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Monofilament vs Tangle-free

2K views 24 replies 9 participants last post by  Woods walker 
#1 ·
I need to re-rig some of my decoys and I was thinking about switching to clear monofilament. The black tangle free line that I’m using now is easily seen in clear water and I often wonder if that causes birds to not commit. Anyone using clear mono on their decoys, and if so, any opinions?
 
#2 ·
I had been using black tip-up line never noticed the birds flaring from the line(if the ducks are that close they should be dead) but I changed over to 65 lb test Berkley braid in green. I pick it up cheap at a flea market put it on my musky outfit and still had enough left to do my decoys(about 30) with app. 6' drops.
 
#3 ·
I use Tangle free in green or black. I never saw any reason to believe the ducks could see it. It is thicker and I think much easier to handle in cold wet weather than mono or weed wacker line.
 
#4 ·
I mostly use the black tangle free line ... them seeing that line and flaring off it is way down the list of things i'm worrying about.

If I was to use something like mono or fluro - I'd want it as thick as I could just to make it easier to handle and less likely to tangle or knot. I have a few that still have some old decoy string on them there's knots in all those lines.
 
#6 ·
I’m not concerned so much about birds flaring once committed as much as not being able to even get them turned and interested. Sometimes birds will pass on by and not even give a second look, so I was wondering if maybe they were seeing the lines in really clear shallow water. I’m pretty far down in the SE corner of the state and the ducks have probably seen quite a few spreads by the time they get to me. From what everyone is saying though, it sounds like it’s not worth making the switch.
 
#9 ·
I’m not concerned so much about birds flaring once committed as much as not being able to even get them turned and interested. Sometimes birds will pass on by and not even give a second look, so I was wondering if maybe they were seeing the lines in really clear shallow water.
Sometimes its not anything you're doing wrong or anything they're seeing - sometimes its just that there's other places they'd rather be or were headed. Especially if they don't even look at you & just keep on going without breaking a wing beat.
 
#20 ·
Dogface ... Was that you that buzzed us over at Blue Marsh(probably 15 yrs ago by now)? We were set up in a field goose hunting the early season. We were pretty much done for the morning when this pilot flew over - circled back and came in at tree level.
 
#21 ·
I don't think so. I usually hit Penn Warner, the Delaware and Rancocas. On occasion I did check out an area we hunted near Ocean City. I kept the low level stuff over water.
 
#23 ·
Your probably over thinking your whole hunt. Not every duck or goose in the county is going to come to your decoys, even if everything is perfect. Just the way it is, ducks and geese have absolutely nothing else to do except try and survive everyday. That means they need safety, food, and water. If they find a good food source, they will probably keep using it until it's gone, or they don't feel safe. Most times it doesn't matter how many, or how realistic your spread is.

I explained this to a buddy one time while we were duck hunting a creek. Sitting by the creek, geese started to drop into the pasture. After about 20 minutes, there was about 250-300 geese in there. But all the while those birds were on the ground feeding, we watched flock after flock, fly right over them, and go somewhere else!! So I asked my buddy, what kind of decoys would we need to bring all the flocks that were flying over in? There is 250 live geese on the ground, and 1000 geese just flew over and wanted nothing to do with them. There is no decoys that could compete with live geese, it's just the other birds flying over had somewhere better, and pretty much nothing you could do would get them to come in.

It's just waterfowl hunting, if it was easy and the birds were predictable, it wouldn't be any fun!!
 
#24 · (Edited)
Overthinking it? Isn’t that have the fun while sitting in a blind waiting.....:smile_big: I need to rig a few decoys (some new and some old with broken rigs) and since I’m out of line and need to purchase more, so I was just wondering if I should give mono a try. Great insight though, lord knows I’ve seen plenty of birds pass on by.
 
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