Sleeping Black Duck
from my personal hunting rig

Solid Body
$350

Hollow Body
$500

This Black Duck “sleeper” is part of a pair along with the “Swimmer” above that I used. This one is also based on a “Shang” Wheeler pattern and is another of my favorite working decoys. Placing these two decoys in a small “lee” just a little bit off from the rest of the rig worked like a charm, even on wary late-season Blacks. Sometimes it almost made me feel guilty. Many times the ducks didn’t even circle; they took one look and cruised right in.

I admit here that I took a lot of joshing because each one of my decoys traveled in a padded bag and they were carefully set on the water rather than just thrown at random. I once asked a crusty old guide on a late season hunt on the Choptank River if he was okay with using my own decoys and he sort of shrugged and said he didn’t care until he saw me removing them from their travel bags. “GawdDAMN,” he said. “You ain’t puttin’ THEM in the water, air ye?” About an hour later we each had a limit of Mallards and Black Ducks. The only rule I always tried to impose was that we DON’T shoot cripples in the decoys! No shot holes in the decoys.

This decoy is also a prototype and orders will be taken. It can be solid or hollow, and I will rig it if you like.