A year and a week since my duck boat crash...

[John Robinson]

Well' it's been a year and a week, but my boat is finished and Rich joined me for a hunt and to scatter my Cody's ashes in the marsh as we had promised a year ago, while Rich was in the hospital.

Rich in the hospital after the crash November 2008

Rich hunting out of my new boat the day before yesterday!

BTW, That's Yoda's nephew Gus taking his position on the foredeck.

I really liked Carl's idea for a collapsible blind and worked until late at night throwing one together. It needs more work, but I'll have it all fine tuned by this weekend. I also ordered new blind material as my old military camo netting was rotten and worn out. Check out the little marsh boat I designed for Neil last winter, it worked great except the birds weren't cooperating that day.

Rich and I blasting upriver yesterday to hunt a special marsh and scatter Cody's ashes. Cody passed about a year and a half ago and we were on our way to scatter his ashes and do some duck hunting when we had our accident last Fall. BTW thats my other young Golden Alex riding in the boat with me and Rich.

Topbrass Wildfire Cody 10/27/94 - 3/27/07 hunting on his twelfth birth day off Neil's Snow Goose.

 

[Carl]

Glad I could help.
Some help with refinements:
I have mine just high enough so I can see when sitting on a hunting chair/boat seat. This lowers the profile.
Also, I use cane (bamboo or phragmites to help break up the outline & make it look more natural, may want to try it.
Barre Army Navy has great deals on camo!

 

[Ray]

Since all there is is a pile of grass with a head sticking up we need more info.

Stop holding out John.

 

[John Robinson]

Since all there is is a pile of grass with a head sticking up we need more info.

Stop holding out John.

Hi Ray,

This was that little marsh boat my buddy and I worked on last winter.

It's sort of like a flat bottom kiyak. Neil put a battery and a trolling motor on it. He drove under his own power the mile to our hunting spot. After he picked up at the end of the hunt I towed him back.

This pic isn't much better than the first, but here's the boat while Neil walks around in shallow water picking up his dekes.

The stern of the boat is facing the camera with the black trolling motor tilted almost horizontal. The motor is mounted on a raised plank.
John

 

[Andrew]

good thread. the side shot of your boat reminds me why I like the Cackler so much. That bow is priceless. Next time anyone asks... "why elongate the Cackler when you can build a Snow Goose"? I think the answer is that you get that great bow with the Cackler...

The best posts, i.e the ones I learn from the most, are the "mistake" posts. It takes a secure guy to want to share both the bad and good... the willingness to share the details of this story tells a lot about John Robinson.

Glad you and Neil completed the primary mission... getting out on the river again was a mission as important as the ashes... the dog would have wanted that.

 

[John Robinson]

good thread. the side shot of your boat reminds me why I like the Cackler so much. That bow is priceless. Next time anyone asks... "why elongate the Cackler when you can build a Snow Goose"? I think the answer is that you get that great bow with the Cackler...

So that's why you consider it a mini-Honker. One thing I noticed as I built my boat was there was so much rocker forward I had to score my coaming to get it to bend up with the rocker in that part of the boat. Neil's Snow Goose has no rocker in that part of the boat, so his coaming runs flat. You can see mine starts to curve upward about 30" back from the front of the cockpit.

 

[Cas Alkanowski]

John how much does the little marsh boat weight and did you buy the plans to build it? I would like some info ,possibly to build one for next year. Its a nice looking little rig.

 

[John Robinson]

PM sent to Cas re marsh boat...

 

[Andrew]

the hull shape mainly, rocker placement - and the bow... the Snow Goose was pretty much designed after the Scaup, which itself was designed after the BB III... The Honker, I think, evolved from the Cackler hull (rocker forward).