[hnt-em-all]

Alright guys, I'm looking into picking up some duck decoys for this season.

Anyone have suggestions as to which ones are going to be durable and not a waste of money down the road?

I've been hearing good things about the G&H decoys. I also noticed some really affordable decoys at BassPro, the Redheads.

What are the differences and benefits of weighted versus water-keeled decoys?

Thanks for the input! :beer:

 

[WOODS AND WATER]

uke: There are so many good duck dekes out there it would be hard to make a bad choice in my book.I personally like mixing brands and sizes to increase the realism in my spread.I also use different species and try to mimick what i see when i scout.
I just ordered some of the dekes from basspro(redhead)but they wont be in stock till august :evil: They look good and the price is right 8) ill post up when they arrive and give you all a honest opion.. :huh:
Later guys!!!!

 

[Nick Roehl]

I really like G&H decoys, but I own a little of everything. If I were you I would buy G&H decoys their paint is great and holds up longer than other brands, and with the swivel heads you can't go wrong.
I always buy weighted keels because they hold the decoy down on windy days as where the water keels roll over in the wind.

 

[NDJ]

the old saying "you get what you pay for" is usally the case. I too use many different brands. I use em hard & don't baby any of my stuff. The cheap carrylights will lose paint if you look at them. My older carrrylight's(15 + yrs) are actually holding up well but they do rot & break after time.

Older Flambeaus were fine. I've found the new ones will leak along the keel seam. To my knowledge they are still garbage. I'll still pick up the older style RH's and Greater Scaup magnums if I see some around.

Have been using G&H's for a few years...durable so far, some loss of paint...so far so good

Also started using some Herter's...all indications look like good dekes...don't like the lack of a keel though. Tough to wrap 20 + ft of line.

as far a weighted or water...go weighted. Water keels are fine if you like to travel light & move about cause they save you some weight. Weighted keels ride better, are easier to put out & pick up.

As far a size...I'll usally buy magnum or standards. I'm more on the the standard size so I can get more into a bag. I'll use the larger blocks when I'm hunting a small area & don't put out more than 18.I too mix and match size & species....Guess you can never have enough blocks

.

 

[Scraper]

We have both G&H's and Herter's. We love them both, but you can buy a lot of G&H's for what Herter's charges for a dozen. We go with the Super Magnums. I like the visiblility that they offer and I like the way that they ride on the water.

I saw a great tip on TV, this guide from LA was using tanglefree cord on his dekes, as do I, instead of wrapping each deke individually he took about 6 dekes and their cords and tied a big overhand loop. He only had about 6 ft of line on his dekes, but if you doubled them over once and then tied them it would be a helluva lot quicker than wrapping each one. I am going to try it this year.