Open Water Boat Blind Question

M

Mike Trudel

Well-known member
Sold my layout and I'm not planning on replacing it. My 18' is painted open water gray and it is my preferred way to hunt, 2-3 guys and dog.

My question is while trying to find the "blind" spot for decoying ducks, am I better to keep the profile low with a couple of heads above the boats blind line or should I add a top, which will add height but will hide hunters as well as hold the wind at bay? This setup is strictly for diver hunting.

I noticed on the Duckwater Boat site, a lot of the big boats have gine to blind tops for shore hunting, but what about open water? Thanks for any comments.
 
I myself dont like a top on the blind it blocks a lot of your view. Birds key in on movement, if your not moving and they view you from above your ok. I think for divers its best to keep a very low profile. just my $.02
 
Sold my layout and I'm not planning on replacing it. My 18' is painted open water gray and it is my preferred way to hunt, 2-3 guys and dog.

My question is while trying to find the "blind" spot for decoying ducks, am I better to keep the profile low with a couple of heads above the boats blind line or should I add a top, which will add height but will hide hunters as well as hold the wind at bay? This setup is strictly for diver hunting.

I noticed on the Duckwater Boat site, a lot of the big boats have gine to blind tops for shore hunting, but what about open water? Thanks for any comments.
Click to expand...


I don't do much open water, but my feeling is that once a boat is a certain size - you can't really hide it anyway and I think 18' fits that description of not hiding it. An inert chunk of something is a whole lot better than a slightly smaller chunk of something with moving funny colored heads and shoulders on top of it. I'd opt for enough of a blind to cover most of the movement. Obviously you can sit out there in an open boat perfectly still completely visible and have ducks work to you, but being able to move around is nicer and more realistic for most of us that like to move around a bit.
 
Mike, I have an 18' Alaskan that I built a low profile blind on for diver hunting. This was the first season that we tried it in open water. It worked great in the earlier season when the divers first came down, but after about 2 weeks they started shying away from it. We switched to the layout boat for the remainder of the season.

Todd
 
Here is my rig, use it for open water hunting puddlers and divers on Mobile Bay & Mississippi Sound.
Like others noted, works well for early season and "new" birds. But later in the season, it can get tough to get birds to come in. But overall it has worked well for me since 1998. I use military camo netting now. I used to use fastgrass, I liked it better and may go back to that when I get a new boat.
We stick cane (phragmites or bamboo) in the bottom around the boat to hold it in place (no need for anchors unless it is really rough) and to help break up the outline. We normally use more cane than in this picture. The spot I was on this day had a really hard sand bottom, made it really tough to stick the cane in. So I didnt stick all the cane i had
As othre noted, low profile is important. The lower you can get, the less wary the birds seem to be. On my blind, the top rail is at about shoulder height with me sitting on a folding hunting seat. I would make it lower it I could but I dont want to sit on the floor. For open water, you dont want a top, birds can come from any direction.
View attachment BoatBlind1.jpg
 
Todd, I found the same thing this year. Dumb young birds are now my favorite specie.

Carl, you bring up an interesting second point. I know on the Great Lakes, open water grays work best, but is a guy better of to be an open water bog or try to blend in?
 
Clumps of marsh are common in the area, so that is what we go with. You are already relatively high profile, so try to look like a clump of marsh.
I think with a layout, blending in is probably more important.
 
Here's a pic of mine. I went the grassless route using Mossy Oak "Brush" 1000 denier cordura. Kept it as low profile as I could. You are just able to peek over the blind while sitting on the chairs.

View attachment Lund_1_crop.jpg
 
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My opinion would be as low as possible... That being said, On the Atlantic we hunted out of a hi blind on a TDB17 and birds didn't flare....

This picture is of the guys going after a cripple... but I would rather a low profile like this....
D20_4454.jpg

 
hey mike,

In my opinion low profile as possible but I think a top would help conceal heads, movement and shelter from concitions. I may be only one but I shoot better froma sitting position than standing. I would prefer to have the gunwals as my side blind and have a top prob sitting on floor or special low seats. That was my plan for my boat, just never got to it. There is something to be said though of color, depending how far offshore I prefer brown and look of a low grass island than staight artifical (in nature) lines of a grey boat. I am sure there are days when both work and both don't. Thats why I chose the MLB brownsih grey as my color shoice for open water. Muddy open water it blends in and doesn't have grey(artifical in nature for most places) sticking out if I grass it or want it to look like an island. I was out seaduck hunting and saw a bankes type boat painted in the brown and black camo, from my eye, boat level, it blended right into the shoreline 800 yards away, now on a day ducks where flying higher it may stick out. I don't think you can get one that works all the time.

BTW boat looks great hope you had a good season.
 
Thanks Shermie, Sorry, but I don’t have any pics of just the frame work.
The frame is made from 1x1 alum tubing that mounts to the gunwales using custom brackets I made that fit the t-slots. I started w/ a rectangle opening for the top, then "spidered" the legs from there. It goes on or off in less than 5 minutes w/ two guys. The lady that did the canvas for me was the magician! She stretched and reinforced it perfectly. It loosens a little when it gets wet but tightens right back up in the heated garage. It has made hunting in the nasty stuff very comfortable!

Thanks for your interest,

Todd
 
I should add that I have top cover (camo netting) covering the gaps where we sit in the boat. Plus cane broken over the top as well.
So other than where our heads/shoulders stick up, the boat has top cover and the birds cant see into the boat.
 
Hi Bob,
It really depends on the water conditions. If it's nasty, I'll just tie off the bow. Otherwise, I set the bow and pull the stern around with a second anchor.
Todd
 
Depends. If I am hunting alone, I anchor bow into the wind.
If hunting with a partner, and the wind is calm enough, we anchor cross-wind. If its a windy, we'll try to quarter into it.
But if it is too rough, you have to go bow into it.
Light winds, 2 guys hunting:

[inline CalmWindOpenwaterSpread.jpg ]


Solo or two guys & its too windy to anchor cross-wind:

[inline DiverGadwallSoloSpread11032003.JPG ]

I dont usually use this many decoys any more, getting too old to put out 9 dozen!
Now if diver & puddler hunting, I use 3 dzn coots, 1.5 dzn gadwalls and 1.5 dzn divers. If just hunting divers, I use 3 dzn bluebills, 1 dzn cans, 1 dzn redheads and a 1 dzn mix of buffies and GEs

View attachment DiverGadwallSoloSpread11032003.JPG
View attachment CalmWindOpenwaterSpread.jpg
 
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