I like to tinker with my gear- especially my decoys. Here are some mods that I've found to be effective...
Last year I experimented with a couple decoys that use real tail fans. Instead of drying my tail fans completely flat, I decided to give the tail some shape. I layed my tail fans on a couple of flower pots and let them dry. Once dried, they were curved rather than completely flat.
I did this for two reasons. First, the curved shape catches more wind and gives the decoy more movement. With the curved shape, a breeze from any direction will cause the decoy to spin. Second, the curved tail allows me to transform my full-strut decoys into semi-strut decoys (see my B-Mobile).
My first decoy is the Primos B-Mobile. I cut off the head and attached an alerted head from another decoy. This head is less intimidating and resulted in fewer birds being spooked. I also added the curved tail to the decoy. With the curved tail, this decoy can be used as a full- or semi-strut decoy.
The key to making this into a semi-strut decoy is adding a string adjuster. With the adjuster, you simply pull the string towards you, slide the adjuster foward, and lock the string in place once it reaches the desired position. Once you do this, the tail will be locked in the semi-strut position and the decoy becomes much less intimidating.
Full-Strut:
Semi-Strut:
My second decoy is a Carry-Lite Semi-Strut Jake.
Once again, I added a more realistic head to this decoy. I cut off the extremely realistic head from the Cherokee sports blow-up decoys and added it to this decoy. I cut a slip in the back of the decoy so I could add the curved tail. I generally only use this decoy for field setups (as well as the B-Mobile). You don't have to add the tail, but it gives it a little more realism.
Finally, my run-n-gun decoy is a combination of Bass Pro's Redhead Jake decoy and Cherokee Sport's Full-Strut decoy. Once again, I changed out the heads and glued on part of the tail from the Cherokee decoy. I'm excited to test this decoy out this year. It's very realistic and fits nicely in my vest.
