Hunting The Divers

[Take-m]

I have two doz. Bluebill decoys, and i was woundering if there is any specific way to set these up when hunting the divers in the late season on the lake. The reason that i ask is i was hunting a lake in MN last year and there where some other hunters just shooting like crazy and we only had three birds come with in gun range and they where all loners. I didnt want to get to close and disturb there hunting trip so i didnt get to see the diffrence in there set-up to mine. Any decoy set up tips would be great! I also have two doz. mallards half doz. woodies and four geese that i use. Thanks!

[jamesmc]

We usually place them in the shape of a J, U or a C With your boat being on the outside of the hook. Make sure the wind is at your back. We also use 2 parallel lines approx. 10 yards apart in a cross wind. They will usually follow the line of decoys to the hook for an easy shot.


Here is an example of the parrallel lines The boat being in the center of the lines. This won't allow me to put it there.



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(xxxx wind xxxx)

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BOAT

We usually run anywhere from 4 dozen diver dekes to close to 20 dozen depending on how the birds are reacting. In the late season I would put out as many dekes as you can. Here they raft up in the thousands and it takes a bunch to pull in the birds. Hope this helps.
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q272/jittermc/diver.coru.jpg
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q272/jittermc/diver.J.jpg

[joesac]

I've had some pretty good diver hunting over about two dozen bluebill decoys. The biggest thing when using a small diver spread is that location is KEY! The guys you heard shooting last year were probably doing good because they were set up on where the birds wanted to be. With only a couple dozen bill decoys I would suggest placing them in sort of a long broken line in front of you. Leave little pockets open in the spread and space your deeks so they cover a fair amount of area. Hope this helps a little. I'll see if I have a picture or two of what I'm trying to describe.

[Take-m]

thanks for the advice! keep more coming i always like to here everyones opinions!

[Drake Whistle]

We ususally do a wide J, or C. If we have big diver decoys, we will put them in a line downwind.

[Nick Michael]

I use long v's, or really long strings to the right and left and a little pocket in the middle. But late season, bluebills get used to string rigs i like to make a little knot of them.

[QuackerWacker]

When I was a kid and didn't have a lot of diver dekes I used to put my divers on the downwind edge of the spread and fill in with any other dekes I could scrape up on the upwind side of the spread to give the effect of a raft of divers. It seemed to work well as long as the divers aproached from downwind so they could land near the diver dekes.

[Swampy]

Out here on the East Coast We usually run BIG diver spreads..Minium 15 doz...All long lined. Anywhere from 8-20 per line. Run in a "V" like patterm with the layout being at the apex..Or a "J"pattern with the layout at the end of the shank.

[steelheadslayer]

We run 3-5 doz bluebills and cans on gang rigs. Just anchor one end and let em swing in the tide currents, the movement is incredible. We usually try and shoot from the down current side.