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I have a doz of those Avery hot buy mallards... there a little small but look great. the biggest problem i have with them is no place to strap a weight... ive tried the ACE weights, the wrap aound, but nuttin seems to work. well i finally found somethin that works half descent. The other day i was at Up2Early's house (thanks for the food by they way, them beans was smokin) and we were gettin all the decoys ready for this season. he recently inherited a few dozen deeks, and some had the bullet weights on them. i got to thinkin and i put them on the hot buys and they work great. i just wrap the line around the keel and just wrap the weight under the line and it works great. if you have these deeks you know wut im talkin about. hope this helps

Big Scoop also work, but put wear and tear on the bills.

That is one downfall of the hot-buy; no place to put weights on the keels. I just ordered 2 dozen more hot-buy. I like them.

http://www.txwaterfowler.com/html_pages ... /index.htm

Wing - you ever try this?

Here's what you need:
1) 4 ounce decoys weights
2) 4 to 5 feet lengths of 400 lb test monofilament
3) Crimps the size of 400 lb mono
4) crimping tool

Crimp weight on one end of mono.

Run the other end of mono through eye of decoy, but don't attach to the decoy. Make a loop in the end of mono and crimp the loop large enough for a finger with a thick glove to fit through.

Now you have a decoy that slides along the decoy line with a loop on the end nearest the decoy. When you pick up the decoy with the loop, the decoy slides to the weight.

Now you have a tangle free decoy that can easily easily be picked up with one finger with the loop.

You can put the whole dozen in the stand up decoy bag at one time.

Makes putting out decoys and picking them up about four times faster, you don't get wet, and decoy movement is excellent.

I did not have the mono so I just used the tangle free. I have around 160 done in that texas rig way. Love it

gh22 - that sure took a lotta effort.

You can just follow the link there folks. They gots lots of fancy pictures too

Yes, I tried it. Only problem I have is that when stuffed into a bag, the snag ends next to the crimps catch on the other lines.

They are super-easy to retrieve and put out, though. Much easier than wrapping and unwrapping but a mess when they all jumble around in the sack.

P.S. You don't need a crimping tool if you have a hammer and a concrete floor.

The crimping tool is actually a hammer and concrete.

Put a click tie on your loops when you put the dekes in the bag, no snags.

why not just leave the loose end a little inside the crimp. then hammer down on it? that would not leave any thing to catch. but maybe it doesnt hold as good. but i bet it would hold.

JD

Greenhead22 wrote:Here's what you need:
1) 4 ounce decoys weights
2) 4 to 5 feet lengths of 400 lb test monofilament
3) Crimps the size of 400 lb mono
4) crimping tool

Crimp weight on one end of mono.

Run the other end of mono through eye of decoy, but don't attach to the decoy. Make a loop in the end of mono and crimp the loop large enough for a finger with a thick glove to fit through.

Now you have a decoy that slides along the decoy line with a loop on the end nearest the decoy. When you pick up the decoy with the loop, the decoy slides to the weight.

Now you have a tangle free decoy that can easily easily be picked up with one finger with the loop.

You can put the whole dozen in the stand up decoy bag at one time.

Makes putting out decoys and picking them up about four times faster, you don't get wet, and decoy movement is excellent.

OR, especially if you're hunting variable water depths, use those spring-loaded line clips on tangle free line. You can adjust the line length to water depth and cinch up tight after the hunt. Merinisco got me started. It works great.

I did leave the loose end flush with the crimp, but my crimps are rectangular and catch on everything in the sack.

It is great to put the dekes out; just hold the loop and sling the decoy.

If your Texas-rigged dekes get all tangled into one big heap, just dump the pile out in front of you. Pick up a deke and shake until it comes free from the cluster. Ours always came untangled pretty easily.

mottlet

I just got to know when you "wingman" is going to rig some of My dekes like that, maybe on the 11th...


Help a challenged Brother out....you could get Ducks Be Us to help.

fwiw, the original ghg hot-buys were a bugger to keep weights on. the redesign a couple years ago (i had to send all mine in for paint problems, problem solved now) changed to a triangular-shaped keel that works fine with ace anchors, just clip them on the back of the keel. to set depth with your line, make a small/thin cut thru the top of the line eyelet, and pull the line thru this cut when you have the proper amount of line out.

Cure-all,

Use Tangle free brand bullet weights (they are pre-assembled and snap on) with the clear line and wrap but don't tuck... All tucking the line does is result in cold fingers before dawn trying to unravel knots. The bullet tangle free weights won't tangle in a bag even when loosly wrapped.

Academy and Sportsman's Warehouse both carry this brand (They are not HS tanglefree series)

Good luck!