Quick Set Rigs - Waterfowl Hunting – Ducks & Geese - Waterfowl Hunting – Ducks & Geese

How big of a line do plan to run?
My mainline is 720′ long with knots every 12′.
I also run a short-line, closest to the blind, that is 72′ with knots every 6′.
The cluster at the head consists of 2 dozen individually anchored dekes and 2 floating Mojo bluebills.
I leave a 30 yd. gap between the cluster and the head of my short-line. this is your landing area.
I typically setup, with a quartering wind, near the tail of the short-line.
Feel free to mix your diver species on the mainline, but keep all of your goldeneyes together and near the front of your setup!
Let me know if you are still shopping your supplies for this setup, as I have developed some strong feelings about what does work and what doesn’t.
Good luck.
cheers

Quote:

Drake…. lets hear it. I love diver hunting and wanna know what to spend money on and what not to. Any info would be nice.

I do some things the same way as the coastal sea duck hunters and some things differently.
1. Mainline cord. Search the internet for the perfect mainline cord. Mine is a 3/16″ tightly braided nylon with a 5,000 lb fiberglass core. I found a partial spool, approximately 3,000′, on ebay for $40. This is the only line that we now use. It will not stretch and more importantly will not hold any water, but still sinks. Mine is black. While pulling line off of the new spool, I simply stretched 2 full arm-lengths, made a loop that I could pass the spool through to form an over hand knot. Pull it tight and stretch 2 more full arm-lengths, repeat, repeat, repeat.
We have experimented extensively with different cord types and knot spacing, and this the best we’ve found.
2. Clips. Don’t skimp on clips! there are several cheaper, smaller, lighter clips on the market. Only buy the large 6″ stainless steel clips with the swivel for tying to. You can easily clip on or remove these clips while wearing heavy rubber glove. Cabela’s is currently selling these clips in a 48 count bag for $39.99. Any price around or less that $1 each is a good price.
3. I mentioned rubber gloves. I frequently take friends, relatives or customers out diver hunting, that don’t frequently hunt like this. Tell them to save their nice warm camo waterproof gloves for the boat ride. I keep a covered 5 gallon pail in the boat, filled with rubber gauntlet or trappers gloves. Don’t worry about getting cold while deploying or picking up, worry about getting wet when temperatures are below freezing.
4. For diver decoys, I focus on shear numbers rather than size. My entire spread ranges from 5 to 10 dozen, standard size, weighted keel, swivel head decoys.
5. Anchors. I have stopped using commercial mushroom, river and grappler style anchors. If you absolutely need to drag an anchor when the wind shifts or when conditions get dangerous, these types of anchors will give you fits. I now use exclusively 8# window weights from the old double hung windows. Attach a 12′ section of mainline cord to the weight and a 6″ clip at the other end. The 6″ clip then attaches to the mainline just behind the very first knot. This allows you to clip your first decoy to the second or third knot on the mainline, depending on the water depth.
6. Decoy placement and species. Years of experimenting has brought us to try to keep all of our more contrasting/colorfull drakes (cans, redheads and buffleheads) near the head of the mainline. The hens of these species and the remaining bluebills and ringnecks then fill out the rest of the mainline. As I mention previously, I also run a short-line adjacent to the mainline, but closer to the boat blind. My short-line is goldeneyes only. Do not mix your goldeneyes into the rest of the spread or incoming birds will drop-in short or wide of your blind. Also make darn sure that you do not skip a knot on your mainline or short-line. Any abnormal spacing can also cause birds to drop in short of reaching your blind.
7. Rigging. I realize that there are a number of nifty ways to attach cords to your decoys, but I have returned to the good old doubled over hand knot. I know plenty of people that love the metal crimp, but I have not had good luck with them. If you actually do get a good tight crimp, to be determined only after you are set-up and a 30 mph northeatern comes up, the crimps can and do cut your cord after extended use and abuse.
8. Decoy drop lines. I now use exclusively Tanglefree anchor cord. I stretch a half arm length (3′) of cord and cut it off the spool. Tie a doubled over hand knot at the decoy and to a 6″ clip at the other end. Your finished length of the dropper will be approximately 2′. The frequency of tangles with 2′ droppers rather than 3′ is far less. Obviously, I do not rig my lines the old-fashioned way, whereas the clips are tied to the mainline and clipped to the decoy. This old method makes for an awful mess when winding up or deploying in the dark. Yes I did try it
9. Mainline storage. I have tried several home-made and store bought products intended for electrical cords, as well as larger heavier spools. Some had cranking handles and some even clamped to the side of the boat, an oar lock or a pedestal seat post. With the small diameter of my mainline, I have settled on the round plastic spool, inteded for extesion cord storage. During retrieval, the driver can easily hold and crank it while controlling the motor as needed. The front man pulls in the line and unclips the decoys. During deployment, the driver can stand on the base of the spool and strip off cord. As the driver reaches a knot, he holds the cord out with both hands, about 6″ apart. The front man will then simply clip the decoy dropper to the mainline between the drivers hands. This is simple in the dark. Just make sure that a decoy or slack in the mainline do not get hooked on the boat and pull the whole rig along. Yeah, I’ve had that happen a number of times too.
10. Deployment and retrieval. I always pick out my boat/blind location first, set out the front cluster of individually anchored decoys and Mojos, and then drop the anchor for the mainline. I prefer to deploy the mainline rig while drifting downwind, if the wind is sufficient. Or, keep the motor in neutral and throw it into reverse as needed to keep the mainline relatively tight and heading straight down wind. Do not attempt to deploy the mainline from the anchoring point and assume the wind will properly pull it down wind without big problems. While I do keep all of my drakes at the front of the spread, I also use one drake (canvasback) to mark the very last decoy on the mainline. This helps when trying to determine when a decoy may have gone astray or when a confused duck dropped into the tail of the line. This does happen once in a while and when left alone, they will frequently swim all the way upto the front of the line. When retreiving the mainline, I start at the tailend (that drake is also easily identified in the dark), I will hook the last decoy on the line and throw the motor into neutral. Unless the wind is huge, you can pull your boat up the line as you unclip decoys. That 8# window weight will hold well unless you give it a good yank. The driver winds as the front man pulls and unclips.
11. Storage. This is probably the simplest but most significant improvement that I have made to the process. The open bow of my boat has always been the storage location for all of the decoys. After the hunt we would then rebag the anchored decoys to simplify finding them the next morning. Well, this year I purchased several of the $4 mesh free-standing collapsable laundry baskets. They are all lined up in the bow and specific genders and species go back into their appropriate bag. Deployment in the dark is simple!
I’m sure that I have forgotten to mention some important things while boring the day-lights out of some of you at the same time.
Please feel free to post any questions or suggestions.
Some of you may have a better idea that I haven’t tried yet.
Good luck
cheers