I have a new blind on some big water this year to give shooting some divers a try the water is 6-8 feet deep and all my decoys are set up for 4' or less.

I really don't want to put 10' of line on my decoys for a spot I will hunt 4-5 times a year...
Have any of yall got some suggestions for gang rigging or anything?

Go ahead and put long lines on all your decoys. You can wrap your keel a few times and throw a little underhand loop on the front to adjust the length. Then whenever you want to hunt the deep water, just untie the loop and unwind the excess line.

just make them long and if you hunt shallow water just wrap the extra around the neck

Woodie,

I do the same thing here on the coast. I have made attachments that clip on the existing loop of my texas rigs. I use 8 to 10 oz. weights. Gang rigging in my opinion is rough if you get tangled. Even in fairly rough weather the weights hold. I use egg singer style weights.

Gang rig the majority and leave a hand full with long lines. Divers like the safety of a runway anyways. I primarily shoot divers and gang rigs are the way to go. Buy you a couple of the cheap kayak anchors and clip one at each end then just clip your decoys on the swivels. Hell if your using decoys that are already rigged for shallow water you dont even have to take the line and weights off of them you can leave them and just clip swivels to decoy.

Dont you have to have leaders so is far enough underwater the dog won't get tangled?

The gang rig is like a trout line you would run in a river/pond, or a jerk line just with an anchor at both ends.

Well, I do have an old trotline....

Just use the long line with an anchor on each end. Add the snap swivels to the long line. Then clip the swivel to your current decoy anchor line where it loops through the anchor. Weight will hang down under decoy. Will keep your LL lower under water and out of the way of dogs and boats. That way you dont have to re-rig or buy more decoys. I dont hunt divers but do hunt some deeper water at times. So I keep a couple long line setups just in case they are needed. Have 6' lines texas rigged on my decoys in slotted bags . No wrapping just throw the decoy, weight and line into its own pocket for no tangles. Deploy it like any other TX rig but with longer lines.

That sounds like a good idea, but wouldn't having a weight on only one end so the whole deal can change with the wind be better, our would it get slack and whip around and tangle?

So what ya'll are trying to pitch is-

It's easier to creep along and snap all of your decoys together in a long straight line even though they have their own individual weights, and have an anchor at each end? Forgive my ignorance, but what's the point? If they each have their own weight, throw them over individually, and idle around and pick them up. Just trying to grasp the concept here, I don't see the need to snap them all together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt13bdydbfY

If these idiots had un snapped the swivels from the decoys as they went and wrapped the long line on the reel then they wouldnt have had a cluster f&%k like they got. Rookies lol

Gang rigs suck!! Pain in the ass when its dark. If you anchor both ends to keep from tangling, every time the wind shifts you have to pick up the back anchor and adjust???? Also, if you are hunting a cross wind your dog WILL get hung up in the rig and either drown or haul the whole damn goat roapin cluster fork back to the blind. I suggest painting up some old mallards like blue bills, or buy new ones and putting long lines on em. Leave your regular spread alone. All my big water decoys have 12' of line and 16oz weights. Divers don't eat real good, but they are a blast to shoot and when you grind em into sticks and salami they taste fine!!

Rig 'em Right has the gang rig drops already made up with crimped mono drops, swivels on one end, and long line clips on the other. If you take your shallow water dekes and equip them with a swivel where the line attaches to the decoy, instead of a knot or a crimp, then you can easily switch them from individual weights to gang rig drops, or individual deep water rigging. Knutson's has the best price on the anchors and mainlines I could find.

We use a mixture of individually rigged and gang-rigged decoys for divers. I find that it is effective to have some individual floaters to round out the spread near the pocket.

I rig mine on 150' main lines with grapnel anchors on each end. Each line can easily hold 18 decoys in deep water. If the wind changes significantly we just ride out and pull the anchor at the end and swing each rig accordingly.

Each drop is almost 30", so there is little risk of the dog getting fouled in it.

Well, I think I found my solution.

My dekes have 5' of line on them with a loop on one end and a keel grabber on the other side. The string can slide through the eye but I have a depth adjuster on the loop side to stop it.
I pull the string all to the loop side till it bottoms out on the bungee then I wrap it around the keel and let the loop side hang free. I then take a 5' line and anchor and hook it to the loop with a trotline clip so I have about 10 foot of line.

When I get ready to hunt deep water I just grab the extensions that way I don't have to fool with 10' of line the other 90% of the time... we shall see if it turns into a clusterfuk.

I am going to try the parachute cord,Heard that before!

Working on a military base I got my hands on some 1/16th aircraft cable they were throwing out. I decided to try it instead of my 1/8th para cord on a few dozen divers. I have now changed all 8 dozen divers over to it on my gang rigs. I do the same and just throw them in the bottom of the boat and they don't get tangled. Only time I have trouble is when everything freezes together into one big ball of ice.