diver hunting

[CurrituckBoy]

I usually hunt in NC and this season i am going to start hunting in MD and VA. In NC i only hunt maybe 15 feet of water for divers and I know that the Chesapeake is vary deep in some places. So how deep of water do you diver hunters hunt in and what is the best way to set a spread out. (individual decoys or a string) And if a string what do you all suggest.
michael

[featheredfriend]

Where we hunt divers like the whistlers it's < 10' deep so we use single anchors same as for puddle ducks.
When we head out for eiders and oldsquaw we've hunted in h2o 70' or more. For these sets we use a longline and clip the dekes onto the mainline. It's alot easier and faster than single anchors in deep h2o.

[Rusty Hallock]

Michael,

I have hunted divers for 25+ years on the Chesapeake Bay. You are correct that the bay has a few deep spots, but I normally hunt divers in 5-15' of water. I normally hunt on points of land, clam bar, or roosting areas. The roosting areas can be a great afternoon hunt if you have done your scouting. I have the majority of my diver decoys on gang rigs. I will add a few individually strung decoys to the spread. If I am trying to gun goldeneyes, I will set six goldeneye decoys off to themselves. The goldeneyes will also be individually strung.

My gang rigs are constructed with a tarred mother line that is 106' long. I have 20' on each end that goes between the end decoy and weight. I leave 6' between each decoy. I use GHG Quick-Fix Decoy Cord for my drops from the mother line to the decoy. The lengths of the drop will vary depending on use of a retriever. The drops are attached to the mother line with GHG QuickSnap Gang Rig Clips. The gang rig clips allow you to add or remove decoys easily. The gang rig clips also allow you to relocate decoys if you end up in deeper water. I hope this helps. Attached below is a link to GHG gang rig materials.

[Mark Brendemuehl]

Currituck- I use both singles, and gangrigs. If hunting in deep water, (anything over 15 feet) I try and use more gang rigs, for ease of setting outt he spread. I set mine up very similiar to Rustys', leaving drop lines long enough off the motherline for the dogs to swim over the top of.
Mark

[jamesmc]

We typically set out 2 gang rigs with 2-1/2 dozen dekes on each rig. We set them in a U or a V and use another 2 or 3 dozen dekes to fill in the point. We usually only hunt in about 15 foot of water as well, off of points or the mouth of bays. We use the line with tar or just dark green trotline. We set the dekes about 4 feet apart with the farthest decoy no more than 40 yards out. We have barrel swivels attached to the main line at 4 foot intervals so the decoys are an equal distance apart. We have 18 inch lines attached to the dekes with trotline clips attached to the other end. It makes it really east to attach the dekes to the main line when its dark. We also leave about 20 foot of line on both ends of the gang rig for anchors. I hope this helps you out.

[jamesmc]

One more thing. We use a cheap electrical cord reel painted brown to wind in the line and set it out. We attach the reel to the front of the boat using rubber coated hose clamps, attach the anchor to the main line, drop it over board and as your backing the boat up start attaching the decoys to the swivels as the come. It makes it very quick to put out your dekes. It used to take us around 2 hours to put out all our dekes, now it takes less than an hour.

[CurrituckBoy]

thanks guys
Rusty thanks for the link to the MD site it helped but i am still wondering if i need to hunt on a blind site or if i can just set up the correct distance away from the land and other blinds and just use the boat as a float blind any where on the water.
Michael

[jamesmc]

You would be better off with a layout boat but a regular boat and blind would work fine. We hunted out of a 24 foot pontoon last year and had great success. Check out the mighty layout boys boats or four rivers layout boats. They are pretty reasonable. If you hunt from the bank, find a point that stickes way out into the bay thats close to the channel. In our area, the ducks fly the channels and when they see your dekes, they suck right into the hole you've made for them.

[Rusty Hallock]

Michael,

If you pay attention to the weather, most of the time you can hunt the gunning rig zone with success. It is always nice to have a secondary blind site close to shore. This would allow you to hunt on marginal weather days. Layout blinds are a very effective way to hunt divers and sea ducks, but not a necessity. I hunt out of 19'Lowe with a Avery Quick-Set Waterfowl blind. I have no problems finishing divers and/or seas ducks in open water.

[Jeff "Pitboss" Coats]

i agree with the above info...

i'm in the 3'-15' range 99% of the time using longlines rigged and ready to go!

http://www.pitbosswaterfowl.com/oldsite/line1.JPG

http://www.pitbosswaterfowl.com/oldsite/line2.JPG

http://www.pitbosswaterfowl.com/oldsite/line3.JPG

http://www.pitbosswaterfowl.com/oldsite/line4.JPG

http://www.pitbosswaterfowl.com/oldsite/line5.JPG

[Jeff "Pitboss" Coats]

http://www.pitbosswaterfowl.com/oldsite/longline12004.JPG

http://www.pitbosswaterfowl.com/oldsite/longline22004.JPG

http://www.pitbosswaterfowl.com/oldsite/longline32004.JPG

http://www.pitbosswaterfowl.com/oldsite/longline42004.JPG

http://www.pitbosswaterfowl.com/oldsite/longline52004.JPG

i would take sometime and read through this some too...

A Guide to Maryland’s Laws and Regulations Related to Offshore Waterfowl Hunting (http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/offshore.html)

good luck!

jeff

[Paul Cupka]

Pitboss,
Nice pic's, but what the heck kind of decoy is that supposed to be?! And the bag........come on! 12 slots man!
Just messing with you, thanks for the post, informative as always.

[imported_Derek Rambo]

That looks like a laundry basket to me.... ;)

[Jeff "Pitboss" Coats]

don't know about you all... :rolleyes:

they work though!

smile.gif

http://www.pitbosswaterfowl.com/photos/fullsize/5.jpg

jeff

[Paul Cupka]

Ouch! Or as Rob would say- "D@mn".
Nice picture.

[Chris Jones]

Where did you find your sash weights? Can you buy them commercially? I have tried all the places I can think of and not had any luck. I need 20 of them. Thanks

[CanadaCaller]

Pitt Boss made a good point. Don't forget that in order to gun rig Md, that you must have an Md resident with you. If you stick with Va, they don't have those silly laws even on public waters such as Md. does.

[Brett Beinke]

Nice photos and great advice! I usually set out in waters between 2 and 15 (public, you never know!) and I usually set out individual decoys as different points, reed lines makes my spread a bit different all the time.