Layout boat racks for Jonboats?

CGeminski

CGeminski

Well-known member
My father just picked up a 18.5 War Eagle Jonboat which we plan on using as a tender for my Mighty Layout Boys SuperMag layout boat. I plan on building a rack/cradle out of wood with carpeting on the edges, this will mount on the bow to transport the boat to the hunting area.

Does anyone out there do something similar? I would love to see ideas and photos, thanks for sharing.
 
Chris,

You might want to get in touch with Jerrie Burkhart who occasionally posts here. He can put you in touch with "The Logansport Boys." Those guys are dialed in diver hunters. As I recall from the last MLB fall hunt, they had a pretty slick setup for transporting and deploying their MLB layout, but I can't say for sure how big their tender boat was.
 
What is Jerrie's username on this forum?

Nevermind... I found him under his name, thanks!
 
Last edited:
Contact Steve McCullough on this site. he doesn't use a jon boat, but his rack is similar to what I would make if I were going to put it on the front of a jon...............

If you are going off of Long Island, why a Jon??????????? Even a War Eagle?
 
Why not? We will be hunting in bays, not the open ocean. We will pick our days and always err on the side of caution.

The Jonboat is my fathers, he moved up from a 16ft to this 18.5ft which he uses for fishing the flats for stripers, fluke fishing and clamming. With the added size, we can easily fit my layout across the bow as well as decoys and 3 guys. The jonboat is light enough for him to handle alone and fits within his budget.
 
A word of caution, be sure to properly tie the layout down. Our group had a close call last year when the boat lifted despite being partially secured. Another friend had his go over and out the boat while motoring.I would suggest two solid ratchet straps.

I have found that two boat rollers mounted to the gunnels of the tender makes launching and retrieving much easier.
 
Excellent idea and I already planned on that. War Eagle boats have a T-Loc rail that runs the entire length of each gunwale. The boat has four eye-hole brackets, which will be placed in the right spots to ratchet strap the layout hull down.
 
You have my dream set up! I have one layout. Now I just need another layout and a 18+ jon boat }:)

I only hunt a shallow lake and want plent of room when my son start hunting.

Congratulations on the set up.
 
Re: Why not a Jon Boat for a tender? I was thinking of the potentails for some pretty big waves and rough water off of Long Island, but I did not really perform the correct thought processes.

You are abundantly right. Jons make stable and great fishing platforms, duck hunting boats, commercial fishing boats, etc. A large, wide Jon will be a great layout tender given the restrictions you have stated.

If I had thought it through correctly, I would have known that days too rough for taking a War Eagle 18.5 foot jon out as a tender would probably not very pleasant for, or conducive to, gunning out of a layout, or even setting a layout and decoys out.

Duh, my bad...sorry. I envy you for your location, your rig, and your opportunities.... Hope you have a great season and share some photos this fall.
 
Thanks, we hope to chase Scoters, Oldsquaw and Eiders this fall. I will definitely post photos then....
 
My recommendation before building a rack system is a bigger tender, with a boat that has more rocker...Now I know you don't want to here that but I hunted out of 18 footer before my hunting partner had his garvey style tender built in a 24 footer...There were many days on heavy water on the lake that the 18 was just not big enough...War Eagles are nice boats depending on what model in the size you have purchased I believe the 860 has higher sides and would be the only boat of the 18 foot models they make I would get out on the water as a tender...My grumman rough neck at 18 foot had 26 sides and nice v-bow for cutting waves...But when you added 6+ dozen decoys, three guys and a layout the weight distribution in the boat caused it to lower the bow slightly which is dangerous in heavy water...Flat days you are fine, but then you are in less favorable conditions...Believe me this boat was not big enough and many days we picked-up when the wind picked-up with just two guys. You might want to consider a lund style deep-v hull in an Alaskan or similiar hulls to build into your layout hunting tender before you think about what kind of rack is needed secure the layout if your looking at a "small" 18 foot boat for tending.

I am just thinking of your safety and past experiences of hunting out of the wrong tender. Don't want to read about you ever on the pages of some newspaper! Believe me it is just not worth it. What we believe we can get by with, mother nature proves us wrong...


Regards,
Kristan
 
The boat is already purchased and is an 860 which has the higher sides. It's primarily a fishing boat for my father, but will make a decent tender in in the right conditions. As I said earlier, I plan to err on the side of caution and only hunt the layout in ideal conditions... I ALWAYS err on the side of caution.
 
Last edited:
I have an 18' semi v bottom jon with a rack mounted on the bow to carry a kevlar mlb 2..I extended the rack out about 3' out in front of the bow on a hinge. That allows me to throw the anchor and back out from under the mlb and drop it into the water. To retrieve just snag the bow line and pull up the ramp pivoting bac k into the cradle..its simpler than it sounds and allows me to deploy and retrieve by myself.
It looks ungainly but works with the kevlar mlb 2 which weighs a little more than the supermag.. I could post pictures and more info if interested. Hard to type on this phone..
Mike.
 
Mike..... sounds like a great setup, l would love to see photos if you can post here, otherwise l can provide my email address.
 
My son and I have 22' sea ark big jon.Works well for us,have hauled MLB super across the gunnels or two classics edge wise in board, in a homemade rack with 120 decoys plus 4 men and gear. Boat handles the load fine, we been out when things get rough...starts getting dangerous switching guys out in 2 or 3 footers.I don't think you will find a better boat to haul all the necessary equipment for layout gunning than a open jon.
 
I built a rack a couple years ago for the back of my 18ft center console. We usually transported the boat out with that, and brought it home on the gunnels. Makes for more room inside the boat on the way out. It worked well, but if I will need to beef it up - the 2x4 construction won't last in the pounding waves for more than a year or 2 I think. Note that you would have to verify your stern didn't sit too low in the water with the additional weight back there. The center console did fine.

In the picture, you can also see the boat rollers on the gunnels and simple carpeted bunks in front. The rollers on the gunnels saved a lot of wear and tear on the tender and the layout.

[inline layoutrack.jpg]

[inline layoutrack2.jpg]

View attachment layoutrack.JPG
View attachment layoutrack2.JPG
 
I have an 18' semi v bottom jon with a rack mounted on the bow to carry a kevlar mlb 2..I extended the rack out about 3' out in front of the bow on a hinge. That allows me to throw the anchor and back out from under the mlb and drop it into the water. To retrieve just snag the bow line and pull up the ramp pivoting bac k into the cradle..its simpler than it sounds and allows me to deploy and retrieve by myself.
It looks ungainly but works with the kevlar mlb 2 which weighs a little more than the supermag.. I could post pictures and more info if interested. Hard to type on this phone..
Mike.
Click to expand...

Any luck with those pics Mike?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top