Simple survey for everyone. Would you support your state passing laws concerning noise output from boat motors used during hunting season, or otherwise limit surface drive, aka, mud motors?
Disturbing Ducks
- Thread starter Eric Patterson
- Start date
We don't have a mud motor issue here as most motors in use are standard outboards. In the wisdom of our local leaders we have a barge repair station within the local pool we hunt. It operates 24 hours a day. It can be very loud and does effect the waterfowl I believe that are in a close proximity. It only stops when the river freezes up. Sorry, as this did not offer an answer to your question. I don't know what the sound level would be like. I can only think about what would be next so I don't think I could support a DB limit on outboard motor volume any more than I would support a DB limit for a business that is allowed to operate as a music venue
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I’m not sure it’s the noise level as much as mud motor boats running in resting areas previously inaccessible except by poling or paddling. Scouting that used to be done from a distance using binoculars is now done by running through flocks of feeding or resting birds.
That said, is banning mud motors (more regulations) the solution? How do you define a mud motor? I’m not sure what the solution is.
That said, is banning mud motors (more regulations) the solution? How do you define a mud motor? I’m not sure what the solution is.
I'm probably the wrong guy to ask since I just bought one two months ago. It is loud, deafening so wide open. There are only a few around here so I doubt it will become an issue in CT. Guys roar around through the creeks and bays with conventional motors at anything but low tide so I don't think the access impact is significant. When I first got it, I was curious if the noise would spook birds from a distance. I've observed what to my eye is just as many ducks getting out close to the boat when I'm running, so to me it doesn't appear much different than with my OBM's.
I'm leery of new boating regulations, (any regs for that matter) there needs to be a concrete reason for them to gain my support. My fear is that in a blue state, the logic will be that if banning loud gas powered motors is necessary, then banning the use of all gas powered outboards is better. I'm not ready for an electric motor, as I have what I hope is a lifetime supply of OBM's. Reference current headlines regarding leaf blowers for an example of this bullshit.
I'm leery of new boating regulations, (any regs for that matter) there needs to be a concrete reason for them to gain my support. My fear is that in a blue state, the logic will be that if banning loud gas powered motors is necessary, then banning the use of all gas powered outboards is better. I'm not ready for an electric motor, as I have what I hope is a lifetime supply of OBM's. Reference current headlines regarding leaf blowers for an example of this bullshit.
If I am not mistaken, FL has noise ordnance rules already for air boats on certain lakes. I'm not sure how I feel about it because I don't have an airboat and don't hunt those lakes ever or often. Here in my county, we have motor restrictions on certain lakes (some no gas power and some no more than 10hp) during the duck season. I'm not against those restrictions. The rest of the year, those lakes you can use gas powered motors of any size...just not during duck season.
I don't think that it is the noise that is the problem. More it is a problem of ducks constantly being run off by boats passing through. Quite often it is air boats in central FL and mud boats in northern FL. However, I do see air boats in use on the salt water here in N. FL. So, I am sure they are used on lakes here as well. In central and south FL, there are so many tourist air boats running that it is no surprise that finding ducks can be a challenge. Unless you go to a neighborhood pond.
I don't think that it is the noise that is the problem. More it is a problem of ducks constantly being run off by boats passing through. Quite often it is air boats in central FL and mud boats in northern FL. However, I do see air boats in use on the salt water here in N. FL. So, I am sure they are used on lakes here as well. In central and south FL, there are so many tourist air boats running that it is no surprise that finding ducks can be a challenge. Unless you go to a neighborhood pond.
George Goodsell
Active member
The Mississippi in SE Minnesota/W Wisconsin is part of the Upper Miss National Fish and Wildlife Refuge, that gets us a few extra regs... a few years ago the new master plan set aside 3 areas encompassing thousands of acres, no airboats and slow no wake basically from ice out to Oct 1. Also Pool 7 (Lake Onalaska) has a voluntary "waterfowl avoidance area" buoyed off in the "Closed" (no hunting) area in the fall. It's said that 80+% of the nations Canvasbacks can be resting and feeding there at any given time. That being said, both National Fish and Wildlife and state DNRs use airboats and mud motors as much if not more than OBMs.
jode hillman
Well-known member
I would, but it would be hard to enforce. Plus I doubt NJ could ever get it passed.5 AM here sounds like a Harley convention!
Todd Duncan Tennyson
Well-known member
Those mud motors are neat and they can get you into some really crazy spots. They are loud as hell too, because their engines and guts are exposed.
I reckon you could require a muffler to knock the noise down to no more than x db from them. Some of the guys here in the Kingdom run their boats au natural... no muffler, just a straight pipe if that. I can hear them from miles away. I am not sure how someone could run a boat like that and not go deaf? It is THAT loud.
I reckon you could require a muffler to knock the noise down to no more than x db from them. Some of the guys here in the Kingdom run their boats au natural... no muffler, just a straight pipe if that. I can hear them from miles away. I am not sure how someone could run a boat like that and not go deaf? It is THAT loud.
MIKE-SID
Active member
I agree, I only see a few in CT. Do you run yours in the marsh? Can you fly across the mud like in the videos?
I only use it in brackish marshes. Yes, it flies across mud like nobody's business as long as you don't stop. Very impressive. If you do stop....
This faux pas took me an hour or so to push the boat to that next corner up ahead where there was water. As long as there's a skim of water, off it goes but not from this kind of mud. They have their limits for sure. Probably a good thing. No ducks were spooked in the making of this post and photo.
Jay K
Active member
Jode,
We've had problems in north zone at a popular ramp. Park police are giving ALL duck hunters a hard time about launching prior to 7am for that reason.
I can see where they might get testy if guys roar out at full throttle. With the mud motor I idle a couple of hundred yards away from the ramp in the morning, to avoid waking the dead. Been doing it when near homes using conventional outboards for years, it's just good manners.
Jay K
Active member
You are by far not the normal. I appreciate that and respect it. 90% of the guys here with them think it's opening day in Arkansas every morning here in NJ.
It's a shame that's the case. There's plenty of mischief to get into without aggravating the neighbors. The old 30 minutes before sunrise 4 man volley is a nice hangover chaser as well.
I'm with Carl. Increased access to spots that are either not accessible by boat or only accessible by boat with GOOD local knowledge of tides and/or the best channels can eat up a lot of resting areas. In freshwater, I worry more about damage to aquatic vegetation, stirring up nutrient-laden sediment, and the potential for mud motor props to be a significant vector for invasive aquatic plants. (Boat motors are already the biggest vector. Mud motors well get more places that are more full of weeds. As for noise, Maine has had a very significant set of disputes over noise from airboat motors at a few launches I hunt from. I have not seen duck hunters in them, but they are the preferred vessel for commercial clam diggers now. I will say that the noise from them moves ducks for at least a mile in every direction--to the extent that on slow days we will look at each other and say, "We could use a clammer in an airboat right about now."
jode hillman
Well-known member
Yeah, I could absolutely see that in a populated area.
Where I hunt down the bay there’s not much around, but a few locals that are, although they support duckhunting they are not fans of super loud, mud motors
Cody Williams
Well-known member
A mud motor ban would render about 90% of our wetlands here inaccessible to motorized boats, so I wouldn't support that! Most of our state WMAs have non-motorized only zones, which I think is a good compromise. Mud motors aren't really super noisy in my opinion, they are basically lawn mower engines after all. There is a subset of guys who enjoy hot-rodding their motors, those can get pretty loud but are still nothing compared to an airboat, you can hear one of those for miles! A lot of the Great Salt Lake marshes are pretty much only accessible from an airboat or a very long walk but are so remote that noise isn't a concern.
There are very few areas here where duck hunting takes place close enough to residential areas to make noise a problem, and there aren't very many recreational boaters around during waterfowl seasons especially when things start to ice up, so we're probably in a fairly unique position vs. the rest of the country.
There are very few areas here where duck hunting takes place close enough to residential areas to make noise a problem, and there aren't very many recreational boaters around during waterfowl seasons especially when things start to ice up, so we're probably in a fairly unique position vs. the rest of the country.
I would respond by making two points;
(A) 35 to 50 hp mud motors in my opinion are quite a bit different than a lawn mower engine.
(B) The topic of the thread is "Disturbing Ducks" and the issue is noise disturbance as it impacts the ducks. Noise issues to the human population is a related yet separate topic.
Cody Williams
Well-known member
I have a Backwater 35hp longtail on my larger boat, it uses a Briggs Vanguard 35 which is exactly the same motor used in lawn tractors and commercial mowers. The bigger surface drives are probably using modded exhausts which make them quite a bit louder than a stock motor (I know that Mud Buddy runs BPS performance exhausts on all their larger motors), a horde of guys with modded motors launching in a wave would be a noisy experience indeed.
In my own experiences, motor noise will move ducks short distances but I don't believe that it's enough to get them to leave an area entirely. I'm sure it modifies their behavior in ways that we don't realize, but there are very busy boat routes around here that will have ducks roosting there at night and flying them in the early morning and evening. I've seen huge rafts of thousands of ducks get kicked up by airboats only to fly a few hundred yards and sit down again, I think that if there is something in an area that the ducks are interested in like a good food source or open water in the late season it will take a lot to get them to abandon the area entirely. Again, these are my own personal opinions based on my own observations in a specific place so I can't speak for other parts of the country!