Rigging Question for Classic Barnegat

[Dick Sargeant]

I am new to this forum but very impressed with the intel and info being shared across the country. If anyone has tried the synthetic grass products for a sneak boat I would greatly appreciate hearing from you relative to which products look the most realistic against a salt marsh ( MA ) and which products hold up.

At the moment I use some camo netting from Cabellas topped with whatever I can scoop up and apply from the area that I happen to be set up in. I also use a como cover for the motor, etc. In years past I have spent hours tying real grass and then losing a lot of it during the season with trailering etc.

If a good synthetic were used it would allow me more time to try to design the application in a way that breaks up the boat's outline aganst the shore, etc. I am torn between trying to design a grassing job that can be permanent, trailered at speed etc. vs one that could be draped like I now do with the camo netting.

Thanks for any help !

sarge

 

[Steve Sutton]

The "grass" on the front deck and the spray skirt is zip tied in individual clumps to 1" nylon netting that is attached to the grass rails and the spray skirt.....takes a lot of time to do it this way, plus stock in the cable tie company helps, but it gives a better 3-D look when its wet than tieing in the bigger/longer, overlapping bunches that are more commonly used.

"Grass" on the decoy racks is clamped to the rack with a piece of half round that is screwed to the decoy board trapping the grass under the strip....

The only part of the boat that isn't "grassed" in this fashion is the rear deck which I leave ungrassed because it takes so much abuse from the decoys bags, the dog and my fat butt sitting on it.....I have an X of bungees stretched from decoy rack to decoy rack that I put natural grass from the hunt site under to camo that deck and then just strip it off when I'm done. Since all I have to do is cut enough grass for the rear deck its real simple to do and typically can be done right on site...

In a couple of the pictures you'll see that the camo is augmented with natural grass cut on the site...this helps alot since the grass I used was diyed to match our normal short grass marshes.....in some places where the the grass is darker its easy to grab some "local" stuff and just throw it on the boat to darken the Invisa-Grass up, mud works as well....the neat part about Invisa-grass is that you can dye it to match the color of your marsh. It will also natural darken with use....or you can spray paint it to match....

This boat was grassed in 2003 and was used heavily that year....it saw little use in the 2004 season and then was heavily used in 2005 and 2006 when I hunted it over 30 days a year....since I live a minimum of 70 miles from the closest place that I hunt it it got lots of trailer time at highway speeds and has needed no replacement of the grass since originally applied....

I've used the boat heavily again this year including towing it to Manitoba from Washington and back, a total of over 3,000 miles, again with no adverse affects to the grass except that it does get that Edward, "Cookie", Burns Route 66 look after a long trip on the road.....

I used to grass with natural, and ornamental grass, every year and would leave that on the boat for the entire season....the problem with that is that between hunts it staid and by the end of the season it would have mildewed and started to rot and I didn't like having that wet compost pile on the deck of the boat.....plus I dislike the idea of introducing some non-native marsh that I hunt which shold definatley be a consideration when you think about using ornamentals or stuff like Reed's Canary Grass, Phramites, or Sage Brush like some people do.....

The Invisa-fGrass does not absorb water lioke untreated raffia does so it won't gain weight when its wet.....because of that when I put the boat in the garage all I have to do to dry it is to turn the big fan on the front deck and it will be completely dry again in a couple of days which increases the life of not only the grass but the boat as well.....

I'm sold on the MoMarsh Invisa-Grass product and have found it to last much longer than the admittedly cheaper bulk stuff that you can get at craft shows or from Cabela's.....

Steve

.....

 

[Shermie]

here`s my attempt with cabelas raffi grass
made it on black snow fence
then used and electrians pole bender to bend tent poles to make the upright blind add some seaweed used the ties as well left holes to see thru...sprayed yellow cat paint on the seeview holes
the start

from a distance

just with eel grass before the raffi

heres the blind im using to put seaweed all over us when we hunt the lowtide on the flats you look like anyother rock covered with seaweed

hatch

 

[leslie riggan]

How in the world did you get that boat to the shore? That looks like boot sucking mud. If sneakboxes can float on that then i'm definitely building this summer.

 

[Charlie S and Titan]

One word: "tide"

 

[Craig F]

I have some other pictures floating around but basically I just use a few sheets of fast grass that have been left out in the weather for a season or so to darken them up. I use the fast grass as a base layer and then cut some natural grass and throw it over the top to blend it in. Works pretty well.

What you also can do, and you can't really tell in the picture, is run a bungee cord and throw the natural grass underneath it. There is a bungee running the length of the bow of my sneakbox and it, among other things, helps hold the grass in place while running or trailering. I only have to go about 4 blocks to launch the boat though so I doubt it would hold it any farther than that...

Basically I would recommend fast grass then putting some natural grass over the top to blend it in.

 

[leslie riggan]

Well, there's definitely no tide in the swamp. But I do have quite a few spot's that look like that. Man it would suck if the tide doesn't up that far next cycle.

 

[Shermie]

yup its tidal,the bay may get 15ft deep at high tide where i im mired there it gets about 4 feet deep still wade able if you need to frig with the rig..i love taking first timers to the goo and they complain the next day there hip joints hurts...;lol

the bay o fundy goo is worse tho it will stain your stuff redish brown amongst sticking to everythingits like pottery clay..

 

[Ryan Gruber]

Hey Steve, I recognize that first landing....that's where everything was going "smooth" till I realized I forgot to throw the plug in!

 

[Steve Sutton]

no plug to forget....

Steve

 

[Ron Schuna]

I've used the bungie net that is sold for holding stuff on a four wheeler rack. They work real nice for stretching over the deck and then weaving the natural grass from the area through. You can get them in the sporting good section at walmart fairly cheep and they don't take up much room on the boat

 

[JS McKinney]

Steve have you or anyone else used the momarsh invisibungee? is it any easier to rig than zip tying the invisigrass?

 

[Steve Sutton]

the motor of my big boat and on the decks of my FatBoy's and DP's.......they are quick and easy but they don't retain the 3D look that the little short individually tied clumps that I like so mush have when they are wet....one thing you need to do on the invisa-bungees is to reef down on the original zip ties that are on the bungees as soon as you take them out of th ebox....I'm not sure if its the grass shrinking or the compaction from shipping but I got several notches of "tight" out of the zip tie when I did it and that stopped the shedding problem that I was having with the bungee set up...for sure the bungee allows for less grass and the ability to shift between boats......

I just don't care for the limp, flat, look of any of the raffia products when they are wet and this is particularly so when it horizontal....its not so bad vertical but really gets flat when wet when its horizontal, (and when isnt it wet in those situations)?

Steve

 

[Dick Sargeant]

Hey Steve - Thanks very much - what a good looking boat/blind !

Thanks also to all the guys who answered my post - this site is the best........ duck junkies......... it's refreshing here in the people's republic of MA.

Steve, if it isn't confidential, could you please splain to me which invisagrass product you used with which dye to get that color which is just what I'm looking for ?

BTW - how did you like Manitoba - I was there once and will never forget the snows and mallards/pintails that we had in fields with just a ton of windsocks. My lab was dressed in a white lab coat ........... priceless.

Someday I want to get to Alberta which looks incredible.

Thanks again !!!

sarge

 

[Steve Sutton]

you'll find it on the MoMarsh website which is owned by Ira McCauley who is a frequent contributer here....

I haven't talked to him about it recently but at one time Invisa-grass had a propriatary coating on it that made it last longer than other raffia products without the coatings. Now this might sound like a marketing hype but I can tell you from personal experience that I wasted one hell of a whack of time when I did the first camo job on my boat with bulk stuff from a craft store and then watched all that work rot away during the first season. IMO, and based on personal experience, this is one of those products where a lower price gets you....taaaahhh daaaah an inferior product....and if you are going to spend the time and effort to do the same set up that I used it makes sense to use a product that has proven that it will last....

Its possible that there are other products now being offered with the same coatings that Invisa-grass has, (althouugh you can be absolutely positive thatt the stuff that you buy froma craft store doesn't have it), but I'll leave that as a question for Ira to answer and leave it with what is the most important, cheapest price or longer lasting......I'll vote for the extra money for the stuff to last and spend the money the MoMarsh coated product....

As far as dye goes you can buy the grass from MoMarsh in natural, that atrocious green that looks like there is no such match in nature but matches winter wheat perfectly, a dead ringer for eel grass, a brown and I believe Black, (could be wrong on the black).....and if those colors don't fit the bill then you can dye it yourself. The stuff I've used is good old RIT from the grocery store. If you use it get the water as hot as you possibly can and use lots of salt in the dye bucket.....don't worry if the the grass looks dark when you take it out because it will fade as it dries and is used.....

Manitoba was a great hunt....all divers and all but just a few of those were Redheads and Cans. Never saw a Puddle Duck in a hunting situation and didn't spend anytime chasing Geese but that was the intent of the trip....

Steve

 

[Charlie D]

plastic landscape fence, cable ties, and salt hay works.