Lack of duck boats on wetcoast?

A

Adam Stevens

Active member
I almost regret looking in the classifieds everyday becuase 99% of the boats I'd be interested in buying are all located on the east coast. Don't get me wrong I understand and I know why, the market is so much larger there and more being manufactured.

But it just seems like I wish a good 14-17 duck boat would show up on this coast more then once or twice a year. I search craigslist and other stuff up and down the coast. Id be willing to travel to Oregon for the right boat plus the tax in OR wouldn't hurt haha.

Brant season is fast approaching, a little over a month now, thought about making a delvin scaup but as much as I'd spend my time building it I could work at my job and buy a boat instead. Means to an end I guess.

All the boats out there now are either homemade punts or vbottom aluminum boats. I'd really like to find a 14 or 17 TDB or something similar. I chased a 14' TDB that is probably the only one in BC but the owner had sold it a few years back and no contact for new owner.

Anybody know of any boats in BC, Wa, OR, Ca??

Thanks guys.
 
There is no greater pride and joy than building a boat. I worked 2 jobs and still had it built in 2 to 3 months. And if you're worried about getting stuck, you're already on the most thorough documented boat-build site on the internet. Best of luck!
 
You may want to list a price range. A guy had a TDB here in Idaho for sale. It was a 17' for around $17,000. It was even listed on this site.
 
Yeah I remember that boat. That is probably on the upper end of what I'd be willing to spend on a good 17' TDB. But things like motor and trailer and all that would play into how high I'd be willing to go.

In the end it would probably be better to have a 17' boat, hunting 2-4 guys. Normally only hunt 2 guys with the odd chance of a third. But for now I could easily afford a 14' tdb or similar. It would have to be the right boat to go 15k+
 
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Adam,
I know the pain. I looked for over a year for a boat while there was probably 10 boats on this forum's classifieds all east of the Mississippi. I had a bad case of the duck boat envy with great boats only 3000 miles away. Finally found one just driving down the road one day. You should try using the Search Tempest to allow you to search craigslist effectively.

For new boats, you could have Devlin in Olympia build you one. You could have one of the custom boat builders like Riddle Marine Lewiston, ID fab one up for you as well but that would be aluminium.

Good luck on your search.
 
Adam! I had the same reaction as yours when I moved to Los Angeles in 1970. No one duck hunted! There isn't any water in most of California so there are few huntable ducks.Most of the hunting is done in clubs that make there own ponds and fill them with water from there own wells.There are very few public hunting areas in the sothern half of the state. There is some good hunting in the Klamath area close to Oregon but it's mostly blind shooting.Also that is a 12 hour drive from the L.A. area. The small west coast style scull boat was developed in the San Francisco and Humbolt Bay area but can be used only in protected waters.
I built a Michigan style layout boat and used it very effectively on the Salton Sea , Morrow Bay and some of the reservoirs in the area. None of the local hunters had ever seen such a boat. Then built a scull boat. Salton Sea is a big body of water , so we bought a 17 ft. Boston Whaler to use as a tender boat. But we were the only ones who hunted the Salton Sea with a
boat.
There is a large lake in northern Cal. on the Oregon border called Goose Lake. It is quite shallow and hard to hunt. We would hunt there a few times each year but never saw another hunter and never saw a boat. It was full of ducks !!
The states to the north have more water and have more boats. That where you have to look for a used big water boat.
Best of luck in your search !! Bob Hayden
 
Definitely agree with a "search all of Craigs List" type search engine. I have seen a couple of TDB's offered these past few months. Unfortunately for you, when you search for "duck boat", the big, big majority will be aluminum in our part of the world.

If you ever get the chance to be in Oregon, in August, I'd highly reccomend trying to visit the Oregon Waterfowl Festival.
 
Yeah my brother, dad and I have been to the OWF for 3 straight years, last year was the first time we missed it. But never seen any down there.

I do use the search engines. 2000miles around myself but using duck boat does show alot of aluminum jon boats.
 
Where in BC you located? I grew up in Port Coquitlam! Hope to go back some time and chase ducks... there sure were lots at como lake! :p
 
Hell I wanna shoot geese on burnaby lake but don't think that'll ever happen haha. I'm out in the valley, but sometimes chase ducks and snows in the marsh and brant out front.
 
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