duck boat

[quackattack13]

i've been looking into getting a duck boat and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions. i wont be putting a motor on it just using push pole. also the cheaper the better. any help would be appreciated.

[Guest]

I guess it makes more difference what type of water you are hunting. If your just hunting potholes, or small shallow lakes.. something like an otter 2000 is ideal, or 10'-12' jon boat made out of tinfoil. The key is a small boat that is light and easy to transport. If you are comfortable with a canoe, and your blind will be on a solid surface(so its not tippy), canoes make an excellent boat.

If your hunting anywhere prone to waves, you have a ton of decoys, hunting dog and partners.. a 12' V hull minimum with 14' v hulls being a very good all around boat.

Jons work a bit easier in ultra shallow water(less than 6"), but they are at a great disadvantage when you get ice vs a v hull boat. The V hull will break the ice, the jon will slide on top which is a pain.

My 14' V hll will float in 4" of water with 2 guys, gear, and a load of decoys. The boat weighs about 120#, rows easy, and push poles easy with a passenger.

[pocketknife]

14 ft Grumman Sport boat

[BoxMN]

The Carstens Puddler, at 10' long and about 70 pounds, is an excellent boat for smaller water and one guy. We have two of them and they KICK BUTT! We can easily load two of them in my shortbed pickup with a topper, and very easy to load and paddle (you use a kayak paddle). Very stable, they float in about 1/2 inch water (ok, exaggerating, but only by a bit) and I am 250# and can carry 2 dozen weighted keel dekes no problem at all. You can drag this one a mile without getting tired, perfect for little water or just using to set dekes on bigger water. You don't want to go out in heavy waves thoguh. We also pull this behind as tender when using our 16' (50hp) boat on big water or when we want even more decoys with. Very low profile, and you can hide in mowed grass!

The Pintail is next biggest in their line, and better if water is a bit larger or if you have a bigger dog, or even two smaller guys. Still low profile, but I think 12' long and a bit heavier. I think we will get one of these one day, as our next major purchase.

If you buy these new from a big store, they have gotten spendy. About $600 for puddler and $800 for pintail, new. But you can pick up "seconds" from the manufacturer if you are willing to drive to Melrose... hint, good deal

Otherwise a 12' alum mod-vee hull old fishing boat works great. Two guys no prob, still fits in back of pickup and fairly stable. We have a 14' and 12' and the 12' if better for us, but that 14' is stable when get it up on cattails Figure to spend about $250 on a decent but old and well used 12' alum boat. You can paint it yourself for cheap.

Anyway, good luck. I can't say enough about the Carsten Puddler or Pintail. Check out their HSOforum, just do a search. They are fiberglass boats that last forever, and row just great. Key thing is getting one that fits your truck/vehicle without need for trailer - that helps a ton.

-Box

(Het THAT GUY, hope your summer went well. I ending selling the rod box and livewell to another guy, I can't recall his name now. Hopefully they are working out well for him. Good luck this weekend hunitng. I am going ducking Sat morn, then sitting on stand Sat afternoon when the folks start pushing the deer around.)

[mechanictim]

I thnk the answers given are all really good advise and i will just add that if you are going through cattails get a V bow. The square front jon boats tend to ride up on the cattails and are hard to steer in the weeds. With the push pole the duck bill type end is the ticket when pushing over a muck bottom.

[quackattack13]

hey thanks guys and boxmn what did you mean bout goin to melrose for seconds?

[Crusty old Swede]

The Carstens puddler is fine for small water. My buddy the Crusty old Norwegian had one for several years. With him, 45#s of springer spanial and a dozen decoys the back deck was about an inch above the water. If you need more capacity the pintail will fill the bill. I have a mallard and it will carry me, Micky the lab, two dozen duck decoys and a dozen goose decoys easily. The mallard and pintail also have oar locks so you can row them, which makes for faster travel when you have to row all the way across the lake. From my experiance you don't want to tackle more than one foot waves with a full load. Chasing cripples in NDak in two foot waves with an empty mallard was the absolute limit - in half a mile I picked up a good ten gallons of water. As a side note the the Crusty old Norwegian has a mallard now, he picked his up after the season for 500$ two years ago. Lake assualt builds an aluminum ducker that I'd like to take a look at, probably better for cracking ice than fiberglass. A tip if you go for a pintail or mallard, the factory seat in both is not positioned very good unless you use a kayak paddle. I use an old swivel boat seat mounted on a plywood base, this provides about five inches of lift when placed on the floor which makes for easy rowing. For jump shooting I position the seat closer to the end and use a regular canoe paddle.

[Guest]

BoxMN .. I referred the other guy(Pier Bridge) to go to you for that stuff

If we can keep a little water open, contact me if you want to get out and shoot some birds...

[Fishook]

A jon boat with the coast guard hull can cut a lot of ice and push real easy through the grass. I have done both with my 14 foot Polarkraft. Lots of room and very stable in any kind of water.