Hunting Late Season Divers

We’d stared at the decoys for nearly an hour, not firing a shot. “You know what’s going to happen,” my buddy snickered. The next flock of ring-necks that bombed the decoys, we lit up. They’d been pouring in since daylight, but we held out, squinting to see puddle ducks on the horizon. Once we felt that the puddle duck action wasn’t going to happen, we succumbed to shooting ring bills. We shot our limits and had a blast, and it wasn’t the first time in my 48 years of waterfowl hunting that divers saved the day.

As a kid in the 1970s, I hunted the rivers and creeks near home. While wood ducks, mallards, and wigeon were always the hope, divers usually accounted for most of the daily bag. More times than not ring-necks, the occasional scaup, and even mergansers made it onto the stringer. Fond memories, always.

Once I was old enough to drive, canvasbacks, redheads, greater and lesser scaup–even ruddy ducks and bufflehead–became target species on nearby lakes and rivers. Buying decoys to fool the mix of divers was a joy. I blame them for the decoy addiction that plagues me today.

A two-hour drive found my high school buddy and I launching our 12-foot skiff into a big lake on the coast. Battling high winds and whitecaps was the norm, as was setting a couple dozen decoys on single strings in deep water. We took what we knew from hunting puddle ducks near home and applied it to our newfound diver passion. We weren’t mobile because it took too long to pull the decoys and relocate to where birds were working, especially in a tiny boat with a little motor in high winds on a big lake. We loved hunting that lake and did so into our college years.

It wasn’t until 35 years later I returned to hunt that lake for divers. I was with good friend and guide, Josh Farnsworth. The first morning I hunted with Farnsworth, we changed locations six times to get on birds. He has a big boat with big motors and a decoy system that’s perfect for deep-water diver hunting. We went home with limits of cans and other divers.

Location

“Location is the most important thing when hunting divers on big water,” offers Farnsworth. “Don’t be afraid to move 50 yards down the shoreline as that can make all the difference.”

The wind is constantly changing on the coast where Farnsworth hunts and it can go from 10 to 50 miles per hour, in an instant. Changing locations up to eight times a day is common for him. Though bad weather is great for moving birds, if you’re not in the right spot, a duck won’t look at your spread.

Decoys

Farnsworth devised a decoy system that’s quick and simple to manage. The mainline is 30 yards of PVC coated clothesline; he tried decoy lines and cords but they weren’t stiff enough. He wanted something that wouldn’t tangle when coiling up decoys in the boat. When moving a short distance Farnsworth simply unhooks the anchors on each end of the line and tows the decoy line behind the boat. When running across the lake, the decoy strings get rolled into collapsable trash bags inside the boat.

Fifteen feet up from each 5-pound anchor at the end of the mainline, the first decoys are attached. Farnsworth runs 15-inch droppers on each decoy which are permanently secured to the mainline. He used to snap them on with stainless wire line snaps but now secures them directly to the line because he never takes them off and it’s one less thing to tangle.

Farnsworth spaces his decoys every few feet, running 36 or so decoys on a single, long line. “If hunting deeper water, just join a couple of lines to get a longer string to get both weights down, or buy clothesline kits in 100- or 150-foot long sections, which makes it easy to customize your setup.”

Farnsworth also adds six single canvasback decoys to his spread. Each decoy has a 20-foot dropper with a five ounce sinker on the end. “I like using the can’ decoys to direct birds. I place those decoys along one point of the string to create depth so approaching birds can hook into a landing zone. This also gives approaching ducks more to look at other than just a line of birds.”

Farnsworth likes large decoys that are visible from a long way off and that move well in the water. Normally he hunts over bluebill decoys and kills all the cans and scaup he wants. As birds get pressured later in the season, though, he’ll run more can’ decoys to draw in leery birds. He also includes bufflehead decoys to attract those since they like flocking with their kind.

Scouting

On a recent diver hunt in southern Texas, it didn’t take long for me to see the experience was far different from how I’d hunted them on the Pacific Coast, in parts of Alaska, and on the Great Salt Lake. “Hunting divers here centers around scouting,” says guide, Justin Brodnax who has been working the waters of Baffin Bay for 20 years. “We hunt a hyper-saline lagoon on the lower Laguna Madre, and I cover 60 miles a day scouting, all by boat.” Baffin Bay is surrounded by private land, there is no road access.

Brodnax primarily hunts redheads, scaup, and buffleheads but gets a number of canvasbacks and some goldeneyes. “When I find massive rafts of ducks, that’s where I’m heading the next morning,” Brodnax notes. “I don’t wait, I get on ‘em while the food source is there and bird numbers are building.”

Mixing it up

If Brodnax sees divers traveling skinny shorelines, he might only run a single, long line of a couple dozen decoys. If the ducks are educated he might toss out a few decoys or run a jerk cord with only five or six decoys on it. “In tight areas in the flats during the late season, wary ducks will shy away from big spreads,” he points out.

But open water in the late season is another story. “I’ll go with 15-20 dozen decoys and all on their own strings,” Brodnax continues. In these spots we’re hunting in only a foot of water so tossing out single decoys is great because it allows me to create the formations I want, and they’re easy to move around if changes need to be made.” Brodnax runs four drakes to every two hen decoys. Later in the season, he’ll pair up decoys on the outside of the spread because shy birds will often land with the pairs, not the big groups.

If you’re a die-hard puddle duck hunter, focusing on divers might offer a fun change of pace. Then again, it could lead to more decoys taking up more space in your shop. But believe me, the rewards of hunting diving ducks are more than worth the effort—if you can hit them.
 
Note: Scott Haugen is a full-time freelance writer and photographer. Follow is adventures on Instagram and Facebook.

---