William~
Great tale - and fine hunt! Glad you made out OK.
On the other hand...I know I lean toward Old School, but...I needed a glossary for all those things I have never associated with a duck hunt - at least not in my own rigs over my 59 seasons.
~ cruising 15-20 ? maybe in the open bay in broad daylight....
~ mudrig? - Johnson 9.9 in shallow drive across flats - with me standing as far forward as the helm would allow...
~ bilge button? - Thirsty Mate or bailing bucket and "Model Perfect" sponge....
~ ECM ....???????
~ cell service? ~ just recently I do remember to bring my cell phone along - probably even charged 'cause I only use it once every month or so...
~ tow?- yes, I have towed gunning coffins and the occasional gunning boat in the wake of my vessel...
~ check engine light? only after I get back to the launch and turn my car on....
Thanks again for a wonderful read - and the bit of reflection it sparked up here in dairy country.
All the best,
SJS
Steve,
I am in awe here of everyones boats and the way everyone hunts here. The culture is SO DIFFERENT! Your versions seem so much more fun. Naturally all your boats are WAY better than mine. Ive never hunted out of a duck boat. My boat is 100% only for transportation. Once to the hole, I am throwing decoys and parking the boat far away from where I am hunting or hiking decoys into the hole. My duckboat doesnt even have a blind on it. Its a havoc 1756 mstc and built for mud motors. At the time, Havoc was the company that all the flat bill sitka wearing young punks were buying. I really didnt want to be associated with that crowd, even though I have all sitka in my closet (I am slowly converting over to Kuiu now though lol). I called many companies and shopped so many different model boats, but eventually landed on this model boat. I had it custom built with little thicker aluminum and had a TM tray put in the front deck so I can put my TM on the front and slip it around and bow fish in the summer. The reason I went with this boat was because it is still chined on the bottom and not a true flat bottom. The chines are reversed though, so instead of protruding down into the water, they are inverted into the hull. So it acts like a true flat bottom but it has bite on the corners, so no sliding out on those fast corners. Why does this matter??? Because to be coast guard compliant, true flat bottoms have to have" x" amount of foam to be compliant, in turn making a lot of extra weight. My havoc has very little foam and this also makes all my storage hatches much much larger than any other boat comparable. Without that weight, this boat is a pretty fast mudrig. With a brand new prop, I will see 30-32 mph with 2 guys, a dog and 3-4 dozen decoys. I load my boat down for some hunts, but remember, my boats are transportation vehicles only, not for hunting out of. I elected for a mod v hull design because most of my runs are 90% deep water and then into the shallows. Last weekend I ran back in 20 mph winds with gusts of 30 and white caps the entire 30 min boat ride back to the ramp, and I was dry dry when I got back. It just takes waves and weather so much better than any true flat front I have been in, but i will say the true flats are a bit better in super shallow waters. I hope that helps a little and I will try and share some pics with the rig I am running. To try and clarify your list, here you go sir:
-Cruising is holding half throttle for me and it runs around 15-20 at half throttle. When trimmed up, its a very easy motor to control, and I felt like I was in complete control when cruising at this speed, even with the narrow channel. Just couldnt imagine a log laid across the entire channel when I was coming back down river. It wasnt there when I went up, had no idea it would be coming back down. Oh mother nature.
- That 9.9 johnson would take me all day to get to my spot. On one of your little boats, I bet it runs good, fast and fun, but I would like to see you run 30-45 min in that rig with 20-30 mph winds across deep water lakes (40-130 feet deep) and be comfortable and dry. Just doesnt make sense safety wise for big runs like that. But I still want a boat like you alls one day before I die and give this sport up. And let me pivot off this point a little, if I could run an outboard, I would, but there is 3 spots that no outboard is making it. So I have this 5000 efi mudbudy. I did have a buddy who ran a 12 foot jon and had a little 9 horse. He would lock it straight and pin down the throttle and he could stand in the middle of the boat and lean right and left and get it to turn that way. He has larger balls than I do, I like that control in my life, no way I could let go of the stick on any motor.
-My boat has a 6 button switch panel. One for my light bar, one for my lights in my storage hatches, one for a bilge pump, one for nav lights. I even have an old touch screen lowrance fishfinder that is only used for GPS reasons. I can see my speed and I can lay down track lines and save them. So when its so foggy and visibility is absolutely nothing, I can still run in the complete dark and just go off that GPS line on the fishfinder. Im very comfortable with this and have even been known to run in the complete dark at 50 mph for 45 min in my bass boat only going off the GPS on my fishfinders. My partner who was with me that night was as puckered as puckered could be. When we finally got to where I wanted to night fish, he said his heart was still racing. I had no idea he was as scared as he was, otherwise I would of slowed it way down for him. He just videoed me the entire time, but never once spoke up that he was uneasy with the situation.
- This mudmotor is a big hopped up lawn mower engine. It has check engine light lol. Of course it came on during my accident, but I figured out if you twist the key 5 times in less than 5 seconds and let sit for 1 min, it completely resets the computer system. This reset the electrical and let the motor turn over. It seemed like it was stuck and thought the kill switch was pulled but it wasnt. Thats how the motor was acting anyway, so when I reset the ECM, it allowed the motor to start and get me back to the ramp without needing a tow.
-I am hunting solo as my partner of 11 years has moved to another part of the country. This is the first season, I have been paying a lot more attention to where I do and dont have cell service. And tow, I could of called a friend to come help or hope the state services could come help in an emergency.
Hope this helps steve, my duckboats are so different than the culture of your boats. Will try and find pics of my rig a little later and post sir.
Thanks,
William Reinicke
Added some pics. You can see how narrow the river channel was that I was running that I had the accident in. This is my boat, its MUCH bigger than anything here on the forum. Yalls are much cooler than mine though. I found this old pic of mine and my buddies rig at the time. We ran up this channel on one of our lakes as far as it would go and then got out and took his girls turkey hunting. It was a blast. I put up the pics of my front nav lights. Ive been told these are illegal, but when you turn on a light bar, it blinds everyone in front of it. I put these in so it reflects off the water, and also gives me side to side visual when running narrow river channels in the dark. They light up my right and left more than one might think, and sometimes I can turn my light bar off and just run my red and green and its plenty to see still and not so hard on the eye balls that early in the morning. Anyways, hope this helps clear up some of your questions sir.
