Several years ago, Bill Humphreys, an avid and experienced duck hunter for over 30 years, became dissatisfied with most commercially available decoys.  Modern mass-produced decoys lacked the realism and attention to detail of the old hand-carved and painted wood or cork decoys our fathers and grandfathers had used.  Unfortunately, they had become scarce and too expensive for many hunters.  He envisioned a decoy that combined the realism of hand-crafted decoys with the affordability of those being mass-produced.  He believed that such a product would create a new market niche that had yet to be developed and that hunters, given such a product, would crave its attributes.  It was these beliefs that motivated him to found Blackwater Decoy Company and begin producing his own decoys.

Dedicated to the development of this concept, Bill set out to learn the art of carving first-hand, with the intention of providing quality decoys for himself, as well as his fellow hunters.  He learned the art from the old-timers of the Chesapeake Bay Region, along with some of today's finest contemporary carvers, and soon began winning awards of his own. (Click here to read more about Bill's carving background.)

Demand for his hand-crafted decoys grew rapidly and although he attempted to keep pace, Bill soon realized that finding a method for mass producing his decoys was becoming necessary.  He then sought out craftsmen, design concepts, manufacturing techniques, and materials which, when combined, would fulfill this goal.  Nationally known, award-winning carvers (including Bill, himself) produced unique, realistic master woodcarvings of selected species, and engineers married materials never before used in the hunting or recreation industry.  The result of combining these unique key elements was the creation of an innovative, quality decoy unlike any others previously seen in the sport of duck hunting - the Rough Rider^® decoy.