Smew?

Charlie S and Titan

Charlie S and Titan

Well-known member
Anyone here use a smew decoy? Saw one in the latest DU mag and thought it'd be fun to add one to the diver rig. Anyone have a pattern? Or a hoodie pattern that can be tweaked to suffice?

Charlie
 
I've been using 2 drakes and a hen. One drake is the infamous smew from days of old. They're a great addition to a rig.

Clint
 
Lee, I just checked and was advised that the response to all of the websites has been so overwhelming that they can't keep up with the demand.....try back "later"......

Steve
 
Wow, somebody is cranky!

Charlie, if you could find me a few good photos I could probably draw a pattern up for you. But, I have also heard that having a smew in your rig is like bringing a bunch of bananas in the boat when you are fishing, i.e., bad things happen!

Nate
 
Clint's Smew was THE FIRST "traveling" decoy that we had on the site.....he carved it and then shipped it to Pool 9 where Eric Patterson, myself, Pete McMiller, Mark Rongers, Greg Bires, Tom Reder and several others hunted over it on a trip there. It came home with me and I hunted it here for the rest of the season before sending it back to Clint. I believe, but am not absolutely sure, that it made at least one subsequent journey after that to hunt with someone else...

It did seem to have a "life of its own" and there were several "adventures", including being present when a gunshot caused a bicycle wreck, during its travels.....I'm guessing here as well but there were multiple, as in over 20, variations on a theme of THE SMEW in photos and for a time it was the hottest ticket on the site.....sadly it seems that it has "retired" to the quiet life in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.....at least he has "friends" with whom to share tales with....

I actually have the original patterns, (on floppy), of that bird.....if its o.k. with Clint I'll post them once I figure out how to get them from floppy to the new computer which seems to only have a cup holder and not a coin slot......

If you make one recognize they are VERY SMALL, that the crest is flattened horizontally instead of vertically like a Hooded and the bill is short and stout appearing more ducky than merganzery........Clint is the only person that I know that has gotten those features right in a decoy. I have one that I got from antoher carver...neat decoy but its 3X life size, the crest is "vertical" and the bill is more like a RedBreasted than a Smew......

Looks like Clint is "watching", (nice to see ya Clint), so if he says "post" I'll figure out how to get his pattern up on the site....

Steve
 
Steve,

Thanks.

I didn't realize that there was smew history here. I just saw that one in the magazine and thought, "wow, that'd draw attention from a long way" my next thought was, "Black and white, I could almost paint that" and thus the post.

Whatever I created would be a butcher job, as I am a sub-novice carver. But, I have some cork and some head stock languishing in the shop begging to be made into something. With all the help here over the years, I'm over my fear of the cutting and carving bit, but my painting skills are somewhere around the preschool level... Wait, no, that'd be an insult to preschoolers. My 5 year old daughter is a better painter, if that tells you anything...

I don't think I'd have picked up on those subtleties you mentioned. Thanks, that'll help. A lot of the pictures I found didn't do the crest much justice.

Thanks for the great reply.

Charlie

Audubon description (is THAT allowed?): http://www.audubon.org/bird/BoA/F40_G1d.html
 
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after all everyone here knows I'm a bunny hugger with an affintity for "worthless" birds like Condors......

The Smew years were back in the very early years of the site.....over 9 years ago....not quit far enough back for you to have still been messing your diapers but we'll blame your reduced years for not being around back then...I wish I had saved some of the photo-shopped Smew pictures that got done back then but for some reason did not...at one point the Smew press was so prevelant that it actually pissed off one participant who no longer posts here resulting in a Rodney Kingesque post of "can't we all just be serious here"?

Like all ducks with a "crest" pictures won't always show Smew's with much definition in their crest.....you have to catch them "excited" to see the crest fully erect. I remember Clint saying that he used a VERY hard wood, can't remember the species, for the head so that when he seperated the crest that it would be strong enough to take some abuse.....never had a problem with it while it was in my possession so he got that part perfect......

Steve
 
I always liked the Smew with the helmut and AK47. I gave one of the ones I made to Jim Staudacher hoping that it would push all the birds from Wisconsin to Mi.
 
Just be ready if one does decoy in, it takes a lot to put them down. [;)]

smewmiss.jpg

Tim
founding member of the Smew Smacker Sportsmen Society
 
A decoy like this?
000_0163.jpg

Sorry, don't have a pattern. Maybe, take a hooded merganser and give the crest a tune up.
 
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