You ever connect decoy to decoy?

[Goldfish]

I don't mean using a long line (obviously that would be best), but just using the anchor line have you found a way to attach decoy to decoy? I have a couple ideas in my head on how to but just curious if someone has done it and what worked best. Any luck with Texas rigs doing it?

[assateague]

Rick rigs his Brant in doubles like what you're talking about, and those thing move like crazy. Sort of like a mini "whip" effect or something, but with 24 decoys rigged like that, it really does look like they're all 24 moving in a separate direction. I don't think it would work with more than a few, or else you'd end up with a tangled mess, unless you're hunting a river, or something with a more regular current.

[SpinnerMan]

I've been thinking about giving that a try. I was thinking more for ease of picking up since when I hunt before work, every minute it is going to take me to pick decoys is one less I get to hunt. So I have to trade off between more decoys with less hunting. However, I wasn't thinking about it improving motion. Where I hunt is pretty sheltered and we normally have problems with too little motion. I'll definitely have to give it a try to see if that helps.

[Rick]

Out camp has a bin of boogered and tangled decoys, many of which are tied in tandem, presumably due to the loss of one's weight, and they tend to come unwound and tangle like crazy in the bag during transport.

[assateague]

What I Was talking about is one decoy tied to the keel of the other, with about 2' of line. The "front" decoy has the weight, the "back" decoy is just along for the ride. It seems to make them move and bob 90 degrees opposed to one another, and makes the illusion of movement pretty neatly. The weighted line is wound around the keel of the first, with the only difference from "normal" being that it has another decoy tied to the back on a short string.

[Deltaman]

I had a couple like that, with the back decoy tied to the keel of the front decoy, and like Rick said, they tend to cause tangles while being transported in the decoy bag. I found that putting them in the bottom of the bag helped, but still a PIA.

[Rick]

What I Was talking about is one decoy tied to the keel of the other, with about 2' of line. The "front" decoy has the weight, the "back" decoy is just along for the ride. It seems to make them move and bob 90 degrees opposed to one another, and makes the illusion of movement pretty neatly. The weighted line is wound around the keel of the first, with the only difference from "normal" being that it has another decoy tied to the back on a short string.

That's the rigging I'm talking about, too, only many of the connecting lines are closer to three feet. When we bag them the connecting line is wrapped around the second decoy's neck, but it still tends to come undone and get into trouble in the bag. Probably doesn't help that our weights are an assortment of extremely well used decoys weights and a wide variety of hardware items you'd be proud of that are also apt to come loose in the bag. Will sometimes end up with a whole train of decoys that have tied themselves together.

[Steele22]

Sounds like more of a mess than what good is does

[FlintRiverFowler]

I've tried it when a weight has broken off before. Always gets tangled and looks like shit for me.

[Goldfish]

I was thinking more for the scenario of bringing Texas rigs to a regular line fight. You could get a couple decoys close to shore with the weight on the bottom, but after that they'd all float so you just attach them for that hunt, strung out into the river/lake/etc.

[assateague]

Like a long line for divers or something?

[Goldfish]

Kind of? There is a small pond out west that you can walk about 4 feet in and you are up to your wader tops. I floated off 7 decoys last year not knowing this and just tossing because I was running behind. Only was able to get 3 of them on the other side, and apparently training my dog to leave the decoys alone is confusing to her when I am now trying to get her to retrieve them. Would like to be able to chain a few together to get a little more visibility.

[quackhead]

I have ring bill decoys tied in pairs. One off the keel of the other. You can still toss them out this way but I'm guessing anymore then that would be a mess. Also, if there is very many pairs in the same bag then it's probably gonna be a spiderweb. No matter what we do, there is always tangling going on

[RonE]

Kind of? There is a small pond out west that you can walk about 4 feet in and you are up to your wader tops. I floated off 7 decoys last year not knowing this and just tossing because I was running behind. Only was able to get 3 of them on the other side, and apparently training my dog to leave the decoys alone is confusing to her when I am now trying to get her to retrieve them. Would like to be able to chain a few together to get a little more visibility.

Hunting in that deep of water, I would think that you need a boat of some kind just to set and pick up decoys.

[QH's Paw]

I have what I would call doubles and triples that I fill around my longlines. They work just fine. I wouldn't put out a whole spread of them but, they help break up the look of the straight longlines. I would say no more than 2' of line between them. Naturally, the triples are more of a PITA than the doubles if the weather gets to whipping.

[Rick]

...apparently training my dog to leave the decoys alone is confusing to her when I am now trying to get her to retrieve them.

It should be pretty easy to teach her when she's to retrieve decoys and when not to in the yard by adding the preface "decoy" to your retrieve command and then tossing a teal decoy as you would have a bumper. Once she's comfortable working with decoys, you can begin "decoy fetch (or whatever)" and decoy retrieves with your regular command and bumper or bird retrieves and move on to well separated doubles that are one of each, then gradually bring the two together and praise right choices and "no" wrong ones. If there's a problem with the later, back up.

My situation has changed such that I've not fooled with teaching it to my last few dogs, but my early ones caught on pretty quickly, and it opened a lot of hunting spots to us.

[Goldfish]

I'm lucky enough if I can get her to retrieve birds. Her trainer is worthless.

[Rick]

No sweat, if you start using decoys tied in tandem keel to keel in deep water, she'll be bringing them in with no training at all.

[QH's Paw]

No sweat, if you start using decoys tied in tandem keel to keel in deep water, she'll be bringing them in with no training at all.

Yes, I can attest to that also.

[Goldfish]

That is something I did think about too. I just figure if I have a couple lines going out from the bank if walk her to the bank that will send her down the runway if you will it should negate a lot if that. Just keep the decoy lines apart enough. Keep them from tangling too I figure.

[Willie]

What I Was talking about is one decoy tied to the keel of the other, with about 2' of line. The "front" decoy has the weight, the "back" decoy is just along for the ride. It seems to make them move and bob 90 degrees opposed to one another, and makes the illusion of movement pretty neatly. The weighted line is wound around the keel of the first, with the only difference from "normal" being that it has another decoy tied to the back on a short string.

Yes, this is exactly how I have some of mine rigged.

[Bufflehead]

I use to have a bunch of divers rigged like mention above but it is a pain in the ass when the tide or wind direction switches or if you're hunting with a dog, a dog always wants to swim between them. You don't want to much line but you have to have enough between the front decoy and trailing decoy that they don't constantly slam into each other when hunting in rougher water.