Pontoon duck blind

[big drift]

Well heres to a hopefully good concept. Picked up an old pontoon last fall and am planning on turning it into a somewhat permanent blind. no motor just gonna anchor off some rice beds adjacent to a shallow bay where there is no boat traffic.
i am planning on finishing the sanding and painting by end of july then trying to figure out how to rig the blind sides.
Our theory is more comfort better location and room for ankle biters if they so wish. Summer time just pull the blind for a swimming platform. planning on anchoring it down with 4 5 gallon buckets topped off with cement. as we are in shallow water only 2-4 feet not to worried about drifting. dog ramp for my black demon. ladders if required and enough clearance to put the boat underneath for a tender. The best part is a shooting bench with stove storage coolers and heat vents, Oh well thought I would just throw and see what y'all think and if you have any comments or ideas. Later days ,

[TV BOY]

Sounds like a great idea. I have thought, while standing/ sinking in the much up to my waist, that there should be an easier way to construct a blind. I wondered about those smaller paddle boats you see with the pontoons.

My only problem....I don't have a private "spot" to put it.

Keep us posted with your project.

[Guest]

That is called a sink box and ilegal in MN.

[jlm]

No, not a sink box, a fixed platform. Sorry if I was not clear!

[big drift]

We would prefer not to have a fixed blind just in case weather goes sideways or issues of blocking navigational areas, also if we need to adjust our location we can by towing, the bottom area is mixed area of solid ground /sand and 1-2 feet of muck,

[wyldewal]

Sounds like a great idea. I've thought of doing that myself. the water level where I hunt goes up and down as much as two to three feet sometimes, depending on the wind. I just haven't had the time to get one put together. Please let us all kmow how it works this fall.
GOOD HUNTING

[Mark Christianson]

The guys that own property on the other side of our slough use a pontoon.
It is a novel idea, but man, the thing sticks out like a sore thumb. Don't get me wrong, they shoot ducks, but it sure seems that they scare a lot too. They have it anchored off a point of cattails, with very little of the boat concealed in the weeds. It is camo and they do wrap some grass/weeds around it, but that is a lot of boat to get concealed, because so much of the rig is above water. Not like hiding the little Alumacraft Duckers.

[big drift]

Yeah we're adjacent to my buddies land and in a stand of cattails. with thicker grass just down from us. Our backdrop is a bunch of woods. it should be interesting. at least it will put us closer to the birds and still have some concealment. Last fall the big diver rafts were to spooked top get close to
with aconventional boat at least with a semi permanent blind we hope to they will be more receptive. the safety thing is also a big issue with all the gear dogs and guys this makes my wife less tense. it is not a Phil Robertson "Duckcommander blind" but for us it will be sweet.

[jlm]

Would it not be easier to go our and sink a fixed blind? That way you can adjust it to get as low to the water as possible and you don't have to worry about "rocking the boat" when the dogs jump out or someone swings real fast. This application would be great on larger water though. Let us know how it goes? I suppose you could just make it look like a great big goose. I wonder if that would work?

[Ruttin' Buck]

I like the idea of all that room, but reinforcing Biglakeba$$'s comments, that is alot of area to cover up as well as it will sit quite high in the water.

You might try some experimentation with adding 1.5-2" foam to the bottom of the entire deck and ballasting the pontoons. It would require some plumbing + a way to push the water back out..like an auxiliary air tank. It would take some work but getting lower than the cattail's is the name of the game.

[FOOT]

For several years I hunted out of a small pontoon probably 12x8 and it worked great. First we lined the sides of the pontoon with burlap and then attached the bamboo fencing you can get at Menards. Then painted the bamboo camo and added some vegatation once at our hunting spot. We constructed an arched cover that could be set in place to conceal us from the air. The burlap and bamboo also kept the wind out and the cover kept out some of the rain. It was a fairly dry comfortable way to hunt.
Problem was it got t-boned on the way back from the slough one weekend and thus ended our pontoon experience.
We had no problem with flaring ducks but we made sure everything was camo colored and everyone sat still. Adding the vegatation really helped. Good luck

[jlm]

You know, you could actually plant cattails right on top of that thing if it has a canopy! You might even get e few nesting ducks and geese if you leave it all year!

[Farley]

That's funny this came up. My roomate and I have been talking about doing this for a couple years now. We hunt his big slough opener every year and every year the ducks like a different spot in the slough. There is one permanant blind and 3 points everyone else hunts off of. We figured we'd use 50 gallon barrels with a blind mounted on top. Once we got it out there its just a matter of moving it to the spot we want to hunt. If we could get our hands on some old pontoons that would work out sweet.

[Guest]

First of all, you cannot leave it in the water all year if it is a public lake and second, if you do, ANYONE can hunt in it and there is nothing you can do to keep them out of it. Once it is placed in public waters, it's fair game. Same goes for blinds constructed below the high water mark or on floating vegitation.

[big drift]

We would not leave it out all the time. Our spot is adjacent to my parteners land and we would just tie it up on his dock or run it ashore. also it is not an obstruction due to water depth and vegetation at least thats what the DNR told me. and if someone decides to try and hunt our blind it is not a fixed object inthe water or land and is a privately registered and owned watercraft. Already checked that out. we can leave it out same as a buoyed sailboat or a swim platform.
Later time for court.