Duck boat blinds

[wackawalleye]

Any advise on the best boat blinds? I have a Lund 20ft alaskan.

[Seabass77]

I am looking for the same thing for my Lund SSV16. It seems like there is lots of good options, but all pretty expensive. I really like the beavertail system which is similar to the portable ice house system. The cabelas northern flight seems to be a good value. Hopefully I can find one used or build something on my own.

[Nova]

we have the beavertail system on a 16' lund and another on a 12' duck boat and that is one sweet blind. Very easy to install and take off the boat, flips up quick and easy and is very durable. We have had lots of blinds on our boats over the years from home made to store bought and this is by far the very best one. They are a little spendy, but worth every nickle IMO.

[waterfowlerjm]

I agree with the beavertail system. I have a homemade one that works very similar to that. You just fold it over you like an icehouse. I would not want any other blind. Being able to put the blind down in 25 mile an hour winds is priceless!

[BoxMN]

We have the Northern Flight on a 16' alumacraft, with console. It works great! Key things for us were:

-price, we got it cheap at the tent sale, and got Avery grass mats cheap at Gander in January. Total invested is about $200, no kidding.

-ease of assembly and installation on boat. It takes literally 4 minutes to take it off, or put it back on securely, and no holes are drillined into the boat (we also use for fishiing some times).

-both sides can go up or down, or adjust, so we can shoot out either or both sides.

-can adjust the opening on top for the circumstances, i.e. wide gap, narrow gap, front mostly down, back straight up.

-can get the flip top, but we don't have it - cause we havent needed it yet.

-when down it is totally not covering any of the boat interior, which is cool since we take a 8' puddler boat with us.

-when down, can drive down the freeway at speed without damaging the grass mats, as they are sort of of folded and locked into place.

Drawbacks:

-seeing the holes to lock the sides up in the dark is not real easy. Not hard, but you need a light and wish it was easier

-we have v-hull, and it would work and fit slightly better on a jon boat, but my brother was able to assemble it perfectly to fit our v-shaped-bow.

-storing the darned thing takes up a whole wall if you need to take it off the boat At least it is fairly narrow, even with grass mats on it.

I am not sure of other blind styles, as this is the only commercial one we have used. Much better than the half dozen "home built" ones we tried. I know the Avery blind you need to drill holes into your boat/gunwale, which I don't like (at least in older models you did).

[mpester]

I agree with what BoxMN had to say. I got that blind last year and his brother put it togethter for me. I like it a lot. Storage in the off season is a problem in my house as well. It blocks the back of the garage so I can't use the back door but that does not really matter since the boat also blocks the door. I need a bigger garage for all this outdoor stuff!