Andrew L.
Well-known member
Always hard to face reality of another year over but yesterday was close of the Mississippi River Zone, essentially putting an end to my hunting season. It was a fun & challenging year, more scouting was needed than in previous years & high water plagued my October hunting.
Having gone through my 2nd full year with the BBIII I am a believer this is the best 1 man rig for navigating the Mississippi. I have enough stabilization & weight to handle any chop I may run into yet remain much lower profile than most other boats on the river. Getting on plane with the 23hp backwater is not an issue, even with a full load of 6+ dozen decoys. Adding a 2nd guy slows me down but I have found that having them sit as far back as possible helps & I can still get on plane with a light decoy load.
This year with the abnormally high water I really had to put the boat to the test navigating over logs, beaver dams & quite frankly just hard ground that normally does not have water over it. The boat performed nicely & there nearly no sings of wear on the hull, thankful for my composite decking keels though.
A few changes I plan on for next year.
-Adding trailer bunk glides. One very cold morning I could simply not get the boat off the trailer due to being frozen to the bunks from the days before hunt. Even after 20 minutes of leaving it in the water it would not come loose. I had to essentially turn the long tail parallel to the transom & throttle nearly fully to get the boat to "pop" off.
-Although 95% the time I hunt alone I would like to modify my blind doors to extend to nearly twice their current height when hunting with a 2nd person (currently they are set up just like layout blind doors). This would allow both hunters to sit on chairs & be well concealed. Open to suggestions if anyone has built something like this before.
-Higher floor for late season hunts. I currently have the rubber "kitchen" mats with round holes covering the floor which work great to keep me & the dog dry. However in late season hunts the water was freezing so quickly in the boat that it became nearly to slick to stand as the water built up. I will likely just add another layer or 2 of these mats when this weather is expected next year.
Hope everyone had/is having a fun season.
View attachment Boating-Larsen.jpg
View attachment 20181204_094003.jpg
View attachment 20181107_132016.jpg
Having gone through my 2nd full year with the BBIII I am a believer this is the best 1 man rig for navigating the Mississippi. I have enough stabilization & weight to handle any chop I may run into yet remain much lower profile than most other boats on the river. Getting on plane with the 23hp backwater is not an issue, even with a full load of 6+ dozen decoys. Adding a 2nd guy slows me down but I have found that having them sit as far back as possible helps & I can still get on plane with a light decoy load.
This year with the abnormally high water I really had to put the boat to the test navigating over logs, beaver dams & quite frankly just hard ground that normally does not have water over it. The boat performed nicely & there nearly no sings of wear on the hull, thankful for my composite decking keels though.
A few changes I plan on for next year.
-Adding trailer bunk glides. One very cold morning I could simply not get the boat off the trailer due to being frozen to the bunks from the days before hunt. Even after 20 minutes of leaving it in the water it would not come loose. I had to essentially turn the long tail parallel to the transom & throttle nearly fully to get the boat to "pop" off.
-Although 95% the time I hunt alone I would like to modify my blind doors to extend to nearly twice their current height when hunting with a 2nd person (currently they are set up just like layout blind doors). This would allow both hunters to sit on chairs & be well concealed. Open to suggestions if anyone has built something like this before.
-Higher floor for late season hunts. I currently have the rubber "kitchen" mats with round holes covering the floor which work great to keep me & the dog dry. However in late season hunts the water was freezing so quickly in the boat that it became nearly to slick to stand as the water built up. I will likely just add another layer or 2 of these mats when this weather is expected next year.
Hope everyone had/is having a fun season.
View attachment Boating-Larsen.jpg
View attachment 20181204_094003.jpg
View attachment 20181107_132016.jpg
