Choosing the right boat.

J

jjensen

New member
Hello all,

After three seasons of catching the duck hunting bug, I have decided it is time to give a duck boat build a try. Before I begin this venture I want to throw a few questions out to the group to see if my mind is leading me in the right direction.

Most of my day to day duck hunting is done on a small river in S.E. Wisconsin with a 12ft Jon Boat with a 6 hp motor and a trolling motor. Water depth is usually a foot to 5 ft deep. This boat serves me very well and is easy to handle in a small river. My problem begins when I have a couple of weekends that I can run over to the Mississippi River and hunt with 1 or 2 more people. I have been lucky enough to have a hunting partner that owns a 16ft Jon boat with a 25 hp motor and it has been fine for the marshy backwaters of the Mississippi. But we run into a couple of problems. The amount of space is limited with a couple of dozen decoys and 3 people and we find it tough to maneuver through the shallow areas with a 25 hp engine. Along with this, I am at the mercy of his schedule to run to the river and hunt.

So my questions are these. I am thinking the BBIII would be my best all around choice? If so, will I still face a motor problem in shallow water or does this set up react different than a Jon boat or will I have to look into a different style motor and or boat. Can this design handle the big rivers? Any thoughts from the group would be great.

PS: Why do I see so many Jon Boats on the Mississippi and very few home made boats?

Thanks!

John
 
J Jensen, Hoping you get many replies. You asked some good questions. I will make a few points from my point of view. First Jon boats. This is a pretty common boat used for duck hunting. It is relatively inexpensive and will handle skinny water. People see others using them and think thats a duck boat. It can be used for hunting ducks but it has many weakness regardless of size. Number one is safety. You have looked at a number of duck boats and one characteristic all seem to have is a back deck. This a safety feature. Of boats during my life time that I have personally seen sunk about six. All have been sunk from the rear. A wave unexpected coming over the transom. Once there is water in the boat it doesn't take much to capsize it.

Duck boats as a rule have safety features built in because of the conditions we hunt in. What duck boat to build ? Others will have that advice. You might end up with more than one boat.hee hee
 
JJ,

There are others on this site who have the BBIII and can comment on it's skinny water capabilities much better than I can. However, my gut would say it will draft less than the jon since it does have the pods which I believe are filled with flotation foam, giving more lift to the stern.

I think Wispete nailed some key points regarding safety. In the jon boats I've been in, you add a few guys and some gear and there's not a whole lot of freeboard remaining. Very easy for a wave or the backwash from the motor to come over the transom of a loaded jon boat and swamp it. Cruising down creeks/steams and tucking away in a marsh I'd feel ok in a jon like the one you have. Put one on the Miss. with several guys/gear and bigger waves/wake, I'm not a fan.

Oh, and throw your location in your profile. It helps others identify where your at in future posts.

Ryan
 
OK just my $.02 The jon boat is a great all around boat. I have been in them for about 20 years now and have never seen a good one go down. Not even in the bay. If you need a boat for skinny water and wide open water that is shallow the jon is the way to go. You get a 18' jon and you will have more room then you know what to do with. Here is the setup I run and most around me run. This boat in camo with a blind will disappear. We run 18' to 22' seaark super jon's. We hang a 135 to 150 hp motor off the back with a JET DRIVE. these boats will go shallow and are stable. You need to put you console on the front deck of the boat in the center. This will allow you to see better and move some of the weight forward. This is a great setup. If you rlooking for something a little less go with the 16 and a 115/80 Jet drive. This is of course a setup for more people. Not saying you cant handle it by yourself. But if your looking for space in a boat this is the setup I prefer. The sides are 24" high and the boat will go shallow.

Again, Just my $.02

2yellowdogs
 
Great advice from both of you. I should comment that I also find the Jon Boat style hard to hide in cover even with a blind intalled.

PS: added my location to the profile. Thanks again!

JJ
 
QUOTE FROM WORTH"S BOOK BEG DEC> CANANVASBACKS THERES NO ONE DUCK BOAT THAT MEET ALL HUNTING CONDITIONS " THE BARANEGAT COMES THE CLOSES>
 
When you are talking about stability you need to know the difference between initial stability and final stability. Final stability will give you the ability to recover when the boat starts to turtle, like a kayak or canoe. It will drop back down where a sharp chined boat like a jon boat will float your hat. The initial stability of a jon will also tend to give you a false sense of security which is never good. PLUS there is huge satisfaction to answering the ? at the ramp about your boat when you built it. No one is perfect and that is why I am scheming for #5. Have to sell at least one that wasn't everything it could be. Just like dogs, guns. calls, loads etc there is no one answer. Good luck.
 
I run my BBIII in sort of shallow weedy water with a short shaft 2-stroke 25hp Nissan and a stainless prop. It is not easy.

The BBIII drafts about 8 inches along the keel since it is a semi-displacment hull. If it has more than 500 lbs in it it may draft 10 inches along the keel. The tip of skeg of the motor will be about 14 inches lower than the keel so the depth of normal operation is really 22 to 24 inches to include the depth of the motor. Tilt the motor and that changes to about 14 inches of depth to operate.

There is a BBIII for sale on the classifieds and he built it for running a 23 hyperdrive short tail. Didn't work due to the semi-displacement V-hull of the BBIII. There is too much boat in the water for the motor to push up to get planing. That motor is also too heavy for the BBIII.

People regularly think horsepower ratings mean any engine and never consider that the actual weight of the motor is a factor in the horsepower rating for the boat. Four stroke outboards are heavier than two strokes, and four stroke mud motors are even heavier than four stroke outboards of the same horespower rating. This is why Mud Buddy has come out with the Lite series of short tails. The original short tails were too heavy, and the Lites have most of the cool features striped out so that they don't swamp the little john boats people put them on.

Considering the design of the BBIII is for a 25hp outboard the maximum motor weight would be similar to that of the 14hp hyper lite mud motor. If the 23hp hyper can't push the BBIII then the 14hp hyper won't at all.

Last year I installed the biggest heavy duty manual jack lift there is (designed for 40hp 4-strokes) so that I could lift the motor up a little when in the shallows rather than just tilt it up. Issues with this setup so far are that it places the motor back away from the transom in the aft of the motor well where it runs in disturbed water coming up from under the hull. This results in sporadic cavitation and power loss especially in turns. Left turns are worse than right turns. The swing of the lift has too great an arc making for very rough adjustment for motor height. It is either too high or too low when on step. Due to the height of the transom I have limited room to adjust the mounting plate up or down.

Since I run the skeg of the motor into the bottom of the lake and weeds more often than not, I have to replace the rubber water pump impellar every two years. The particles it sucks up wear it out faster than normal usage does.

However, the benefits out weigh these problems. I can run the motor with the prop up in the motor well in 12 inches of water and scoot along just fine. I have good power ahead rather than the half power when tilted. I can not run fast with the prop up in the motor well due to the cavitation. The prop will empty the motor well of water quickly and we just stop moving until I back off the gas. Tilting the motor when mounted on the transom just forced the stern down driving it into the bottom of the lake if it is 12 inches deep or less.

My plan for next year is to build a cavitation plate and to install wedges on the stern of the hull. The cavitation plate should help trap water around the prop, and the wedges will force the stern up when on step hopefully putting the motor back to a good height.

The BBIII is good for 2 men and a dog, but three men would be too much. If you really want the 3 guys then upgrade your build to the Scaup.

The BBIII is very stable in rough water.

The BBIII is fun to jump wakes in when you have some weight in the bow. I don't recommend doing this for fun, but when out where big ships toss up large wakes just turn into them a little and enjoy.

If your shallow areas along the river are filled with weeds and you need lots of room for 3 guys and dozens of decoys, then a larger open boat with a flat bottom and a short shaft mud motor will be more suitable. It will work well in open water like a traditional outboard and will not be bothered by the weeds.

Boat building is not really about duck hunting anyway.
 
dont you know, you have to have several boats. most guys here have full on navies. hahaha check out a post a little ways back call "this is a duckboats site lets see'em" or something similar, should give you an idea.

what ever you do dont buy a waterquest 14' plastic canoe.......p.o.s.

eddie
 
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