That setup is better than fantastic. Thanks for showing what is possible. A shot on the water would be amazing if you ever get a chance.
Swan decoy floaters?
- Thread starter Huntindave McCann
- Start date
That setup is better than fantastic. Thanks for showing what is possible. A shot on the water would be amazing if you ever get a chance.
Vince Pagliaroli
Well-known member
Don,
That's a mighty fine special purpose setup ya have there. As for compartments in decoys some old decoys (especially larger decoys) had places for certain items of use to gunners. There were also compartments made to hold "extra birds". Waterfowling and Ingenuity go hand in hand.
Best regards
Vince
That's a mighty fine special purpose setup ya have there. As for compartments in decoys some old decoys (especially larger decoys) had places for certain items of use to gunners. There were also compartments made to hold "extra birds". Waterfowling and Ingenuity go hand in hand.
Best regards
Vince
Ronald Bock
Member
I use two of the Flambeaus as confidence decoys since we have lots of swans in our area. My lab pup was very upset when this guy landed in our spread. It was his first hunt and he did great until this 747 landed in front of him. Hackles up and growling. 
I used to hunt a lot with just a pair of swans along with my wigeons, mallards and canvasbacks. They were meant for a long distance attractor when birds were working their way up the reservoir through a canyon nearly a mile away till they hit the open water on the lake. I'm sure that was part of why we did so well with wigeons. What we didn't know was how well swans would decoy to just two swan decoys. We can't hunt them here which probably lessened the swans wariness. The first time out, swans came in from every direction till we had three groups of 5-20 landing just outside our spread.
On another occasion we were seeing a single adult with a juvenile frequenting our little spot, one day it was just the juvenile which led me to believe some inexperienced hunter thought they had just shot a world record snow goose. Hard to say the cause, but the juvenile landed with our pair of swan decoys and stayed with them the entire morning, not even leaving when we shot ducks over him. He was perfectly able to fly, having flown in from quite a distance in the first place. At one point a game warden came walking down the bank toward us and that's when I suspected that the adult had been shot and reported. I was at the time standing in the decoys taking pictures of the young swan when the warden greeted us and walked away without a conversation. Apparently satisfied with what he had observed. The most interesting thing was when we packed up and headed for our truck which was about a 300 yard walk through knee deep water. We floated our decoy bags behind us along with the two floating swan decoys. the juvenile followed us right up to the truck. We buried the swan decoys under other decoy bags, I wasn't completely sure he wasn't going to fly behind us to town.
On another occasion we were seeing a single adult with a juvenile frequenting our little spot, one day it was just the juvenile which led me to believe some inexperienced hunter thought they had just shot a world record snow goose. Hard to say the cause, but the juvenile landed with our pair of swan decoys and stayed with them the entire morning, not even leaving when we shot ducks over him. He was perfectly able to fly, having flown in from quite a distance in the first place. At one point a game warden came walking down the bank toward us and that's when I suspected that the adult had been shot and reported. I was at the time standing in the decoys taking pictures of the young swan when the warden greeted us and walked away without a conversation. Apparently satisfied with what he had observed. The most interesting thing was when we packed up and headed for our truck which was about a 300 yard walk through knee deep water. We floated our decoy bags behind us along with the two floating swan decoys. the juvenile followed us right up to the truck. We buried the swan decoys under other decoy bags, I wasn't completely sure he wasn't going to fly behind us to town.
Ron, back when I had my big chessie we were hunting a small creek about 10 yards across when a swan was flying around the area. Just for grins I did a little voice calling, I had done quite a bit of voice calling back in my younger years, calling turkey, specks, snows, canadas, elk and apparently was able to call a swan. Seemed like fun at the time UNTIL.. My 105 lb retriever was a beast and was just about to come out of his skin, so I thought, what the heck, I'll send him to flush the big bird out of the decoys before we had a crossfire accident with ducks coming in. I had nearly underestimated Zip's speed and overestimated the swans ability to take off quickly. My guess was Zip only missed by about 4 feet of catching the swan. Having a bird that size in a creek that small is pretty close quarters and the 747 comparison is pretty close to true other than landing on a tiny piper cub sized airstrip.
Those are fabulous, can't stop coming back to look at them!
I love swan - fun to watch, responsive to call, and damned tasty, too!
I might be guilty here.
Was I guilty of this one too? I have used the plastoids in the past. they definitely attract ducks to the rig but to get the ducks to finish you need to move the swan decoys out of the main rig. I found they are also good at attracting birdwatchers and kayakers.
I've had on occasion, kayakers float past my rig, see my dog and say "oh look at the cute puppy". Thankfully is is mid to late morning before the Kayakers show up. What does perturb me, is when I'm all set up, and an early morning boatload of fishermen come around the bend 60 yards away, and start fishing, even after they realize I am hunting right there.
I believe that was the first time we met but for sure the first time we hunted together. BTW two sleepers on the shelf now..just saying 