water keel

[little mo]

Hello everyone

I'm new on here so i'll start by saying hi to all you folks.I've got a question regarding water keel decoys,why did avery drop the water keel from your line up?I realize water keel have there problems on larger bodies of water,but for the long walks to the small pot holes these old bones sure liked the lighter weight water keels.

Mike

[ScarySouthernMan]

As a new member myself little Mo, I'll see if I can offer some help...Gotta earn my keep here...

Here is my ##UNOFFICIAL## explanation for that and some advice as to how to shoot your duck and eat it too...

A friend and I hunted extensively over 4 dozen water-keel Mallards the past couple seasons. It became a little obvious to us that there were some issues with tipping. We often found ourselves running out in the wind to flip the dekes back over...I will say this though. We shot several species of puddle ducks including MANY Mallards and a handful of Pintails over a GHG spread with about 30% of them upside down...No joke.

Now, here's how to remedy the problem (I for one don't mind the extra weight for the self-righting football toss feature...I also believe they are superior here in Virginia's James River and Roanoke Rivier as well as Nebraska's Platte and Missouri Rivers as well).

Buy up every decoy you ever wished had water-keels (but don't) and then saw the end off of 'em on both ends in order to let the sand (or whatever it is) out of them. Make sure you got holes at both ends to let the water fill up appropriately. Bang...Problem solved. That should actually work reasonably well provided that the wind is under about 10 MPH. One thing that a bunch of duck hunters argue about is the riding characteristics of light vs. heavy decoys. Light decoys move in calmer wind, simulating moving ducks...However in river current or heavy wind...heavy decoys defy the wind making them less of a fishing bobber simulator. It's a give and take balance...

Get on 'em...

Scary

P.S. - How's that guys? Am I doin' good so far? 3 posts and countin'...

[Travis Mueller]

Impressive Scary!!

[Christian Curtis]

Nice Scary....Thanks!

[Rick Frisch]

If you want to keep the Line Keeper on the front of the 60/40 keel, you need to drill a 1/2" hole in the front of the keel just behind the Line Keeper. Cut the plug of the back, dump out the sand and you will have your water keel.

Thanks,