My question is what Ben has mentioned can you land fish with the high gunnels. I have a 25' steiger 2' high 10" wide gunnels but thats a fishing boat. I fish and hunt Moriches bay,inlet and outside breakers and for those unfamiliar with this inlet it gets tricky and we lose boats every year due to inexperience or over confidence. if i sell my boat and buy one of these duck boats am i going to find myself regretting the trade? or do i need separate boats? Do i start kissing my wife's butt now for another boat or what?
duck boat opinions wanted.
- Thread starter LI Mike
- Start date
Phil Nowack
Well-known member
Ask Pitboss what he thinks of the Banks boats... Or the guys on Island X that use a Banks 17 Freedom on the Bearing Sea... I can't speak for your area, but the pictures and video's of the Banks in those waters... would give me confidence in that vessel.
rich young
Active member
I have hunted and fished out of my wrangler duck hunter 15 all up and down the east coast . Stripers , flounder, blues delaware bay/ long island sound, i use a net and never lost a fish due to sides of boat . The safety factor of the sides with kids is great they cant fall out. So your choice is what do you want to do. This summer i will fish off the coast with a duck boss 17 .
Scott Farris
Well-known member
Michael,
Reading all the posts there is still a bit of confusion of what your looking for hunting wise. Bay hunting, is this a pull up on mud banks and needs to be light enough to slide off the bank? You you want a boat blind that three can hunt out of or a one man sneak. Will you be trailering and if so what is your tow vehicle’s limits? Personally I have a Lund Alaskan for my LI Sound fishing and sea duck hunting. We’ve set up and shot broadies from her but certainly not ideal. I would not leave her beached and she’s way to big for playing in the back waters. She’s very light for the 20-ft length @ 1100 hull, 310# outboard and 350# trailer so she tows well behind a midsize SUV. Still when I was run off the road by an 18 wheeler the Lund jackknifed the old S10 blazer right around 90 degrees to the road.
The decked over aluminum 14-ft V-Hull is used for hunting the edges/backwaters and rivers. Transports lots of floater goose decoys, and will get me back if it kicks up. Light enough to drag a ways and being aluminum it takes bumps on the rocks well with no tears. Hunts two out of her quite well but normally it’s used to transport then gets stashed.
To me it sounds like you have a very decent fishing boat and simply adding a small back water boat for hunting is the way to go. My good buddy Paul D. has a 17-ft semi-V that works great on the large end, down to a 14-ft V-hull, work well for inexpensive used production boats that you could pick up and rig for close to the additional 4G your planing on throwing in. I would also suggest keeping an eye on the Aluminum boats John Kuhn is building, he’s looking at making a 15-ft duck boat that should be very interesting. I have one of his sneak boxes and it’s very well made, welded 1/8” plate to take a licking.
Scott
Reading all the posts there is still a bit of confusion of what your looking for hunting wise. Bay hunting, is this a pull up on mud banks and needs to be light enough to slide off the bank? You you want a boat blind that three can hunt out of or a one man sneak. Will you be trailering and if so what is your tow vehicle’s limits? Personally I have a Lund Alaskan for my LI Sound fishing and sea duck hunting. We’ve set up and shot broadies from her but certainly not ideal. I would not leave her beached and she’s way to big for playing in the back waters. She’s very light for the 20-ft length @ 1100 hull, 310# outboard and 350# trailer so she tows well behind a midsize SUV. Still when I was run off the road by an 18 wheeler the Lund jackknifed the old S10 blazer right around 90 degrees to the road.
The decked over aluminum 14-ft V-Hull is used for hunting the edges/backwaters and rivers. Transports lots of floater goose decoys, and will get me back if it kicks up. Light enough to drag a ways and being aluminum it takes bumps on the rocks well with no tears. Hunts two out of her quite well but normally it’s used to transport then gets stashed.
To me it sounds like you have a very decent fishing boat and simply adding a small back water boat for hunting is the way to go. My good buddy Paul D. has a 17-ft semi-V that works great on the large end, down to a 14-ft V-hull, work well for inexpensive used production boats that you could pick up and rig for close to the additional 4G your planing on throwing in. I would also suggest keeping an eye on the Aluminum boats John Kuhn is building, he’s looking at making a 15-ft duck boat that should be very interesting. I have one of his sneak boxes and it’s very well made, welded 1/8” plate to take a licking.
Scott
Here's my alaskan. I fabricated the blind to be similar to a tdb, but it comes off in minutes when I want to fish. Best of both worlds, hunts great and is the nicest fishing boat I've ever owned.
Todd
View attachment ALASKAN.jpg
Todd
View attachment ALASKAN.jpg
Rick Atwood
Member
I would pucker up - the more boats the better!
Mark Purack
Member
Mike, look no further... DuckWrangler 17' It's a monster and disapears in the marsh when u want it to.. There are used fiberglass ones out there, and in that price range..
mike , i have 17 tdb live in amityville,li i hunt fish crab and son uses it to wake bd off of. crabbing put small gen. in bow an plug in lites at nite able to pole flats to net crabs. for fishing have humming bird finder(fluke, striper ect.) no problem, even use dog deck in front for casting (plugging). taken boat to both inlets to fish(watching your day) when fishing late tides pull into coves put blind up use as tent very useable. hunting i anchor out in bay with lay out rig shoot divers and brant. move inside to flats an marsh find high bank strap on fast grass and seaweed over an gun puddle duck. tow grass boat and use as a base camp to cook lunch in with heater on. i like my set up but each their own. good luck rick
Mike romano
New member
everybody should have at least two boats, one for duckin,one for fishing,just remeber the one who dies with the most toys wins...