duck boat setups

[ghosthunter]

Here is my buddies boat.

[lokidog]

I used to use an inflatable over there as well as a canoe.  Those lakes are all small enough that a canoe could be used safely and is easier to haul into some of the smaller waters.   

Just my opinion, but "safe" and "canoe" don't belong in the same sentence when referring to hunting situations. Especially when there are dogs involved. I prefer an Aquapod for those scenarios.

I guess it depends how big you are and how well behaved the dog is as well as its size, I know there are some guys nad some dogs I would not want to be with in a canoe....     Only went over once in all the years (15+) of hunting out of a canoe, and that was because my ex-wife did something stupid.  We even got her shotgun back off the bottom.  I did prefer hunting out of the inflatable though.

[AWS]

A canoe is only dangerous if you do something stupid in it, like trying to use one during duck season when you have little experience in one.  I used one for many years and hunted Skadgit, Nisqually, Greys Harbour, and the Potholes resv.  I knew the Potholes good enough that I could put in at Mardon in the fog and run a compass heading to the sand dunes.  I wouldn't do it today with guys running across the lake in the dark staring at their GPS instead of where they are going.

I grew up in a canoe, fishing, camping, running trap lines, duck hunting and ricing out of one.

Dogs in a canoe, one of then reasons the American Water Spaniel was the darling of market hunters in the upper Midwest was its size, it was bread to work out of small skiffs and canoes used oon the rivers and marshes there.  The labs popularity almost coincides with the development of the reliable outboard.

A canoe is a great boat, most of this country was explored and settled with it.  If your going to hunt out of one get to know it in the summer on a nice warm day and push it to its limits a dunking in the summer is a fun day , in December it could kill you.  There is no highly portable boat that will even come close to hauling a large spread of decoys as effortlessly as a canoe. 

When I moved to WA the one thing that didn't get left in WI was my canoe.

[AKHUNT]

Heres a pic of my little duck boat.  Its a boat that I built about 10 years ago.  Its got a little 6hp mudbuddy on it and does really nice in shallow waters.  Not a speed boat by any means, but its easy to hide.  Good for 2 plus a dog.  I normally dont run more than 2 dozen decoys up here, mostly its fewer.



Here is a pic of my other duck boat.  This is probably the most versatile (and funnest to drive) of the boats I own.  I built a frame for the blind and bought some panels from a mudmotor dealer and it works great.  Most of our marshes have relatively short grasses in them, so this boat can be hard to hide in some places.  The boat gets used a lot to haul things to the cabin, fishing....and the set up does well in just about everything except for shallow gravel/rock rivers.  Jets cant be beat at that point.

[JJD]

See the Sticky thread;
Boats, Blinds, Etc
Lots of good stuff there too

[jakeweb]

thanks guys, youve all got some awesome set ups.

[Kola16]

This is an awesome pic But where's the boat jk