For those of you who camo with grass...

Anthony A

Anthony A

Well-known member
...either gathered yourselves, or in mats (like fastgrass)...

A) How do you keep them on your boat?
B) Do you keep them on all season? Or do you put them on just before your hunt, then take them off?
C) Do you have any nifty "tricks" for putting them on quickly as you arrive at the boat launch?
D) Would you keep them on all season if you kept your boat in a garage?

I had the opportunity to hunt out the Estuary for the first time today and didn't do too bad on the camo aspect. I read some good advice several months ago and hung some fastgrass mats out a friends place in the county for a month and they came out looking pretty good! I need to adjust how it hangs, but otherwise, not too bad.

I started putting the grass up when I arrived at the boat launch (they come in 4x4ft mats), with zip ties and it took me much longer than I expected! It's not like I went crazy zip tying everything, I think I used only 3-4 per mat! I do have a garage, although it's not heated. I was thinking if it would be worth doing a season-long "permanent" camo job...? if there is a quicker way to put on the grass, I would greatly appreciate a tip or two!

Thank you in advance

Anthony
 
Out here it is wet for months at a time. Untreated grass mats will absorb a lot of water and become moldy. Motoring with moldy grass mats is a sure fire way to inject lots of mold spores into your sinuses. I can't prove it but I think I have long term sinus issues related to said moldy grass panels. Find a way to dry them after use. I have heard of guys treating them with a good water repellent like Thompson's. I stopped using them.
 
Anthony--

On my canoe and kayak, I've rigged bungee cord--on the fore and aft decks of the kayak, and just under the gunwales on the canoe. If I can't find good natural cover that hides the boat, I simply cut local materials and stuff it under the bungees. I'm not looking for total cover--just enough to break up the outline and help the boat blend in with local vegetation. This might be rockweed when I hunt Casco Bay; rice stalks or cat tail when I hunt inland; swamp maple branches in some of my wood duck spots.

I'm planning to do the same with my sculling boat when I get it ready--a line of bungee around the coaming, and crisscrossed over the deck.
 
With my TDB I would just keep the mats folded and stacked in the front of the boat and after the decoys were out I'd set up the blind and attach the mats with zip ties. 5 minute job, 2 zip ties per mat and remember to keep the ties loose to cut them off when done for the day. I'd hang the mats to dry when I got home and then would fold and re-stack them in the boat, which is covered, to keep them DRY. I got 4 or 5 years out of them.
 
Here, long before grass mats were a twinkle in someone's eye. we used to cut "Meadow grass/hay" (Spartina Patens.) for FREE.
You would cut a couple big arm loads and place a handful at a time under grass boards which would stay on for the season.
The grass boards needed quite a lot of grass to hold tight, it was heavy and got heavier as it absorbed water, and in general a pain in the azz.

I finally quit the grass boards and ran bungee cord through cable clamps in place of the boards. Now you can grass much faster, and use less. You can add more whenever you want or can add different vegetation if changing areas. I'd leave it on for the season, if you lose some in transport, just lift the bungee cord and add some more. I darn sure wouldn't want to start decorating a boat in the dark every morning.

Or you can use mats, :)
 
I must be old fashion, I still do what George S was describing with the salt hay. Last year I used broom straw from the field. To me it's part of the hunt. I enjoy it. Of course you still cuss and doubt yourself for doing it, but at the end, man it looks good! good luck on your choice.....John
 
In my opinion, if you hunting the marsh, nothing looks as good as the original. The grass mats stand out and never match very well.
 
those big aligator clips work well on the fastgrass if you need it to go on and remove quick. you have to let that stuff sit out in the elements to let it weather....its to bright when you get it new....i have 8 sheets hanging on the deck of my house trying to weather them
 
I'd hang the mats to dry when I got home and then would fold and re-stack them in the boat, which is covered, to keep them DRY. I got 4 or 5 years out of them.
Click to expand...


Jim,

That's what I ended up doing too.... I also plugged in a de-humidifier and set it on the boat, right by the motor, facing towards the bow, the decoys, the canvas cockpit, with the grass mats hanging to the side. I want them all to last as long as possible! The drier the better - right?

It's just that all this preparing, loading, rearranging, and unloading and storing before and after a hunt takes so long! :) I need another set of hands and a bigger garage!

I will try setting the grass on my boat in the marsh next time, after setting out the decoys, as you suggested.

I long for the days back home in Quebec growing up, where I could just throw two pairs of decoys over my shoulders, and wade out into the swamp and pass-shoot ducks. I longed for a canoe back then, to be able to penetrate deeper into the swamp. I finally got a canoe years later, which led to a kayak I was able to hunt out of, now I got me a neat BBSB! It's funny to realize now about how complicated things can get with just wanting to be able to get to where the ducks are! Getting and training a retriever is next! My wife's cats have to pass away first though...

*groan* what did I get myself into! :) Anything worthwhile, takes a bit of work! If it all came easy, then I wouldn't enjoy it half as much!

Anthony
 
I gave away my used up mats to a newbie, Daryl who's building the BB3, actually. My goal, (my hope) is to get either some plastic fencing or a cheap volleyball net and go get some of the marsh grass mentioned above. As mentioned, the FG color doesn't quite match the local grass. Probably doesn't bother the ducks, but it bothered me. The way my schedule has been going on getting tasks like this done, I'll probably end up with a naked boat and add some local stuff each hunt.
 
Anthony, one of the things that you can use rather than zip ties are the velcro cord ties. You can find them in home centers like HD. You can use the power cord specific ones or the long sections of double sided stuff that comes in a small roll. You zip tie the velcro to the back of the mat and then use the velcro to hold the mat to your boat blind.

For the power cord style you can fix the strip to the knotted back of the mat and do not need to zip tie it to the mat. However the power cord style of velco is built so that you wrap the wild end around where it is slipped around the cord so it may not work as well as the double sided velco that comes in a roll.
 
I've always used marsh grass, salt hay, whatever you want to call it.... Why not use the same grass to camo your boat as will be surrounding you when you hunt? This way you blend in the best...
The commercially available grass matts, rafia grass, etc are nice.... but they never match the surrounding marsh grass exactly, plus they are expensive.
Marsh grass is FREE!
My family has an oversized weed wacker kind of thing with a disc blade on the end, this cuts the marsh grass great and we bring along a 14ft johnboat and fill it with grass for our blind and duckboats.
My boat has grass "straps" instead of grass rails, the straps are nice because they are pulled tight in between rivets. This means you need less grass beneath each strap when compared to a typical grass rail. Keep in mind wet grass is heavy, especially when it starts to freeze. My boat is going to be pained camo, then sparsely grassed to eliminate wet grass freezing and weighing down the boat in wet/cold conditions.
 
Hi Anthony,

I've wrestled with a similar issue. I have a new Fatboy DP this season, and I had considered the grass mats for a while but quite frankly none of the brands I've seen seem to match my cover (mostly rice beds, and some areas of sedge/hay, and a small amount of "mini-cattails"). Even though the hunting pressure is low in many of my spots, the ducks seem to avoid the blinds camoed with anything but local veg after the first few days of the season.

Instead what I've come up with is a cover I made for the boat out of 2" green plastic garden fencing that I'm weaving rice and some cattails into. I got some on clearance at HD for about $10 and trimmed pieces to fit the deck exactly and "sewed" them together with zip ties. Since I'm cartopping the boat, weight is a concern so I'm attaching it each morning with a few zip ties and sticky-back cable anchors on the hull, and at the end of the day I just roll it up and stuff it in the car. That way, if it's soaked and weighs a ton, I don't have that additional weight stressing my roof racks.

Mind you, I'll be less concerned about weight soon as I'll be trading the car in for a truck.

I like the alligator clip idea too.
 
Anthony,

I use one grass mat over the dodger that I also mix in with some local marsh grass to break up the look of the mat. The rest of the boat is covered with local marsh grass. To attach the mat to the canvas I just tie wrap to the straps I had sewn into the canvas and stuff the marsh grass into the matting. The rest of the boat is set up with low profile Mohogany grass rail. The grass rail are 7/8 x 7/8 with 1/4" spacers under the rail so I don't need to much grass. They are strong enough to allow me or the dog to pull ourselves into the boat or keep you from slipping in the drink.
I keep it on all season and it stays on even at highway speed.
Here are some photos, hope they help.
aftdecoyracksideviewwithgrassrails.jpg

canvas1.jpg

SOuthBayboatwithBBSB.jpg

Gooserig12-7-10.jpg

 
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I use bungee cord and eyelet (like on a kyack)

I keep it on all year in a gararge, and touch it up now and then with new grass were my dog and I jump in and out of the boat.

I've had the grass on for about 6 years now, may need to redo some this year. The only issue I have is when the water freezes on the grass, it slows down the boat because of the added weight.

View attachment dboat2.JPG




...either gathered yourselves, or in mats (like fastgrass)...

A) How do you keep them on your boat?
B) Do you keep them on all season? Or do you put them on just before your hunt, then take them off?
C) Do you have any nifty "tricks" for putting them on quickly as you arrive at the boat launch?
D) Would you keep them on all season if you kept your boat in a garage?

I had the opportunity to hunt out the Estuary for the first time today and didn't do too bad on the camo aspect. I read some good advice several months ago and hung some fastgrass mats out a friends place in the county for a month and they came out looking pretty good! I need to adjust how it hangs, but otherwise, not too bad.

I started putting the grass up when I arrived at the boat launch (they come in 4x4ft mats), with zip ties and it took me much longer than I expected! It's not like I went crazy zip tying everything, I think I used only 3-4 per mat! I do have a garage, although it's not heated. I was thinking if it would be worth doing a season-long "permanent" camo job...? if there is a quicker way to put on the grass, I would greatly appreciate a tip or two!

Thank you in advance

Anthony
Click to expand...
 
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