Summertime Duckboats

rich scheffer

rich scheffer

Well-known member
Duckboats arent just for winter duckhunting. Here are some shots of my openwater boat "Desert Duck" [the rarest of all ducks]. This boat it is great for taking my wife and a couple of the chessies out to the sandbar neat the Stuart or St Lucie inlet for a swim. I also fish and rake for some clams out of this boat. All in all a good all year oround boat.. My mud boat "Cold Duck" is perfect for sneaking around in the Narrows which is a system of mangrove channels and salt ponds in the north end of Jupiter Island. This area is mostly used by kyakers, but my rig goes thru there just fine. There is one little hard to find walk thru to the ocean, thats where the picture was taken. We were out there last friday after work, the beach was empty, water bright blue green, weather perfect and hundreds of turtle nests on the beach. I have never seen nests like this. Big boats are fine, they are my business but my beloved little trailered duck boats let us enjoy a little bit of paradise that other boaters cant get to! Rich


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Great stuff Rich. Weather has been hot here but luckily we have been getting rain and thunderstorms at night. Barnegat Bay has been absolutely beautiful!!!
 
For some reason my original post wouldn't display these pictures.
This is Desert Duck, my open water boat.
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Rich

The inline photo thing gets wierd with spaces in the file names...sometimes it works, but often times that is the problem

Best
Chuck
 
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I got out yesterday, but no pictures.... I was surprised to find some breeze in this 100 deg weather we are experiencing and I wanted to try sailing this sneakbox in the worst way...so I headed out for a couple hours yesterday.

I have not figured out a routine yet, but I did get her launched and sailed around the bay for a few hours. Got a little sun, and sore hands. Need to invest in a decent line for the main and need to add another block for the main sheet, one block was just not enough. I need someone to come along to get soe decent pictures so maybe next time.
 
Rich,

Looks like a nice spot. I was going to say I don't miss the heat but then I just checked intellicast and I see it's 98 degrees here on the muddy Mississippi with a heat index of 103! I'll just say I sure miss the blue water, Dolphins, Manatees and fresh sea food! I think it's time for a little R&R trip to the gulf....;-)
 
When I was down a couple of months ago I saw those sandbars near the inlet and thought that would be a great place to pull up to and beat the heat. Nice pics!!!
 
Brian, Nice hearing from you. Took another ride out to the sandbar fri pm with my wife and my hunt dog Diesel. Weather was nice as you can see, temp was 90 at my house when we left, probably 87-88 out by the inlet. Diesel loves this, cant swim enough. We are going to show him next weekend, so I have been running and swiming him a lot,not that he needs any more muscle. I call him my baby gorilla, he is solid muscle and bone,probably the most athletic chessie I have ever owned. Diesel has had his AKC show championship for three years or so , two hunt titles, and we are working on his AKC grand. This dog is a high energy dog, needs lots of jobs. Hunting , showing going to work with me and the time we spend with him practicing give him what he needs. Yes the duckboats in this family get used all year around. I love taking this rig out on the flats. I have my own power trim on this longtail and can trim it up and surface drive it at 12 to 14 mph in about 7 or 8 inches of water, Lots of fun. cornered a school of finger mullets in a little dead end channel,saw some big fish chopping them up. I beached this rig, got out and waded and cast to them. Hooked what I thought was a nice snook or red only to release a small Cuda, still fun. Rich





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Good luck with the show next weekend. It is cooler in Florida than it has been here!!! When you go up to ND in the fall do you tow one of the boats up?

Great pics!!
 
This is my up north duck boat, it lives all year round in Harvey ND. This was originally my florida, Lake O boat but after I built the" Desert Duck" and soon after the "Cold Duck" I left this one up there. The majority of our hunting is over dry fields, but I cant get that boat hunting out of my system. I have shot a lot of divers out of this boat, right on this lake, always seem to have it all to myself. This is a summer shot of the beginning of one of our summer fishing trips on Goose Lake, just north of Harvey. Thats my buddy Albert Faul, one of the best welder/fabricators I have ever met. Albert swings a mean fillet knife for a non coastal person.We always seem to catch a nice bunch of walleyes. Lately our lake seems over-run with Northerns or snot rockets as one local called them. A lot of fun to catch, absoloutely miserable to clean. The meat is a lousy looking yellow/ tan color. Now I know why my grandfather and uncle always threw them back.. I froze a couple bags of fillets, it you can call them that. John VanHouten and I are going up first week in august, I think I will try them on him! Save yourself all that putting up work, just use those boats all summer long. Rich



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I grew up on "snot rockets" Rich and gotta tell ya they are great to eat !!! When you catch a decent one this summer gut him out and bring him back to FL, call my old man and he will show you how to clean one !!! That guy has cleaned 1000's of them and is slick at getting the Y bones out.
 
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