Jon boat Set Up

[kglacken]

Well Im going to purchase a 12-14 foot jon boat here in the next two months. Im curious to see your set ups. What are the must haves. Ill be using it mostly for duck hunting but ill do a little lake fishing with it as well. So what are some must haves or luxuries you like to have on your boat and lets see some pictures as well!!!! 

[sakoshooter]

I'll be doing the same with a 16 - 17"er soon so I'll be lookin at the pics also. Selling the bass boat to do so.

[eastsidemallard74]

Pop up blind,  spot/flood lights would be my must have

[RailRob]

Mind reader.. was also thinking about doing this post. I'm thinking 18 foot maybe 16. What are everyone's thoughts? I'd use it on eastern Washington lakes and rivers.

[AWS]

This is my conversion of a jon boat.



Right behind the bow light is a base for a pedestal seat and to the right of the light are two angles bolted to the deck to mount a transom for a trolling motor.  It makes a pretty good bass boat in the summer.

The front hold is for decoys in the fall and camping gear in the summer, life jackets, oars, fishing poles, fuel tanks tackle boxes go in the side compartments, and spare prop, extra sparkplugs , glasses and flash light go in the rear compartment.  All the compartments lock so I can go into a restaurant, or chase pheasants and coyotes without having to worry about gear disappearing.  I've even locked the dog in the front hold so I could coyote hunt behind the blind.



It makes a nice low profile rig that is very seaworthy yet can get into some very skinny water.



It is patterned after Zack Taylors "Zackbox" that he built to hunt the eastern seaboard tidal marshes, works great just about everywhere I've used it.

[pens fan]

Check out the sticky above on waterfowl boats.

[JJD]

I have a Lowe 12 ft L model Jon boat,  it's size makes it nearly useless.
It has a little 7 hp outboard, by the time you hang that and it's gas tank on it , you have about 200 lbs of legal weight limit left.  Can hardly haul yourself and gun.  Decoys, dogs, and other gear would have to be seperate trips.  I would never attempt to hunt out of it.  On the water with a full load as described above, you have about 10 inchs of free board.  Only redeaming value is I can haul it in the back of my PU to little pot holes ya can't pull a trailer into.  14 ft would be absolutely minimum unless you were only using it to retrieve ducks off the water.  If you can possibly swing it, spend a some extra $$ for a 16ft, you will be much safer if the weather turns on ya.
I have lots of "experience", "experience" often comes as a result of bad judgement. 

[Chesterdog]

I hunted/fished from a 14 ft. John boat for two seasons with a lot of frustration. It was very unstable to hunt from when fully loaded and was too dangerous to take out on windy/choppy days.  I bought a 17ft. all-welded John boat and never looked back.  We can hunt, fish, crab... It is also much safer...  I would suggest factoring into the cost, a good battery system.  As we expanded our ability to do different things (gps, fishfinder, electric trolling motor, electric downriggers), we kept needing more juice from the battery system. Blue Seas has a product called a mini add a battery, which allows you to charge multiple batteries while your outboard is running, and then automatically separates the batteries when the motor is off, so that you always have juice to start the motor and get home. Our blind is the Cabelas Northern Flight, with wind blocker material and the quick flip top.  This blind attaches to the boat with 4 C-Clamps and allows you to quickly remove it if you get the itch to go steelhead fishing during duck season.

[JJD]

I hunted/fished from a 14 ft. John boat for two seasons with a lot of frustration. It was very unstable to hunt from when fully loaded and was too dangerous to take out on windy/choppy days.  I bought a 17ft. all-welded John boat and never looked back.  We can hunt, fish, crab... It is also much safer...  I would suggest factoring into the cost, a good battery system.  As we expanded our ability to do different things (gps, fishfinder, electric trolling motor, electric downriggers), we kept needing more juice from the battery system. Blue Seas has a product called a mini add a battery, which allows you to charge multiple batteries while your outboard is running, and then automatically separates the batteries when the motor is off, so that you always have juice to start the motor and get home. Our blind is the Cabelas Northern Flight, with wind blocker material and the quick flip top.  This blind attaches to the boat with 4 C-Clamps and allows you to quickly remove it if you get the itch to go steelhead fishing during duck season.

Have much the same set up now.  See the boats and blinds thread at top of page.
I have a Beavertail blind on my 17ft Roughneck.  Very nice unit, but spendy.
I suppose that we both have sleepin dogs as our avitar is just a coincidence too.   

Wind at your back, ducks in your face.

[BiggLuke]

Must have:  SPRAY PAINT THE HELL OUT OF IT.