# Black decoys



## Neubys (Oct 18, 2011)

I hear from seasoned, old school diver hunters that they will put all black decoys behind the layout boat. Who here has or actually does this? I am painting my foamers and was thinking of doing some all black. Should I paint the heads all black too? Maybe just paint the bill a different color?


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## adam bomb (Feb 27, 2006)

Black decoys stand out from long distances. They're a great addition to the spread.


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## Buckshot556 (Aug 10, 2016)

An old school diver hunter told me to repaint my deeks black after I was complaining about the current worn out paint job. He said the pretty paint jobs are for the hunters not so much the birds. Hell, a lot of guys with permanent setups just use blacked out milk jugs as deeks.


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## John Singer (Aug 20, 2004)

Several years ago, Lou Tisch (Lock Stock and Barrel) wrote and posted this tutorial on rigging out for layout shooting.

http://lockstockbarrell.com/doc/DHBP-DEKE-SET-Lou.pdf

He describes using scoter decoys as "blockers" upwind of the layout boat.


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## jonesy16 (Sep 19, 2011)

Higdon battle ship blacks are great decoys when mixed in a diver spread. They are huge and foam filled, plus the paint can take a beating.


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## Far Beyond Driven (Jan 23, 2006)

I set my decoys and then scull around the lake to get the birds to pick up and move to the decoys, then I drift down on them. From more than a couple hundred yards away, I cannot see the hen decoys. A bit farther, and the black decoys go away. I can see the white sides on the blue bills from a mile across the lake in chop.


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## redneckman (Dec 7, 2005)

Half of our diver spread are garage sale special mallards painted black. Diver don't mind and we have even shot a few mallards over them too.


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## DecoySlayer (Mar 12, 2016)

There is NO cool factor in all black decoys. It would seem that fewer and fewer people understand that diver hunting is all about "looking good" and having a great nick name on the River. All black deeks will get you neither!


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## Neubys (Oct 18, 2011)

Well, since DecoySlayer and Riverwolfe are taken all the cool nicknames are gone. Unless you think a square layout boat is cool? We call it the "Square lick". Does that qualify?


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## DecoySlayer (Mar 12, 2016)

Neubys said:


> Well, since DecoySlayer and Riverwolfe are taken all the cool nicknames are gone. Unless you think a square layout boat is cool? We call it the "Square lick". Does that qualify?


LOL! Sure does! You forgot "Magnum".


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## duckbuster2 (Aug 14, 2008)

Black duck decoys work great for all kinds of ducks,been using all Blacks for the last 49 years and they work.


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## UplandnWaterfowl (Jan 3, 2010)

redneckman said:


> Half of our diver spread are garage sale special mallards painted black. Diver don't mind and we have even shot a few mallards over them too.


I had 100+ old mallard decoys that I was not using anymore so figured they would be good filler for the diver setup. Painted them all flat black with rattle can plastic paint. One of my friends started saying he thought they were scaring the ducks so the next time out I put all the good dekes on the left side and all the blacks on the right side. 90% of everything decoyed directly into the black spread and we had to spend the day shooting the weak side, needless to say my friend how makes sure we have all the blacks when we go out.


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## Tavor (Sep 10, 2011)

White shows up better on sunny days. Black shows up better on cloudy days. Black and white decoys have it all.


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## DecoySlayer (Mar 12, 2016)

My wife and I painted these, they work.
View attachment 224297


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## webbedconnection (Jan 13, 2006)

BLACK DUCKS MATTER!


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## Birddoggem (Jul 25, 2016)

DecoySlayer said:


> My wife and I painted these, they work.
> View attachment 224297


That is pretty.


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## Birddoggem (Jul 25, 2016)

All my divers are the old school black ones. They have had every duck decoy them.


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## DecoySlayer (Mar 12, 2016)

Birddoggem said:


> All my divers are the old school black ones. They have had every duck decoy them.


But I am after cool! LOL! 

If the birds are working they will come into just about everything. I have seen them come into spreads where deeks were missing bill/heads, etc. I have also seen it where if one feather was out of place the birds flare. 

I have noticed that buffies really like to key on buffie decoys. They like it so much I have taken to placing my line of buffie decoys inside, by the boat. Either down the left side if the lines are running with the boat, or the line right in front of the boat if we are running the lines across the boat.


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## Birddoggem (Jul 25, 2016)

DecoySlayer said:


> But I am after cool! LOL!
> 
> If the birds are working they will come into just about everything. I have seen them come into spreads where deeks were missing bill/heads, etc. I have also seen it where if one feather was out of place the birds flare.
> 
> I have noticed that buffies really like to key on buffie decoys. They like it so much I have taken to placing my line of buffie decoys inside, by the boat. Either down the left side if the lines are running with the boat, or the line right in front of the boat if we are running the lines across the boat.


Making and painting your own is beyond cool.


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## DecoySlayer (Mar 12, 2016)

Birddoggem said:


> Making and painting your own is beyond cool.


We didn't make those, they are 1960's decoys. They were too bad to patch and paint so that was our first attempt at burlapping and painting. 

The main thing is looking cool while on the River, that enhances your really cool nickname.


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## BFG (Mar 4, 2005)

The decoy idiocy becomes more of a machisimo thing than anything else. 

"Hey man...look at my XXXXX decoys...aren't they awesome?" 

"Uh yeah....sorry, I just blew the head off of one..."

The more I hunt ducks and geese the more I realize that decoys and calling make up about 2% of what is important, and the other 98% is location and concealment. Most guys spend the bulk of their waterfowling $$$ on decoys and calls.


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## Divers Down (Mar 31, 2008)

Life's too short to hunt over black decoys.
Years ago I read the same thing about "blockers" so I ran a line of 12 black duck behind the layout, made no difference.


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## Divers Down (Mar 31, 2008)

DecoySlayer said:


> My wife and I painted these, they work.
> View attachment 224297


Nice!
Herters with Stocker heads?


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## Lamarsh (Aug 19, 2014)

adam bomb said:


> Black decoys stand out from long distances. They're a great addition to the spread.


For this reason, IMO adding blacks is a wise move for any spread, but you don't necessarily need to paint deeks like that. Buying a set of nice actual black duck deeks or nice pintail or BB drakes also work well to serve this purpose. Pintail or BB drakes also have plenty of lighter colors which add contrast and visibility as well. But generally speaking, to flying critters, it is the color BLACK that stands out most on water.


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## DecoySlayer (Mar 12, 2016)

Divers Down said:


> Nice!
> Herters with Stocker heads?


McCorts's with Stocker heads


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## adam bomb (Feb 27, 2006)

Lamarsh said:


> For this reason, IMO adding blacks is a wise move for any spread, but you don't necessarily need to paint deeks like that. Buying a set of nice actual black duck deeks or nice pintail or BB drakes also work well to serve this purpose. Pintail or BB drakes also have plenty of lighter colors which add contrast and visibility as well. But generally speaking, to flying critters, it is the color BLACK that stands out most on water.


That's what I run too. I don't think it matters if they're black ducks or painted black. It's that dark body that's easily silhouetted from long distances that's important.


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