Diver spread???

2604 Views 16 Replies 12 Participants Last post by Josh Noble, Aug 14, 2015

amrich17

Discussion Starter · Aug 13, 2015

I recently purchased a layout boat and am looking at targeting diver. I will primarily be hunting brbr. I am looking to build a decent spread (only a couple dozen) but am a little lost on number of each species and exactly what species to get. I know there is golden eye, redheads, and canvasbacks but want to know if buying scaup or others would be worth it. Also if there is a brand that I should get.
Thanks

1 - 17 of 17 Posts

Fowlmouth

· #2 · Aug 13, 2015

First off a decent spread for divers consists of more than a couple dozen.;-) I think your looking at 200-400 decoys for a decent spread.
Buffleheads, Ringneck, Scaup, Goldeneyes, Redhead, Canvasback are all good decoys. I don't think the ducks will care one way or the other what brand they are.
Your question is a good one for diverfreak, hopefully he will jump in.

utahgolf

· #3 · Aug 13, 2015

I think the tender boat is more important, you need one fast enough to rally birds consistently!

Reactions: 2

amrich17

Discussion Starter · #4 · Aug 13, 2015

Thanks I know a couple dozen isn't much but hope to expand over the next few years. Just looking where to start

amrich17

Discussion Starter · #5 · Aug 13, 2015

I'm not that type of hunter

Reactions: 1

LostLouisianian

· #6 · Aug 13, 2015

One thing you may want to try in order to make your spread appear larger is get a few dozen 2 liter soda bottles and paint them black or dark grey or semi looking like a scaup or other diver then attach strings around the neck of them and use them as fillers for your spread. I know guys at Catahoula lake that use hundreds of these cheap dekes with regular decoys around the outer edges. Of course at Cathoula you can walk across the lake without getting your feet wet just stepping on decoys. Just a thought.

king eider

· #7 · Aug 13, 2015

I used bluebills mostly. Mixed with a bunch of coots. Then had some cans or reds in the target area. Add GE's in when they start showing up. Pretty easy.

dkhntrdstn

· #8 · Aug 13, 2015

agree on the big spread fro divers. you going to need a big spread. I would pick up every kinds diver that comes through utah. For brand look really hard at the tanglefree decoys. they are filled with foam so when you or some body shoots the decoy it wont sink.Diver hunting is lots of work. it fun but lots of work.

MuscleWhitefish

· #9 · Aug 13, 2015

Buy cheap mallards.

Fill with foam. (Optional)

Sand off old paint.

Prime the Decoy with paint primer.

Paint with truck bed liner and Fingernail Polish (Eyes)

Clear Coat with a Flat Matte.

You can make dozens cheaper than buying them.

They do not have to look close to what the actual duck looks like. They just have to have a bunch of black & white.

Exception being goldeneyes, they prefer goldeneye decoys.

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JuniorPre 360

· #10 · Aug 13, 2015

utahgolf said:
I think the tender boat is more important, you need one fast enough to rally birds consistently!

Careful! You may summon the bro staffz!

My diver spread are all repaints. GHG decoys are cheaply painted and lose all their paint within a season. I painted maybe 3 dozen divers and 2 dozen coots. Not that hard, it's cheap, and they actually look really good. You might get lucky on KSL and get a cheap set of decoys to repaint, but it seems plastic decoys are worth just a little more than gold now.

Reactions: 1

lucdavis

· #11 · Aug 13, 2015

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=218&ad=35881738&cat=&lpid=1&search=decoy&ad_cid=9

amrich17

Discussion Starter · #12 · Aug 13, 2015

Thanks for all the info I will look into painting my own. Last week I made a couple dozen coots out old deeks that turned out fairly good. Also where I will be open is decent size water but defiantly nothing huge or even deep.

amrich17

Discussion Starter · #13 · Aug 13, 2015

*hunting

Utmuddguy

· #14 · Aug 13, 2015

Big spread Of tangle free divers

chuvak

· #15 · Aug 14, 2015

I have 2 dozen Bluebills, a dozen coots and some painted old hot buys that I had in the garage and some that I found used for $2 each. I probably have 6-7 dozen and do ok just from the shore. Most of my painted decoys are Bluebills as well. But also some redheads and golden eyes. I just used spray paint to paint them. Honestly, if you can't afford to buy very many decoys then I would just paint old ones. The problem is that on ksl everyone thinks their used decoys are worth twice as much as they are new.

JuniorPre 360

· #16 · Aug 14, 2015

amrich17 said:
Thanks for all the info I will look into painting my own. Last week I made a couple dozen coots out old deeks that turned out fairly good. Also where I will be open is decent size water but defiantly nothing huge or even deep.

Here's a picture of some of my repaints. The ones of my coot army were deleted. These need just a little tough up every season, mostly because I'm hard on my decoys. But they're just little chips. I'll go ahead and post my method.

1. Sand the decoy just enough to make the plastic rough enough to take the paint. Spray them off with water when you're done and let dry.
2. Use a can of bedliner spray that you buy from Wal Mart and coat the decoy. You'll want a pure black decoy.
3. I used sponge brushes to paint everything. For the white parts, I bought a small can of the oil based FLAT WHITE paint. For the redheads' heads, I used a primer coat that's a rust color in a rattle can. And for the colors, I used the .97 acrylic paint. The canvasbacks' heads are burnt sienna color. You could probably do better colors than I did with my redheads.
4. They dry within an hour. After they dry, I apply a coat of Krylon 1311 clear coat to protect the paint a little bit.

I didn't pay attention to a ton of detail. If you saw my coots, you'd laugh. But I promise these work VERY WELL! I haven't bought diver decoys yet since these work so well. I'm sure goldeneye would be easy to paint too. Good luck!

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Josh Noble

· #17 · Aug 14, 2015

JuniorPre 360 said:
Here's a picture of some of my repaints. The ones of my coot army were deleted. These need just a little tough up every season, mostly because I'm hard on my decoys. But they're just little chips. I'll go ahead and post my method.

1. Sand the decoy just enough to make the plastic rough enough to take the paint. Spray them off with water when you're done and let dry.
2. Use a can of bedliner spray that you buy from Wal Mart and coat the decoy. You'll want a pure black decoy.
3. I used sponge brushes to paint everything. For the white parts, I bought a small can of the oil based FLAT WHITE paint. For the redheads' heads, I used a primer coat that's a rust color in a rattle can. And for the colors, I used the .97 acrylic paint. The canvasbacks' heads are burnt sienna color. You could probably do better colors than I did with my redheads.
4. They dry within an hour. After they dry, I apply a coat of Krylon 1311 clear coat to protect the paint a little bit.

I didn't pay attention to a ton of detail. If you saw my coots, you'd laugh. But I promise these work VERY WELL! I haven't bought diver decoys yet since these work so well. I'm sure goldeneye would be easy to paint too. Good luck!

BAM....nothing wrong with those JP!

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