than your boat can carry.
As was mentionned, using a float on your bow anchor can really speed things up when trying to get the boat back into position after making a retrieve. Just cast off the anchor line, make the retrieve, and pick up the float when you come back.
Chris DeRonde
Member
This is a good thread for the newer hunter such as myself, so thank you everyone for sharing there info.
I am just getting into the Sea Duck hunting myself.
Where is the best place to order the Long Line Snaps?
Thanks,
Chris D
I am just getting into the Sea Duck hunting myself.
Where is the best place to order the Long Line Snaps?
Thanks,
Chris D
John Fraser
Well-known member
I haven’t bought them in a while so I don’t have any current dealer info. However I would buy them from a commercial fishing supplier. Do not buy the Avery clips or similar clips that are made for decoy rigs, they do not shut tight on the mainline so they will slide up and down the mainline unless you tie a loop to clip them onto.
Lou Tisch
Well-known member
George,
Didn't matter how far from shore. Many times we'd be sculling on birds a couple thousand yards from shore and still found it true. When they were further, there was a different separation and the birds were usually rafted up to rest and more species specific.
Lou
brian tierno
Active member
you can get rig longline clips with36inch drops and snap swivels from cabelas for 20 $ a doz, i am new to sea duckin also and had some good luck last year withmy rig just have to find the productive water this season
R. Greco
Active member
A trick I learned from a pro down in North Carolina ...buy the super magnum jumbo weighted keel canvasback carrylites...paint em black and add the white spots..or appropriate colors for whichever scoters your targeting and rig em on long line clips...those high necked blocks can be seen for longer distances than standard blocks or bottles especially when you got a little chop kickin up...I used Herters black decoy paint in the gallon...
C Suskowicz
Active member
I am new to Sea Ducking myself and wondered if it mattered if you mixed scoters. White Winged, Surf, and common or do you need to keep them seperate?