Marsh boat ideas

J

Jake William

Member
Thinking of starting a project this spring on a marsh boat style set-up. Last year I started hunting a couple places near me that only allow non-motorized vessels. One place only allowing what you can fit in the bed of your truck (no trailers). This season I've had great success hunting these places and plan on frequenting them each season. This last trip I made my kayak has produced a small hole in the bottom which has forced me to look to other options.

I've researched everything from commercial made boats like creek boats, aquapods, marsh rat, etc. to building my own hybrid style boat or purchasing a old sunfish sailboat hull and refurbishing it into my liking.

There's three types of boats I've seen online I really like...

First is the marsh rat, I know no longer is made but really am intrigued by this design and wish I could find one, or copy the design.

The Kara hunter looks neat, but from what I've read may be a little too heavy.

Lastly, local to me is hell Bender boats which seem to fit the bill on everything I'm looking for.

The musts for me are...

Light enough I can offload/load in bed of truck by myself.

Prefer to push pole and not have to paddle. We have heavy hydrilla and paddling through this stuff sucks.

Lastly big enough I can have my dog and me in it without tipping.


Just looking for suggestions or possible alternates if y'all have them.

Thanks.
 
What state are you located in?

I had a 4 Rivers 9'6" layout, which is similar to the Marsh Rat I believe. It was a nice stable boat, paddled OK, definately not a long-distance boat with a paddle. It poled very well, I could easily pole it in shallow water standing up. With a dog, you will be crowded. I put 2 dzn decoys, paddle, gun box and seat in it and not much room left. And it was heavy and awkward to handle.

If I were going to buy a small marsh boat, I would be looking at a Creek M80 or M98: http://creekboats.com/greentop_m80.htm
 
Thanks Ben, that's a neat boat for sure. I think possibly a tad bigger then what I was looking for, but I'll consider it.

Dani sent ya a pm back

Craig, the 4 rivers are pretty dang neat. I was looking at a EBADS when they first came out. I'll start looking for some used ones... I'm in Florida and that's what makes it hard finding these smaller boats. Not a whole lot of them advertised down this way.

I was looking at the creek boats and that M80 looked somewhat feasible. I watched some videos though and they didn't look all too stable. But hard to tell off watching someone else trying to balance.

Thanks all for the feedback, keep it coming.
 
I have the creekboat m80 along with an aquapod. The M80 isn't very stable and very small, even the width is narrow. Once you're in it you don't have much room for decoys and gear. With that all said, the little boat worked really well for me. I built flip doors for it and had the whole boat grassed up. I'd toss my decoys in the boat and drag it out, then cross small creeks or calm water ponds. If you don't have great balance id suggest something different
 
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