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Hens on a longline

4K views 20 replies 8 participants last post by  don novicki 
#1 ·
When you guys set your long lines how do you arrange your hens? To clarify, what I'm asking is do you set a drake, then a hen, drake, and hen?

All I'm working with is 12 bluebills, and 12 cans and I kill ducks with just those 2 lines out with some buffies to the side.
 
#2 ·
Flip a coin as you're rigging them. You wan't it random so it doesn't looks natural and not like a string of net corks.
 
#3 ·
Whatever comes out of the bag next is what goes on the line next. Bills with bills, cans with cans...etc. what your doing is just fine. If you are running traffic, you might want more Dekes. Where I hunt, I usually use some mallards, wldgeons, and pintails off to the side. About a dozen total. Maybe 4 to 6 honkers. Mostly hunt in MN, ND, and Manitoba.

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#4 ·
BigH said:
Whatever comes out of the bag next is what goes on the line next. Bills with bills, cans with cans...etc. what your doing is just fine. If you are running traffic, you might want more Dekes. Where I hunt, I usually use some mallards, wldgeons, and pintails off to the side. About a dozen total. Maybe 4 to 6 honkers. Mostly hunt in MN, ND, and Manitoba.

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I usually do pull from the bag at random. I have 6 can drakes/ hens, and 6 bbill drakes/ hens. I try to get some puddlers out but I usually just set my 2 long lines with the buffies.
 
#6 ·
If you get the opportunity to watch huge rafts of bluebills, redheads, cans, buffleheads etc. there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to how they raft up. Dont put to much emphasis on hens vs drakes. It absolutely matters none what so ever. As a matter of fact, most of the time they arent even in a linear position. Just big clumps of ducks floating down the river/ lake. We run long lines because its easiest to set out and pick up. I do have a couple dozen loose decoys to throw out and I use those to guide the birds in and I can move them around as needed to get them to land or at least "buzz by" where I want them. Ive read all the articles on running all hens all drakes all coots. Run this, run that, spell the alphabet, count to ten, make a checker board all black all white, super duper magnum foam filled decoys, gotta have best decoys money can buy, you need a thousand decoys, no no you need at least 10,000, nope only 12. I just laugh now. Just make em look like ducks in a place ducks want to be and youll get to shoot your extra extra fancy duck gun soon enough...Because extra fancy gun in necessary too ya know. :thumbsup: :lol3:
 
#8 ·
I agree with jeffro9023. Whatever comes out of the bag is what goes on next. Try to group them by species for the most part but mixing a Can or a Bufflehead in there isn't going to hurt the birds. If you find a pattern that works try to stick with it but for the most part they mix up in the rafts.

Hope this helps.
 
#10 ·
Little late to the party, I agree with the guys above. for a long time I ran all of mine drake hen drake hen drake hen... then I realized one day I have never seen ducks sit in such a formation lol.

I keep the species together but whatever I grab is what goes on next.

:thumbsup:
 
#11 ·
My decoys are permanently tied to my long lines so I don't have to attach them every time out. That said, I do things a little different than most people, but I found this system to be easier to deploy and pick up without having to attach decoys to the main line every time out. We can set up and pick up in under twenty minutes. Typically I run mostly hens and the drakes that are tied to my main line are spray painted black. I just don't like too much white in my spread, but that's just my preference................ :thumbsup:
 
#12 ·
don novicki said:
My decoys are permanently tied to my long lines so I don't have to attach them every time out. That said, I do things a little different than most people, but I found this system to be easier to deploy and pick up without having to attach decoys to the main line every time out. We can set up and pick up in under twenty minutes. Typically I run mostly hens and the drakes that are tied to my main line are spray painted black. I just don't like too much white in my spread, but that's just my preference................ :thumbsup:
You are 100% allowed to have your preference but absolutely 0 proof that it works better than anybody elses spread....I am however intrigued on how you keep all your decoys attached to your mainline without making a tangled mess though.
 
#13 ·
I never once stated in my post that my system works better than anyone else's. If you can find that line in my post please forward it to me so I can correct it. I use a bow line knot to tie my decoys to my main line. To hold position on the line I use electrical tape. Yes it does eventually come off but we get about a season out of it before it needs replacing. Once again this is MY PREFERENCE ONLY. My mainline is 5/8" and I use 3/8 diamond braid for my droppers which are 3 foot long and tied to the main line via bow line knot. Additionally my decoys are attached to the dropper via bow line knot also. I keep the whole set-up in 12 slot bags and we can deploy and pick up in no time. This I will say is true though: big line doesn't tangle easily and if it does (which it doesn't) it is super easy to untangle. I have tried it all over the years and finally after having everything a CF I got tired of messing around and did it this way. I can literally tow my long lines around my property behind my truck and the ducks hold position without any problems what so ever. Lastly, I use 4 dzn. G&H super mag Bills for my spread. I don't like my decoys deployed out in straight lines from the box so what we do is we set 3 concentric circles emanating from the box at 10, 20 and 30 yards. Then off to the side we run one string straight out for a landing zone for the birds to come in. This set up is the easiest I have found and should you have a lefty in your group you only have to move that one string to the right side of the box so that he can be in correct shooting position. Again this is just what I do and if you are happy with your set up then so be it........................... :thumbsup: P.S. as in life so too long lines: bigger IS better.
 
#14 ·
Don, I'm interested to hear how you tie out your lines in concentric circles without tangles. How many anchors are you using per line? Two things I never like to see in my diver spreads are perfectly straight lines of decoys and too much white.
 
#15 ·
Ok I will try to explain as best I can. I wish I could attach a picture but I'm old and bad with the computer. First off my long lines are 100' apiece. To each end of the line I have an 8 lb window weight attached via a carabiner and 2-1/2" brass ring. The carabiner goes thru the eye of the window weight and the brass ring is slipped thru the carabiner so I can directly tie the end of my long line to it. I leave 25 foot of long line blank on each end (total of 50') so then I start to tie my decoys to the main line at that point. I get 12 decoys across a 50' span with 4' spacing between each decoy. We hunt water that is about 22' deep so my long line hits bottom without the aid of any extensions or anything like that. I also have extensions (25') that I can clip to my long line should we hunt anything deeper. From here it is very simple. Take your first line, toss the weight into the water and basically wrap it around the layout at approx. 10 yards out. Move out to 20 yards and do the same thing with the next line and then finally at 30 yards. Picture how water ripples when you throw a stone in a pond and you will get the basic idea. Then when we have all of those in place, I put one line off to the side, about 10 yards or so, so it makes a V type pocket for the birds to come in. Like I said earlier if everyone is a right handed shooter you are all set. However if someone shoots lefty all you have to do is move your line that forms the pocket to the other side and away you go. IMO decoys set on all straight lines just don't look natural to me hence I went this route instead. Hope this helps..............
 
#16 ·
A lot of good information and techniques fellas, thanks!!

I notice a lot of guys don't like white in their spreads and prefer black. Isn't the white just as good as the black?

To give you guys an idea of what I'm working with are Herters 72 cans, and Herters 72 Bluebills. Hens are drake split evenly.
 
#17 ·
White tends to get over used. A live flock of bluebills shows some white from the side pockets of a couple drakes, but certainly not on every bird. They look predominantly black or dark. I personally take a can of black spray paint and dust the side pockets of all but a couple of the drakes in my spread. I don't make them black, just knock the white down a couple notches to a light grey. This makes the whole flock look much more realistic at 100 yds. With everyone else on the river using spreads of all bright white drakes, looking dark and natural makes a difference.
 
#18 ·
One last thing. The 3/8" diamond braid line is generally too big to fit / thread thru the hole on the decoy, so I buy those round things that you put your keys on and put that thru the decoy hole and then I can tie directly to that. I don't know what you call those but usually they are 35 cents apiece at the local hardware store. I guess they would be called a key ring? :huh:
 
#19 ·
don novicki said:
One last thing. The 3/8" diamond braid line is generally too big to fit / thread thru the hole on the decoy, so I buy those round things that you put your keys on and put that thru the decoy hole and then I can tie directly to that. I don't know what you call those but usually they are 35 cents apiece at the local hardware store. I guess they would be called a key ring? :huh:
Carabiner?
 
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