Commercial boat blinds vs. do-it yourself

B

Bill McQuade

Active member
I have a 16' Lowe v-hull fishing boat that I have purchased utilizing advice from this forum. Painted it Parkers bay gray.
Will be used primarily in bays for sea ducking. I am trying to decide on a commercial fold up blind or a do-it-yourselfer.

I have read good reviews on many of these. Mud Buddy has a nice video that illustrates how easy it is to use. I think many of you can give me better insight and help with my decision. One of the key elements, other than strength and durability is the height issue. I read over and over on this forum that the height of the blind and the shadow cast are one of the detriments to the commercial versions.

If, I don't go with a commercial version, I remember Charlie saying something about putting up a framework and hooking the camo material/ mats to the frame. Setting decoys/sleds and ease of setting up in the dark are concerns in this version. Seems like the commercial pop ups are simple and eliminate these concerns. Many others have spoken to this issue with good ideas.. One more time please. Sorry for the redundancy.

I'm still not certain which way to go. Your thoughts ?

Bill
 
To maximize the amount of room in the boat, a Vee hull to be specific, I would strongly consider the Flyway Specialty Easy up blind http://www.flywayspecialties.com/ I had built many blinds before and none compared to the ease of use of this blind. The ones I built, and the commercial ones I have hunted out of were of no comparison to the thought that went into the Easy Up blinds.

I know that Flyway Specialties was having some difficulties towards the end of last year with some of their suppliers, hopefully that is behind them and he is shipping blinds once again. You would not be disappointed with this blind. It is not as sturdy as say a Mud Buddy but this blind will be on its 4th season this year and it is showing no signs of age yet and I hunt out of it hard.

Mark W
 
I put alot of thought into a blind as well. Even though it is of the simplest design, I have more useable space I think, than the other options I have looked at. I have also added a canopy over the top to ensure coverage issues. Hitch has a floating palace and I really like his duck boat. My boat however doubles as a fisher and hunter. Is this going to be used strictly for hunting? I have seen/ experienced several factory made blinds and like everything else, sometimes they just dont suit your particular needs.
 
Bill,

I've got a mud buddy quick flip on mine, but for divers, I think it is overkill. Nicely built, great for getting out of the weather, but not necessary to hide from divers up North here. I've debated about doing one of the low railing blinds like a lot of the sea duckers have. That and some of the 3-d military netting would make you look like a rock or big lump of seaweed. If you look in the old posts a lot of guys posted pics of their setups for me late last year or early this year I think, some great ideas in there...

Charlie
 
Charlie,

Found what you were referring to (Dec5, 07). That last pictured blind looks like a perfect method for my boat. Moves to the top of this list. Thanks for the lead.

Bill
 
I use cerex with a PVC support frame. Works great, is cheap (Maybe $100.00) and very light. No reason to spend all that money on a commercial blind.

[inline cerexblinddiagram.JPG ].

I lowered it a little bit compared to the picture below. Also, it does not look quite so "boxy" when set up properly, this was just set up to get a picture.

CerexBlindonWater.jpg.

cerexblinddiagram.JPG
cerexblinddiagram.JPG
 
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Here are a couple of pictures of the Flyway Specialties Easy Up blind on my 14' Lund V-Hull. The nice things about this blind are it light weight, 30 seconds from down to up, 10 seconds from up to down, it follows the contour of a v-hull unlike others where you lose the front part of your boat or you have a scissors in the middle, fully customizable in regards to height, width of opening at top, etc, you can drop one side and keep the other side up, compatible with dogs being able to stick their head out of the blind, easily removed from boat when not needed or wanted. There are other attributes as well. If you would like other pictures, let me know and I'll post.

[inline down1.jpg] [inline up1.jpg]

Mark W

down1.JPG
up1.JPG
 
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Carl, I printed your plans some time ago. I haven,t laid it out on my boat but intend to see if it would work for me.

Thanks, Bill
 
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