Retractable duck decoy weight

A weight retraction device for use with a waterfowl decoy, the weight retraction device comprising:

• a housing defining an interior compartment, wherein the housing is independent from and indirectly coupled to a body of the waterfowl decoy;
• a spool rotatably disposed within the interior compartment of the housing;
• a weight attached to a line configured to be wound around the spool, a rotation of the spool in a first rotational direction causing an unwinding of the line from the spool to cause the weight to extend away from the housing, and a rotation of the spool in a second rotational direction causing a rewinding of the line back onto the spool to cause the weight to retract back towards the housing;
• a spring configured to urge the spool to rotate in the second rotational direction;
• and
• a lock release mechanism configured to normally be in a locked configuration for preventing an undesired rotation of the spool in the second rotational direction, wherein a manual actuation of the lock release mechanism by an operator of the device releases the locked configuration of the lock release mechanism, thereby allowing the spool to rotate in the second rotational direction for retracting the weight back towards the housing, wherein the lock release mechanism includes a push-button actuator disposed at an exterior of the housing, wherein the push-button actuator is configured to be manually actuated by the operator by pressing the push-button actuator inwardly towards the spool within the interior compartment of the housing to release the locked configuration of the lock release mechanism, wherein the push-button actuator is configured to be pressed in a direction parallel to an axis of rotation of the spool and along an axis extending through the spool, wherein the lock release mechanism includes a pawl configured to normally engage a ratchet structure of the spool for placing the lock release mechanism in the locked configuration.