How to Set Up Diver Duck Decoys

Diver(ing) Duck Decoy

Diving ducks -- pochards or scaups -- are a popular hunt for sportsmen who enjoy the game of hunting fast flying fowl. Named for their feeding habits -- diving beneath the surface of the water and foraging along the bottom of the water body -- diver duck decoy spreads are most successful if scattered in a symmetrical arrangement. Typically, the more decoys arranged, the more successful the spread as the birds intuitively presume large numbers indicate prominent forage.

Things You'll Need

• Diver duck decoys

Instructions

1. 

   Ideal Landing Area for a Duck

   Determine where you want the divers to land. Keep this area -- the landing spot -- within the range of your shotgun. There is no point in setting up the landing spot out of range.

2. 

   Stuffed Diver

   Arrange your diver decoys in a straight line with a drifting bow or a jerk in the middle when hunting on a pond. Place the decoys no more than two or three feet to either side of a straight line, but do not scatter the decoys in a perfect line as perfect symmetry looks unnatural to the fowl. Space the decoys between one foot and four feet apart on that line. Again, avoid perfection. Run that decoy line at a 45 degree angle away from the shore, not directly at the radius of the pond and not parallel to the shore. The landing area must be between your hunting blind and the decoy spread.

3. 

   Wooden Wood Duck

   Scatter the decoys in a J formation when hunting off a point, the top of the J headed toward open water. Do not run the back of the J parallel to the shore of the point, but away from it at between 20 degrees to 45 degrees. Make the bow in the J of your decoy spread correspond to the elbow between the point and the shore. Again, the landing area must be between your blind and the decoy spread.

4. 

   Duck Landing in the Landing Area

   Scatter random decoys on the backside of your line or J, your line or J between the random decoys -- the feeders -- and the landing area. These feeder decoys encourage the diver ducks to land in the landing area, not on the backside of your decoys. Spreads scattered in these two manners generally promote successful hunting, but it's always best to tweak and adjust your spread management, especially if you hunt in the same area. You will figure out just what spread works best for a given hunting area.

References

• Diving Duck Tactics
• Waterfowl Decoy Spreads
• Placement of Duck Decoys