How to Rig Duck Decoys: Texas Rigs, Anchors and Long Lines

The three ways to rig a decoy

There are really only three rigging systems in use, and they map onto three kinds of water. Picking the wrong one is the most common reason a new hunter's spread takes forty minutes to set.

Texas rigs. A short length of heavy monofilament with a weight crimped at one end and a loop or clip at the other. The loop goes over the decoy's head and sits around its neck; the weight hangs below. A dozen rigged decoys clip together through all twelve loops onto one carabiner and carry as a single bundle with no bag and no tangles. To set, you walk out and flip them off the carabiner one at a time. This is the default for marsh, flooded timber, potholes and small ponds, and it is what most hunters should buy first. Rig'Em Right sells these pre-rigged by the dozen on 600-pound mono with heavy-duty swivels in six length-and-weight combinations, from 18 inches with 6 ounces up to 60 inches with 8 ounces, with a carabiner included.

Sliding-weight anchors. The older style, where the weight slides on the line and the loop ends up at the top rather than at the decoy. The advantage is one-hand placement and storage: the Rig'Em Right Original anchors use a sliding weight and a looped end so a rigged dozen hangs from the included spring clip without a bag at all, and the design is patented (US 7,475,509). They are sold in 30-inch, 36-inch, 48-inch and 54-inch lengths with 3- to 6-ounce weights. If you already carry decoys on a clip rather than in a bag, this is the system you are used to.

Long lines. One heavy mother line anchored at both ends, with decoys clipped along it at intervals. You drop the first anchor, motor or drift out paying line and clipping decoys as you go, drop the second anchor, and you have set three dozen decoys in the time a Texas rig sets eight. Pickup runs the same way in reverse. This is a big-water and diver system, not a marsh system — see best diver decoys, which is the category built around it.

How much line and how much weight

Two rules of thumb, and then the published numbers.

Line length: about one and a half times the water depth. Too short and the decoy pulls the weight along the bottom and drifts out of position in wind. Too long and the decoy swings a wide arc, wanders into its neighbors and tangles. A foot of slack is forgiveness; three feet is a knot. The practical ceiling on a pre-rigged Texas rig is the longest length the maker sells — 60 inches on Rig'Em Right's Xtreme TX Rigs, 54 inches on the Original anchors — which means a pre-rigged dozen covers roughly three to three and a half feet of water. Deeper than that and you are either rigging your own longer lines or going to long lines.

Weight: heavier than you think, inside what you will carry. The weight has one job, which is to stay put in wind and current, and a decoy that drags is worse than a decoy that is a foot out of place. Rig'Em Right's published pairings are a useful map of what the category considers sensible: 18 inches with 6 ounces, 30 inches with 4 ounces, 36 inches with 3 ounces, 48 inches with 4 ounces, 54 inches with 6 ounces and 60 inches with 8 ounces. Note that the shortest rig carries one of the heaviest weights — that is the shallow-water, high-wind case, where there is no line length to absorb a gust. In slack water with no current, 3 ounces holds fine. In a tidal marsh or a river eddy, go to 6 or 8.

One multiplier most hunters miss: a dozen rigged decoys is a dozen weights. At 6 ounces each, that is four and a half pounds of lead before you count the decoys, and a four-dozen diver rig at 8 ounces is twenty-four pounds of anchor alone. That is a real factor in what goes on your back — see best decoy bags for what carries it.

Rigging a Texas rig, step by step

If you are rigging your own rather than buying pre-made, the sequence is short:

1. Cut the line. Heavy monofilament, 400 pounds or more; the pre-rigged versions use 600-pound mono. Cut to one and a half times the deepest water you hunt, and cut every line in a dozen to the same length so the spread sits level.
2. Crimp the weight on. Slide an aluminum crimp sleeve on, pass the line through the weight's eye, back through the sleeve, and crimp twice. Give it a hard pull before you trust it.
3. Build the loop or clip at the decoy end. Either crimp a loop big enough to pass over the decoy's head and sit on its neck, or crimp on a swivel and clip. A swivel is worth the few cents: it is what stops the decoy spinning its line into a corkscrew over a season.
4. Hang the dozen on one carabiner. Pass the carabiner through all twelve loops. That bundle is now your unit of carry, and it is why Texas rigs beat bags for a small spread.

On the water, you walk the spread out and lift each decoy off the carabiner where you want it, letting the weight drop. Pickup is the reverse: lift the decoy, catch the weight, clip the loop back on. Done properly, a dozen takes under two minutes each way, which is the whole point. Where to put them once they are set is a different question — see how to build a duck decoy spread and how many duck decoys do you need.

Long lines for open water

A long line is worth building when the number of decoys has outgrown the number of trips you are willing to walk. The components are a mother line heavy enough to pull by hand (tarred nylon is traditional), an anchor at each end sized for the wind you expect, and short droppers with clips every few feet along the line for the decoys.

The reason it matters for divers specifically is that a diver spread is a raft, not a pattern: dozens of bodies in a loose block, with the gun hole at one edge. You cannot hand-place that and still be hidden before shooting light, and you certainly cannot pick it up at the end of a day in a chop. Keel design is the spec that decides whether a given decoy works on a line, which is why the diver decoy roundup leads on keel clips rather than paint.

How to stop a dozen from tangling

Tangles are a storage problem, not a rigging problem, and they have three causes. First, mismatched line lengths within a dozen: cut them all the same. Second, no swivel, so each decoy slowly twists its own line; add one at the decoy end. Third, and most common, throwing a loose dozen in a bag — the reason both systems on this page are sold pre-rigged with a carrying clip is that keeping twelve lines under tension on a carabiner is the only storage that reliably does not tangle.

If you are storing decoys for the off-season rather than between hunts, unclip, dry the lines before they go into a tote, and keep weights in a separate bucket so lead does not sit against painted bodies all summer. That and the rest of the close-season routine is in how to store duck decoys.