Body-Booting and Decoy Carving on the Chesapeake Bay

By Ammoland Editor Joe Evans

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -(Ammoland.com)- Ducks Unlimited’s latest online film visits three generations of the Jobes family in Havre de Grace, Md.

The Jobes, who are Chesapeake Bay watermen, professional decoy carvers and longtime supporters of Ducks Unlimited, practice a unique style of hunting they call “body-booting.” The hunters don survival suits and stand chest deep amid large spreads of handmade decoys on the Susquehanna Flats.

“We have such a unique way of hunting that people don’t even know about,” said Andrew Jobes. “People are just blown away by the way and the style and all the work we put in to body-booting. If I’m not body-booting it’s kind of hard to get me to go hunting. Anybody can shoot geese in a field, but body-booting, standing in the water doing what we do, it’s unique.”

Family patriarch Captain Harry Jobes has been carving working decoys since he was nine years old. He passed the tradition on to his sons, Bob, Charles and Joey, who are all talented decoy carvers and painters. They, in turn, are passing the tradition on to younger generations.

“To make a gunning decoy, people don’t realize how long it …Read the Rest

Source:: AmmoLand