hiding a boat

J

jeff glosser

New member
I could use a little adivise here. I hunt on Lake Champlain in Vermont and New York. I have an 18.5 ft Duckwater boat. I do okay on divers but with puddlers i just cant get the birds to reliably drop into comfortable range. I think they slide off because my boat is difficult to hide. Many of friends agree. I have read some posts where guys will use the boat to ferrry them out then hide the boat down shore and set up ground blinds. I did paint the boat which helped, we changed it from gray/black to tan, olive drab and black. Anything else i am missing? Thank you, Jeff
 
Have you grassed the boat or are you taking the "look like a rock" approach?
It would seem to me that if you are anchored near the shoreline, either approach should work.
 
I had been doing the look-like-a-rock approach but when we changed the camo scheme i was going more for the colors of the woods and vegetation that usually are in back of me. I also bought three differnet colors of camo netting, white, mossy oak and flyway depending on where we set up.
 
Make sure that your are not "framing" the camo netting and making it look like a large rectangular box along the shore. Break up the "squareness" with grass, limbs, etc.

dc
 
I got away from all the Avery type boat blinds. I purchased (4) H & S camo burlap sheet and tied them together. I cover my boat with these and then I will lay a log or what ever is available over the top and sides to complete the break up. I have had ducks land right beside the boat.

It is a $40.00 to $50.00 investment. If it doesn't work, you’re not out a lot of money.

I will take a picture of my boat this weekend for you it so you can see how I am using the burlap


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Jeff- I spent a lot of time on Champlain, a good portion of it with a TBD 14- you need high banks behind the boat with cedar/hemlock background- puddlers will decoy. I also had several rock blinds where I would hide the boat and hunt out of the blind- very successful.
 
I so see quite a few guys with hemlock/balsam branches on their boats. I will use more of it next season. That is encouraging. I was worried that my boat was toobig to hide.
 
Is the blind open topped or roofed.

I had an open top blind that would flare the puddlers flying higher while the lower divers never noticed.
 
Jeff,
I have a 19' Duckwater and have no problems getting puddle ducks to commit. I always hunt with the blind roof up and add as much natural cover as I can find to the blind.
 
My first thought when I saw this thread was that it was a question on how to hide a new boat from your wife.
 
it does have a top to it which I rarely use. I thought that ducks the opening would look like a big dark triangle so I have not used it in a while.
 
Dean, thanks for the reply. I guess what I am taking away form this is that I need to add a lot more cover to it which I am going to do. I appreciate all the help gentlemen, thank you very much.
 
Jeff,

Doc and I were just talking boats the other day, rumor was you wern't happy with your boat. The 1 time I saw your boat was last year when we all went out with Don R, I recall thinking I liked the boat, but your blind is too open at the top. As I have looked at a variety of pics, the Duckwater boats seem like they strive too much on cockpit space for more hunters. Then they built the blind frames straight up. Look at Doc's TDB and notice the blind all the way around leans inward leaving a lot of cockpit space, but a much smaller opening. Your duckwater is straight up side posts making your blind opening as big as the inside cockpit opeing. I think your issue isn't your boat is too big, but that huge hole in the top of the blind is too big. IF it were me, I would look into a good canvas person and refit the blind to close that top. WOuld hold heat in better too for the cold weather.

Dave
 
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