Will Goldeneyes go to bluebill decoys

C

Cheech Kehoe

Active member
I have about 60 herters bluebills that are set up on gang rigs. I have another 2 dozen cork/cedar Goldeneye dekes from many of the carvers on this site. We were going to layout hunt this weekend if weather allows. I usually don't set out my bluebills when I am going after goldeneyes. However, the goldeneyes are only decoying to the large flocks rafted up. Does anyone have any experience using a combination of bluebill and Goldeneye decoys when layout hunting? If so, do you have any recommendations of how to set up the rig. Thanks in advance.
 
As you already know, GEs can be particular to their own kind and prefer GE decoys. That said, I have had them come in to Blue Bill decoys quite often or a mix of BB, Can and RH decoys. Certainly use your BB decoys along with the GE but I would make sure that the GE are on the out side of the spread, not buried in the middle. Either on the layout side or the opposite side would be OK. In fact if it were me and I had two strings of GE decoys, I'd put one on either side of the spread so they are the first thing the birds see.

As in any layout hunting, if they aren't working like you want them to, move the spread or the layout or the location until something clicks with them.
 
GE, Buffy & OS are typically "species specific" and prefer to decoy to "their own".
I'll post more info in a bit.
Lou
 
I only have a couple of spots here where I am likely to see GE's. When hunting theses spots, I like to have my GEs in one little seperate group on the edge of the spread.
So, Like others suggested, I would use your bluebills for the body of your spread and put your GE's in a distinct visible group right in the Kill zone.

View attachment LayoutSpread11032003-GEs.jpg
 
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This year i changed things up a little on my set up.I left a 8 yard wide landing area in front of layout boat with 5 long lines on each side then put 12 goldeneye decoys on single lines in the landing zone.The only thing i can say is wow i shot more goldeneyes this year then i have in the last 10 yrs.
 
Toatally in agreement with the whistlers coming to their own theory---Have gunned with Bomber on Champlain, and when those boys set, they set whistlers, with scaup in a different rig, usually with a layout.
 
View attachment RigSetUp-Layout.jpg


Layout-Set ups & Rigging
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.
 
Hey Lou, you need to put some potheads on those stick figures! Make them look like Harker would. Trip.
 
I have hunted the breaks of the Snake river (where Idaho and Oregon share the river as borders) late in the winter season (January, almost Feb.)

There are tons of GEs out there, but the thing I noticed about them is that they have their own space. Least out on the big slow series of slackwater lakes.

The ones I see (when I see them, where I see them) are in their own bubble of water of about 15-25 feet apart.

I see lots of bluebills raft up tightly like they were held together with magnets in the chop, but I just have not observed that behavior in the GEs out here.
 
Hey Lou, you need to put some potheads on those stick figures! Make them look like Harker would. Trip.
Click to expand...

Hi Trip,
Ya know....Harker was much better as an artist than I am. I can't quite get the pots to look as good as his. ;)
Lou
 
Keep in mind that if you get better at decoying GE's, you will likely shoot more GE's. Therefore you will have to eat more GE's
 
Totally different world for me than the other posters, and I suspect Lake Champlain is a lot more like the Great Lakes than it is like where I hunt, but we have a very different approach.

First, we are almost always hunting a mix of black ducks, sometimes a few mallards mixed in, and, on the diver side, whistlers and buffleheads.

For us, the puddle ducks are the target of choice, with the divers as a target of opportunity, at least until we get our one black duck.

The places we hunt tend to have ducks in small groups, highly variable, and put a premium on mobility and moving to the "X".

So, we typically will hunt a rocky point with a cove behind it, ideally one with some salt marsh in it. 3-6 black duck decoys are set in the cove. Off the end of the point are 3-6 goldeneyes, all drakes, in a line generally parallel to shore.

GE's and buffies will decoy only to the GE decoys. Black ducks or mallards might drop in to either set of blocks.

On the few occasions we've run into numbers of bluebills, they have also decoyed well to the GE's. But that's very rare--scaup are an incidental bird here.
 
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Jeff- what you have described is the "Champlain" set up. I hunted three points- one for north wind, one for south wind and one that was good all the time. Let's assume a north wind, I would string whistlers in front of the point ( 5 drakes, 4 hens) with a small group ( 3 puddlers) north of that; on the south side of the point I would have a small group of buffies/bluebills,cans ( 7-10 birds if I brought everybody) with another group of puuddle ducks below that. We would basically ring the point in decoys, with the divers in the middle and the puddle ducks (or soemtimes geese or brant) at each end. I see no reason why that set up does not work on the Penobby, but it doesn't work that well... The whistlers decoy OK, buffies, meh, puddlers hardly even look.

Got two more days to try and crack the code.
 
Carl or Lou,
When I look at how many decoys you set up, how much time does it take you to put them out prior to the opener? Looks very demanding.
Al
 
I usually put out 6 dzn these days, all on singles. In the past I have used as many as 9 dzn.
My load for tomorrow is 6 gadwalls, 1 pintail, 3 dzn coots and 3 dzn mixed divers.
Usually takes me about 15-20 minutes to get them out. If I time it correctly, I can put up the cane for my blind, put out the decoys, get the boat blind up and then have about 20 minutes to relax and get my gun ready, drink some hot chocolate, etc.., before shooting time.
Picking up takes about 30 minutes, but I normally take my time. Duck hunting is no time to be in a hurry!
 
Wow, just re-read my post from last night, and what a mass of typos. Will go back and clean it up.

I swear, I wasn't drinking when I posted that.


John Kirk: I wouldn't judge too much by what the birds are doing this year. I don't know about up on the Penobscot, but down here it has been a very tough year. I've been hunting fairly regularly with a friend who lives on Merrymeeting Bay and has been hunting it hard for 15+ years. Every time we go out, he's talking about how everything he used to know about the Bay just isn't working this year.

Same thing for a friend who lives in Freeport and has long experience on Maquoit and Middle Bays.

And ditto with Hutch last weekend down on Deer Isle (although there the buffies were flying like they should; I just couldn't hit them.)

Consistently, my Maine friends with long experience say the key to coastal black ducks is location location location. We have our best success not by hunting traditonal spots, or by analyzing wind and tide and sun, but by scouting the day we hunt, seeing where birds get up from, and setting up there quickly before they or their friends come back.

If you want to come south, I'm planning to hunt pretty hard next week. I'll pull the boat on MMB tomorrow so I don't get caught in a quick freeze, but I'll be out on Christmas eve for my traditional last-day-of-the-season hunt down in Scarborough on a salt marsh, and also try to hit some midcoast spots on weekdays nest week.

Headed out the this afternoon, too, if the wind drops enough to make canoe access safe in my favorite late season whistler spot.

Come on down!
 
Thanks Jeff probably won't happen this year (again). i have been very stubborn this year- I keep hunting the same area in the same fashion and slowly the action is improving. I'm still convinced my tactic will work... :)

That being said, I have several spots where I see puddle ducks, every time out. One of those spots will find me laying out in the muck for the chance at one black duck on Saturday...

Good news is, I get to go to the cape to hunt for three days in January.
 
For what it's worth, I've shot plenty of Goldeneyes over just my standard puddle duck rig. The ones we get around here don't seem too particular about mixing it up with other ducks, but then again we don't usually get huge rafts of divers in my area so that may change their decoying behavior somewhat. Also we shoot the majority of our goldeneyes late in the season when open water is at a premium so maybe they are less particular because there are less options. I sometimes have a hard time believing that goldeneyes can distinguish a black and white goldeneye rig from a black and white bluebill rig at 60 miles an hour but from what others have posted they do seem to have a preference. I really try to limit myself to 2 or 3 nice GE drakes a season because as everyone knows they are not the best eating duck, but that's when the devil on my shoulder pipes up to say "come on, the dog needs another retrieve...."
 
Thanks to everyone for the advice. I would rather shoot Goldeneyes than any other bird (although I have a soft spot for buffies and "their little pink feet" as Bill Wasson said). I also have always found them to be very tasty on the grill, so shooting more will not be problematic. I will use both bluebills with the Goldenyes and Buffies (BUFFIES ALWAYS ON THE SHORE SIDE OF THE GOLDENEYES). I am headed out in the morning to hunt out of the big boat and do a little scouting. I will take some pics to post, and Thanks again for all the help.
 
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