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Texas Rig Anchors vs. Keel Hook Anchors

2.5K views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  eagles2069  
#1 ·
The only decoy rig I have used is the Texas Rig style. The big issue I have with this rig is that the decoys get intertwined with each other, then you have to sit there and sort them out before you can make your spread. During the off season I have been looking around, and the Keel Hook style anchors have really caught my eye. I am still not sure I want to spend all the money replacing all of my Texas Rigs though. What is yalls opinion on each anchor? I would love every ones input.
 
#2 ·
I've run a bunch of different styles of rigging systems and have found different styles work well for different needs. I'm in very cold (-20° and colder) country so minimal handling time and ability to handle with heavy gloves was a must.

I use hook style anchors, heavy mono line and Tanglefree depth adjusters. Then my deeks get put in 12 slot bags but regular bags would work as well since the weight isn't dangling.

Prior to this setup, I ran tarred line with j hooks and the stretchy rubber tubing. The rubber aged and broke within a season and the hooks had a tendency to unhook from the keel and get tangled. In order to keep it from unhooking, I had to stretch the bands pretty tight and this probably led to the premature aging of the bands.

In college, I used large egg weights on coated cable with loops on the end. I could use a large caribener and then tie a loose knot with all dozen lines as close to the deeks as possible to keep them from twisting (not that tangling was even possible with coated cable).

When we ran a permanent spread in the rice, we poured cement weights and rigged our permanent spread with tarred line.

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#4 ·
I wonder if you're doing something wrong with your texas rigs. This will be my 3rd season texas rigs and I haven't had a single tangle. I would never go back to j hooks only for the reason of how much longer it takes to pick up. It's nice to pick up 6 dozen decoys in less than 30 minutes where there is no way you're doing that with j hooks. Check out lifetime decoys (they sell texas rigs) they have a ton of videos of them using the products without any tangles. I have never used them but they look slick.