Have you ever struggled to pull your tangled-up decoys out of a worn-out mesh bag? Or stumbled through timber in the dark with a bulky bag that snags on everything? I have.
No doubt about it, using the best decoy bag that fits your hunting style can make the early morning setup process go much smoother.
It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner hunter or have decades of experience, utilizing the right gear will help protect your decoys and save you time. Keep reading to see my review on the best duck hunting decoy bag!
There are a ton of options for duck decoy bags and it can be tough to narrow down options. Here is a short list of what I consider to be the 4 best duck hunting decoy bags:
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Everybody has their own style of duck hunting. Whether you hunt public or private, fields, large bodies of water, or small marshes, chances are you need a quality decoy bag to transport and protect the investment you made in your decoys.
There are a lot of high-quality bags out there that will work great for some scenarios but aren’t ideal for others. Consider your style of hunting and decide what best decoy bag fits your situation.
Looking for decoys? Checkout our picks for the best mallard duck decoys.
You can buy a wide range of decoy bags. Anything from small, individually slotted bags, up to large mesh bags. There are various pros and cons to each of these types, but before deciding, you must consider the capacity of the bag.
Are you hunting out of a boat, or walking in? Carrying your gear, or dragging it with a sled? Analyze your hunting situation and determine how many decoys you are taking, and how much room you have for storage.
If you are walking in and can only make one trip, you are going to need to look for a bag that can hold all of your decoys. Typically, your best bet here is going to be a large mesh bag. However, if you are hunting from a boat or dragging gear in on a sled, you have a lot more options.
When it comes to the best duck hunting decoy bag, everything is a trade-off, but your most important consideration should be the capacity and how you plan to get your decoys into the field.
The next thing to consider when looking for a duck hunting decoy bag is what type of decoy you will be using. There are so many different kinds of decoys, and storage/transport will vary widely depending on what you use.
Between full bodies, shells, floaters, silhouettes, windsocks, and motion decoys, there are a lot of options. If you carry in a dozen full body duck decoys, you will want to choose a different decoy bag than you would if you were carrying in 5 dozen windsocks.
The last aspect to consider is how much you want to protect your decoys during your walk-in. If you have a dozen high-end fully flocked full body duck decoys, you will want a quality bag with some padding and individual storage slots to provide the most protection. But if you have a few dozen of some used or cheap duck floaters, you won’t be as worried about a few scuffs to the paint, so a simple mesh decoy bag may work just fine.
I have used everything from no decoy bag at all, all the way up to fully zippered and padded individually slotted bags. There is no one-size-fits-all decoy bag, and I use almost every type throughout the season. Here are some of the best decoy bags you can use this season.
When it comes to slotted decoy bags, there are a ton of options. I could write an entire article about picking the right one. Are you goose hunting, duck hunting, carrying bags in, riding in with a boat, driving in with a trailer? Are you looking for the most protection out of a bag, or looking for a less bulky/light weight option? You can see, there are a lot of variables.
Specifically focusing on the best duck decoy slotted bag, the Drake Waterfowl 12 slot zippered-top decoy bag is a very solid choice. One of my favorite parts about this bag is the 3×4 configuration, instead of the typical 2×6. It turns the bag more into a cube instead of a long rectangle. This makes loading decoys so much easier. It also makes the bag stack and store significantly better.
This isn’t the cheapest slotted decoy bag you can buy, but for the most part, I would recommend you stay away from those cheaper options. They are typically flimsy and don’t hold up well, making it difficult to load and carry decoys.
This Drake bag features a zippered top, and it is durable enough to add significant protection to your decoys without adding a ton of unnecessary bulk. The outer compartment is also great for stakes if you are using full body decoys, which helps keep the mud and dirt out of the bag and your decoys stay cleaner.
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If you are looking to buy a mesh decoy bag from Amazon, my best advice is to stay as far away as possible. For the most part, they are overpriced junk. Cheap shoulder straps that strip out, and a loose mesh bag are easily the two biggest flaws. Ever tried to pull a decoy out of a mesh bag, only to find that the snap clip is tangled in the mesh? I have, and that is why I will never buy a mesh decoy bag from Amazon. I tried my best to find a decent one, but I couldn’t find a single one I would purchase for my own use.
Instead, I highly recommend a Herter’s mesh decoy bag. You can find these at Cabelas, and likely other retailers too. They are about as cheap as you can find any other bag, but they have solid straps and a fine mesh weave. Every now and then a single decoy might get hung up, but its usually a quick 10 second fix, instead of a 5 minute struggle to untangle a mess.
The bigger mesh weave will snag onto sticks and thorns and be torn to pieces after just a few trips. But the fine mesh weave has the advantage of avoiding snags and brush on the walk-in. I typically use these mesh decoy bags when I have Texas rigged decoys. Sure, you don’t absolutely need a bag, but I find that loading and unloading them out of bags is so much faster, and prevents the decoys from banging together as much as they would if they were just clipped to a carabiner.
The method I use most often for transporting decoys is placing a dozen floating duck decoys in these mesh decoys bags. When I get to the water, I simply dump them out all in one go, then toss them out from there. No untangling and no unwinding weights, its a very simple process. These are the most versatile decoy bags you can own and I highly recommend picking up a few.
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If you are a walk-in public land duck hunter and typically carry anywhere from 2-3 dozen full-size mallard floaters, this is the best decoy bag I recommend. If you carry fewer decoys, you really won’t need the capacity of this bag, and if you carry more, you probably should be considering a card or sled instead.
There are several other styles of decoy bag that are similar to this one, but if you want the most feature packed option, the refuge runner decoy bag is about as good as it gets. One of the most important features of this bag isn’t very noticeable at first glance, but if you have ever carried bulky decoys then you know how handy this is – the cinch straps on the back. Instead of all of your decoys settling to the bottom of the bag, you can cinch it up to evenly distribute the weight, improving comfort and pack-ability over long hikes.
The extra storage on the outside is well thought out, with compartments for your motion decoy and shotgun, along with other pockets for misc. gear. The bottom of the bag sits high enough on your back that you don’t have to worry about the decoys slapping the back of your legs as you walk. And of course, the padded straps and waist belt add comfort and help take some of the load off.
A word of warning, this bag is not cheap. When you see the price, you will likely say, “They want HOW MUCH for a BAG?!” That’s certainly what I thought as well. I would not consider this a ‘multi-use’ bag. If you only have a few hunts a year that you need to hike in decoys over a long distance, I can’t see how this would be worth the price. However, if you are consistently packing in decoys every hunt and are looking for an easier option over a standard mesh bag, this decoy bag is well worth the investment.
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Hunting with silhouettes is a great way to add a lot of visibility and pop to your decoy spread, without adding a lot of bulk or weight. Silhouettes have their own advantages and disadvantages, but if you want to take advantage of the portability, you really need to have a dedicated decoy bag for them.
I have this decoy bag and use mostly White Rock and Big Al silhouettes. The bag has no problem carrying 4-6 dozen at a time. 4-6 dozen silhouettes seems to be about the right weight for carrying the bag and setting up without getting too fatigued. I like the outside rubber molded handles on this bag for loading and unloading out of the truck, and the top locking buckles help keep the decoys in place once the bag is loaded.
I have used this bag for about 4 seasons now, and this last year I finally ripped through one of the carry handles. I left the wet bag on the concrete floor of my garage and over several seasons, the handle essentially dry-rotted. I also stored about 8 dozen decoys in this bag, hanging by the handles from the rafters of my garage during the off-season. This might not be the highest quality silhouette bag you can buy, but it certainly gets my recommendation for being good enough to get the job done, and it is priced right.
If you hunt shallow water marshes, picking up this silhouette decoy bag and 1-2 dozen goose and/or duck silhouettes is a great way to mix up your decoy spread and stand out from the other public land decoy spreads.
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The best duck decoy bag for a new hunter just getting started is the Herter’s mesh bag. It is cheap and can cover a wide variety of scenarios. Once you have a specific style of hunting that you focus on, you will be able to buy a decoy bag dedicated to that style of hunting.
Decoy bags are about as variable as the situations we run into as waterfowl hunters. They can protect your investment in your decoys and make it easier to get into hard to reach areas. They may not be the most critical piece of hunting gear, but the best duck hunting decoy bag can certainly improve your hunting and setup experience.
I am passionate about duck hunting and I know how seriously duck hunters view their gear. I hope these tips help you pick out your own best duck hunting decoy bag.
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