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Add me to the old farts with head lamps camp. I still have PTSD from a morning many years ago when I wanted to run a channel behind an island to reach a spot up near its head. Not reachable any other way at that tide, but the rice would have been flooding nicely as legal light arrived. At the...

I don't about ice, but in general kevlar is lighter and more impact resistant than fiberglass, but more susceptible to scratching and abrasion.

We have years we shoot as many hybrids as blacks or mallards, but I didn't see one this year among the folks I hunted with. They are normally most abundant in the late season on the coast.

He looks vicious! :cool:

I have no direct experience, but a friend does solo kayak trips in Labrador and northern Quebec every year, sometimes on the coast. He uses a Garmin in-reach, as do many in northern Maine where cell service is very spotty. The version he has allows some limited text message capacity so he can...

If you want a deep dive into Merrymeeting Bay style boats and their use, along with some gorgeous photography, I would recommend "Confluence" by Frank Burroughs, who has shared more than a few hunts with Frank Middleton. It's a little pricey, but the writing and photos are worth the price...

Welcome Mike! Quite a few scullers here in Maine, especially on Merrymeeting Bay, where one classic style of sculling boat--or "gunnin' float" in local usage--was developed. As noted above, there is a distinctly different style native to Joppa Flats on the Merrimack River, near the MA/NH...

Thanks. A lot Maine salt marsh was never mosquito-ditched, but I've done my share of hunting from canoes or kayaks or just a seat tucked up inside a narrow little creek. I hadn't thought about a boat or box that would float in there. It would be a neat way to hunt. I guess I need a pond box!

Totally agree--especially about the extra 500 pounds. I'd add that for boats of similar design and displacement, every extra pound of weight in the empty boat is a pound of payload you can't carry. Don't get me started on mud motors. My blood pressure is high enough already. There is no place...

On those boxes--is there any difference in the ability to grass up and hide the Garvey-style hulls vs. the bateaux-style? To my eye, the harder lines on the Garvey may not blend as well, but that may be covered up by a proper grassing job.

This is undoubtably true, but I think many of the design elements and details that make these old boats look and serve better are hard to build in materials and construction methods suitable for mass construction at an affordable price. And the market for duck boats is so small that it's hard...

Same here. I was a Kent Fasteel fan, and will go back to it unless bismuth comes back. I bought some of the BOSS shells on an early introductory price and they worked just fine and seemed to have fewer crippling losses. When I started, the cost difference between Fasteel and Boss bismuth was...

Agree with that 100%, except that tiller steer keeps the floor plan even more open.

Isn't this why trucks have tailgates?

Why copper as a replacement, other than US supply? I have gone to using copper rifle bullets, but it's only slightly denser than steel. Probably softer than steel--maybe better for old barrels?

This season has about burned through my stockpile of bismuth duck loads, which are no longer available from BOSS and don't appear to be coming back. The FB bots must have been tagging my searches, because they've sent me several ads for Black River shells in recent days. Always been intrigued...

I don't know if they still do this--I will find out when my pair on extended backorder arrives sometime after duck season ends--but Patagonia's now-discontinued Rio Gallegos waders had a pair of suspenders that were attached at the waist, with sliders on the straps to allow you to adjust the top...

Is that some kin of plastic, or fiberglass? A friend of mine had a long narrow sled like that on a recent walk-in hunt and it was a lot better hauling through the woods than my standard Jet Sled.

Adding--I am a stocking foot waders and wading boots guy. Not enough support in boot fit waders for my uses. At a lower price point, one of my hunting and fishing buddies has a pair of DRYFT waders and has gotten 3 or 4 years of good use from them. But now that they have been on the market for...

I'm hard on waders--wear them year round, fishing, hunting and for work in everything from river full of sharp rock to salt marsh full of fine mud and barnacles. I'm in the water a lot in the cold where leaks are a matter of safety, not comfort. For many years I was a huge fan of Patagonia...