So, what is the consensus perspective on use of decoy nets for divers?

R

RLLigman

Well-known member
I have a friend who is hunting with his kids on the eastern seaboard. Like me, he is a longline guy. Thus far he is not very impressed with decoy net sets to pull divers. Anyone with broad experience care to comment? What percentage of working birds opt to set-in versus fly past?
 
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We used them in various configurations for about 12 years, long before the commercial decoy rafts. At one point we had two 25' x 20' rafts deployed with two 5' x 25' rafts. We then changed to two 8' x 50' rafts clipped together, along with the two 5' x 25' rafts. We'd have about 150-160 decoys on them total, plus other decoys.

We went back to longlines. The rafts only look realistic under some scenarios. Divers do not always sit close together when they are feeding (sometimes they do), and they especially do not when they are loafing. They are a pain to deploy with no wind and the rafts look kind of ridiculous on calm days. Most of all, while they are very visible, I don't think birds finished as well. They would often do a fly by but not commit. It's also harder to distract the birds' attention away from a layout boat when the decoys are so condensed and take up less surface area on the water. That resulted in a lot of birds veering off at 40-50 yards as opposed to finishing in the decoys, or at least passing right through. This is the first year going back to all longlines (about 100 decoys total) and the birds finished better and at a much higher rate.

We had some good hunts over them but that's because we were in the right location. Based on my experience if you are not in the right location, rafts will not "create the X" for you. Interested to see what others think.
 
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My buddy was suggesting that we give them a try for Scaup. My only thought is that they will take up all the available space in the boat.
I guess I'm used to putting out longlines, not too hard to do once you have the routine down
 
Rick

I made one with fairly stiff plastic fencing material so I wouldn?t have to use stiffener poles. It was a pain to deploy and pick up. It was awkward to handle. Looks cool to someone at water level but not sure what it looks like to birds. Only sent the dogs after the dead birds had drifted past the net. I gave up on it in the currents, tides and the amount of drifting vegetation I deal with. Longs work just fine for me.
 
Thanks Brad,I hadn't thought about drifting vegetation accumulating on them as well. We don't face tides, just seiche activity which is often marked enough to strand a boat on mud flats more frequently than my back likes anymore. But we do hunt the St. Marys River. TDB and Bankes boatblinds don't accomodate ease of handling for these type of rigs, I agree. Plus the earlier observation that birds seem to not commit as much to decoy net rigs, which was my initiial assessment of this decoy deployment approach. Decoys in leaf litter bags are impossible for dogs and old men to tromp on in the dark, too!

We had an instance a couple of years ago where we arrived at our rental cabin around mid-day, unloaded our gear inside then set-up the blind on Steve's Crusader and dropped it in and slipped it. After getting our gear on we ran about five miles looking for pods of birds and located two congregations of divers seperated by about a half-mile. We had a little less than three hours of shooting time left when we started setting. There was a front coming-in, visible by the cloud line in the distance to the west. We killed two birds that worked-in as singles prior the wind shift which swung around to a point where our longlines were nearly perpindicular to the new wind direction, but the decoys were still well spaced and looked more like single-rigged birds so we left them as is. From that point foreward we were worked repeatedly by groups of redheads and smaller flocks of scaup, with an occasional mallard. ALL of them refusing to drop-in or commit, just constant fly-bys with a few short landing small flocks well out of range. Looking at the spread, we had eight to ten feet of spacing, but no string of blocks that enabled them to be guided-in to just split and settle between the strings of decoys (94 total, with most redheads and the remainder bluebills). 1.) Good wind. Only two things differed: Incoming birds had a "look" at the full silhouette of the boat in front of them in the hardstem bullrush stand as they came in rather than approaching from a long axis slihouette view. 2.) No lines of decoys on the water that enabled birds to follow as they worked-in and then drop into the spread, particularly a long string of birds immediatey down wind for them to "climb" as they approach the spread.
 
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I remember this coming up on the forum many years ago and others posted the same input that we're seeing now.

Sure sounds like long lines are easier
 

Obviously a dog can not retrieve in the nets where if you have 3 foot drops on your long lines you are all set. Long lines are it for me
 
Rick,
You forgot one of the possibilities why the ducks didn't decoy into our longline spread of # 94...
They noticed we were 6 short of a gathering of 100!

Left northern Michigan in early January and have been on some Virginia field goose and James River duck hunts with my daughter and her husband. A LOT of the hunting here is leased blinds/fields. In Michigan you can hunt on any public waterway, which I have now come to appreciate very much.

Steve
 
This is what I have found in running both over the past couple years for sea ducks

1. Decoy rafts are not meant for droppers. Hook directly to the mat, if not it's a tangled mess!
2. Dogs can go right over the mat provided number 1 is followed.
3. I do not leave my "Raft decoys" attached. While I pull the mat in, I unclip and return them to the slotted decoy bag, then roll up the mat and set that on top of the decoys. Clean and not underfoot.
4. I do deal with tide, current and vegetation, all of which add resistance and sometimes a raft is not feasible.
5. I have the large version of the decoy raft and only use a dozen decoys on it, 3 across the front (to keep good buoyancy) 3-4 others to fill in the top half and then the remaining on the bottom half.
6. It's easier deployed with 2 people, but I've done it alone many times
7. I like the varied look it can give to a typical longline spread and sometimes can even run a short longline of 4-6 off the back of the raft.

Closing, do I use it every trip...nope. Is it always in the boat ready to go...yup. It's just another tool in the shed.

Good luck with your decision.

Troy
 
Troy, as a guide, you are on the water at higher frequency than most hunters I assume: 1.) What species do you draw-in to land consistently? 2.) Do you notice any species that won't commit? 3.)How do you rig you anchor array for the raft? 4.) Any set and deploy advantages over longlines?
 
Steve, no decoy was left behind! Actually we needed more sleepers!

Back story: Steve and I were hunting Munuscong Bay in an icy pouring rain We had a huge flock of redheads come in, too many birds to shoot without spooking too many. The only birds that actually landed were hens, which immediately paddled over into the longline set-up and tucked thier heands like the birds around them, mimicking their profile perfectly while they paddled away to keep in place in the wind and rain! That was quite a sight, as well as being very humorous to watch them as the rain poured off them, they were that close.
 
RLLigman said:
Troy, as a guide, you are on the water at higher frequency than most hunters I assume: 1.) What species do you draw-in to land consistently? 2.) Do you notice any species that won't commit? 3.)How do you rig you anchor array for the raft? 4.) Any set and deploy advantages over longlines?[/quote

1. Best decoying birds would be a toss up between hen eiders and common scoters (both drake and hen).
2. I don't think there's necessarily any advantage in set up. I can run a longline pretty quick, as can many experienced linemen, that said, the raft can go out very quick too, especially if two are attaching decoys.
3. The hardest for me to get to land are white winged scoter but as with any decoy spread, being on the x is the most important factor and while not always being exactly there, we're usually close enough for the decoys to bring in pass shooting.
4. I just use one of my longline anchor lines to anchor the raft. I usually clip on two additional window weights for a total of 4. I attached a picture of them when I unloaded the boat from this season. I use all rig em right 1/4" green longline, best stuff I have found for my application, 75' per set-up So, if in 30' of water, take off 20 coils (as each side is approx 1') and that will give you 40' of anchor line, 1/2 hitch around one end so it won't tumble on retrieval and then over it goes.



View attachment longline picture.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Troy I guess I have a different idea of what type of matt folks are taking about the ones I have seen had rather lager voids in them.
 
Bomber said:
Troy I guess I have a different idea of what type of matt folks are taking about the ones I have seen had rather lager voids in them.
Click to expand...

Decoy Rafts are a very tight woven web, almost as tight as a trampoline surface. Then the paracord is sewn in place for decoy attachment. They're slick rigs, they make the small size now too.

https://www.southernflywayoutfitters.com/decoyraft




 
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