# Divers



## roostbuster (Oct 19, 2005)

How many ND natives actively pursue divers?


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## diver_sniper (Sep 6, 2004)

Not many, which leaves the door hanging wide open for guys like me


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## jhegg (May 29, 2004)

O contraire, we all do at times!


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## Rick Acker (Sep 26, 2002)

Put together a nice spread of oversized GHG Cavasbacks & Buff's over the summer and I am ready this year!


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## USAlx50 (Nov 30, 2004)

Well shooting one can and one bill doesn't help a lot..


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## diverboy (Jul 5, 2007)

Never much compitition with other hunters for divers!


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## roostbuster (Oct 19, 2005)

USAlx50 said:


> Well shooting one can and one bill doesn't help a lot..


Why shoot one bill when the limit is two? Plus ringers are bonus!


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## tb (Jul 26, 2002)

This year I might try for a daily bag of 5 drakes of all different species:

bluebull
can
redhead
bufflehead
goldeneye/ringneck


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## dwshunt (Apr 26, 2003)

Love the divers! Had great sucess last year on buffleheads and bluebills. Find some deep water and set up a line of dekes and they can be suicidal at times.

Good Hunting.


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## FlashBoomSplash (Aug 26, 2005)

Dont forget about the hooded mergs thats 2 bonus birds. Has any one shot any red breasted or common mergs while diver huntin.


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## chris lillehoff (Jan 9, 2006)

I got a common last year. Dont seem to see many.


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## FlashBoomSplash (Aug 26, 2005)

Was it a drake or hen. I think the drakes are a nice lookin bird. I shot a nice drake 3 years ago. I wanted to get it mounted but I shot a nice buck and my wife only lets me get one mount a year.


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## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

We used to go out several times later on, when the huge flights of bluebills hit the lake.
They are fun. Much tougher than a puddle duck though.


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## 2Socks (Apr 18, 2006)

"My wife only lets me get one mount a year", now thats funny.


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## coolrider (Sep 28, 2007)

Is fresh water shrimp the main food source for divers in ND?

Do most deep water lakes have them in ND?


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## malspeck (Nov 21, 2005)

I remember living in Utah and shooting divers there (goldeneyes, scaup mainly) but those ducks eating those brine shrimp off the Salt Lake make them taste down right nasty and I stopped hunting divers after that. Is that the same for the divers here? I hear the canvasback is one of the best tasting duck!


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## Aythya (Oct 23, 2004)

I hunt divers every year and have for decades. They are excellent eating and the usual stuff you hear about them being no good to eat is not reality. You can get bad tasting mallards just as easily as you can get a bad tasting diver, IMO and I have never had a bad tasting diver.

Different diving duck species feed on different food items. While many eat amphipods and other invertebrates, many like canvasbacks feed extensively on plants, such as sago pondweed.

Diver hunting is great fun and I just love setting big spreads of diver decoys and use several different species. And the best part is, in ND you usually have the wetland or lake all to yourself.


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## WingedShooter7 (Oct 28, 2005)

Whats a diving duck? Dont see many where i live. Mallards,teal, and woodies

but thatd be the first thing new i would wanna try and hunt. That and snows


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## Aythya (Oct 23, 2004)

Diving ducks are those species, eg. canvasbacks, redheads, scaup, that dive underwater to get their food unlike puddle ducks that tip up to feed. Divers have smaller wings and must "run" across the water to get airborne unlike puddle ducks that leap into the air. There are many other differences related to their feeding behavior, food items, etc.

Divers tend to raft up in large flocks on bigger bodies of water. I usually hunt them on larger wetlands and lakes and use quite large decoy sets. Some of the most exciting moments are when a flock of divers comes straight down the long line of can decoys right into the opening, or when the sky is empty one second and filled with bluebills waffling into the decoys the next.


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