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Started By
Message
Hunting Layout boat advice
Posted on 11/5/24 at 10:27 pm
Posted on 11/5/24 at 10:27 pm
I leave on Friday for a weekend of hunting layout boats, attempting to get into some old squaw.
I'm not a stranger to diver hunting but I've never done big water or layout boats.
Is there any advice anyone can give? I'm planning on long range choke and shooting mostly hevi 12 #2 & 4.
I'm not a stranger to diver hunting but I've never done big water or layout boats.
Is there any advice anyone can give? I'm planning on long range choke and shooting mostly hevi 12 #2 & 4.
3
Posted on 11/6/24 at 8:10 am to smoked hog
quote:
I leave on Friday for a weekend of hunting layout boats, attempting to get into some old squaw.
I'm not a stranger to diver hunting but I've never done big water or layout boats.
Is there any advice anyone can give? I'm planning on long range choke and shooting mostly hevi 12 #2 & 4.
An actual layout boat? Never done one BUT I have hunted large bodies of open water from a Beavertail Final Attack boat, a Gheenoe and a 23 foot hurrican deck boat that was more or less a massive layout boat. All of them were set up where there was nothing more than 12 inches or so above the water line and no sharp edges that weren't covered in vegetation and all of them required shooting from a lying position just like a layout blind....so in essence they were basically layout boats without being an actual, traditional layout boat. I have hunted a bunch out of all 3. ALWAYS decoying birds right in your face. In the case of diving ducks it is often necessary to flare the damn things and shoot them going away because they come in from a long ways out just off the deck and while you can hear them coming you cant see them until they start splashing in the dekes and often 10 or 15 feet, not yards, from the blind. Puddle ducks set in just like they do anytime so they are usually visible from further out but divers will just suddenly be all over the decoys. I shoot a modified choke at all times and it is perfect for hunting out of those "layout" boats.
The Beavertail and the Gheenoe are both very tipsy when there is a chop and you are sitting up to shoot...makes shooting hard. That deck boat was akin to a barge....it did not move and shooting was about as easy as shooting from a field layout blind. ALL of them ought to be illegal. Ducks and Geese have NO Idea they are there. You can see it iin their eyes when you pop up to shoot....they will actually turn to look again as they fly away LOL.
I have hunted out of the Beavetail and Gheenoe on COE impoundments in 20 feet of water and on flats just barely covered with water. It is FANTASTIC for stale, decoy shy birds in areas where they raft up in the middle of a body of water as far from shore line cover as they can get. They will readily decoy.
I hunted off the deckboat on the Columbia River adjacent to McNary NWR and without a front the birds would be thick as cordwood and spent all but the first 15 minutes of shooting light rafted up in 10 feet of water a half mile in any direction to ANY vegetation.....the ONLY way to hunt them was a shore blind for about 15 minutes in the morning or from a layout boat....and a small one would be a death trap. The guy who built this thing was a co-worker. It had 5 layout blinds below the deck....and fold out partitions of natural vegetation. The highest point on it was the Suzuki 140 HP jet outboard and the steering wheel....everything else was less than 1 foot above the water. It was by far the most productive blind I have ever hunted out of. From 50 feet away it looked like a mass of vegetation that had floated down the river.....birds were as unconcerned with it as they were one another. I have been in it several times when eagles would land on it. There were a couple of similar blinds buitl on pontoon boats in the area but they were not as low profile and were not as productive. That thing was as close to cheating as a blind can get and not be a sinkbox.
Posted on 11/6/24 at 11:19 am to AwgustaDawg
Example
I hate to use a link but this is a pic the guide has on his page. Single man layout boat, supposed to fairly stable, I hope. 5-15 mph wind on lake Hereon so I'm not sure how bad the waves will be.
I go ahead and throw a decoy choke in just in case.
I hate to use a link but this is a pic the guide has on his page. Single man layout boat, supposed to fairly stable, I hope. 5-15 mph wind on lake Hereon so I'm not sure how bad the waves will be.
I go ahead and throw a decoy choke in just in case.
Posted on 11/6/24 at 11:33 am to smoked hog
quote:
I hate to use a link but this is a pic the guide has on his page. Single man layout boat, supposed to fairly stable, I hope. 5-15 mph wind on lake Hereon so I'm not sure how bad the waves will be.
I go ahead and throw a decoy choke in just in case.
I have never been in one of the actual "great lakes" layout boats but judging from the design and how they get in and out of them they almost have to be pretty stable. My beavertail is....is basically a low profile 8 foot jon boat by 4 feet wide. It bounces pretty good in a chop or swell though. My Gheenoe is also pretty stable when i am lying in the floor but it will also bounce in a swell. The UFO looking layout boats ought to be pretty damn stable. I think you will have a blast. I use my Gheenoe or Beavertail almost exclusively unless someone is going with me and then I simply resign myself to enjoying their company while not decoying many birds. Laying down with only a few inches of anything above the surface in the middle of a lake is not something ducks and geese have caught onto....they seriously will take another look to see just what in the hell just happened LOL. Its a blast. And nothing like shooting ringers and scaup in the face at 10 yards.....
It ain't just for divers, by the way. I kill as many puddle ducks doing it in areas where they are prevalent. All ducks and geese are suceptible to it...getting shot at from what amounts to something below the surface is not something they can wrap their little brains around....
Posted on 11/6/24 at 2:02 pm to AwgustaDawg
I'm going to do my best to avoid scaup, we kill more at our guide service than probably the rest of the state combined.
But the guide has been on the old squaw pretty hard lately and there is always a chance to run into some scoter or golden eye. If wind gets up past 15 mph we are considering jumping over to the marsh. He's seen some black ducks lately and that will suddenly become a very expensive taxidermy trip.
But the guide has been on the old squaw pretty hard lately and there is always a chance to run into some scoter or golden eye. If wind gets up past 15 mph we are considering jumping over to the marsh. He's seen some black ducks lately and that will suddenly become a very expensive taxidermy trip.
Posted on 11/6/24 at 2:11 pm to smoked hog
Have you thought about asking your guide for this advice?
Posted on 11/6/24 at 2:51 pm to Ron Cheramie
Absolutely. I guide ducks 30ish days a year so I've learned that asking the guide is a hell of a head start. I've also learned that the people who do it every day will sometimes take things for granted that they assumed everyone will know.
What I'm doing here is asking if anyone who has only done it a few times had advice that the guide may not consider.
What I'm doing here is asking if anyone who has only done it a few times had advice that the guide may not consider.
Posted on 11/7/24 at 5:11 am to smoked hog
quote:
I'm going to do my best to avoid scaup, we kill more at our guide service than probably the rest of the state combined.
But the guide has been on the old squaw pretty hard lately and there is always a chance to run into some scoter or golden eye. If wind gets up past 15 mph we are considering jumping over to the marsh. He's seen some black ducks lately and that will suddenly become a very expensive taxidermy trip.
I will probably be taken to task but I like scaup LOL. Depending on what they have been eating they eat very good. Also probably based on the bulk of my duck hunting experience in North Georgia where scaup and ringnecks are about the only birds seen other than woodies 20 minutes before and after shooting time. I can remember seasons in the 80s when I would shoot more black ducks than mallards....when you kill 1-2 blacks in 30 days of hunting and haven't seen a mallard close to the spread that will happen.
Sounds like its going to be a good trip. Layout boat hunting is unbelievably productive in my experience. Also sounds like a good guide....has a backup plan that is intriguing instead of a hope and a prayer back up plan.
Posted on 11/7/24 at 8:21 am to AwgustaDawg
quote:
I will probably be taken to task but I like scaup LOL
Oh I love them, they are the spoonies of the divers. Always there to keep you from getting skunked. Its just that we kill so dang many, I'm going to be holding out for something different.
Posted on 11/7/24 at 10:46 am to smoked hog
It’s interesting. The best way to do it is to have your gun shouldered while laying down so you just have to sit up, take safety off and shoot.
It will probably take a few goes to get used to shooting the water movement, the bouncing from the waves is weird. It’s a good time and those birds fly extremely fast especially if they can catch the wind.
It will probably take a few goes to get used to shooting the water movement, the bouncing from the waves is weird. It’s a good time and those birds fly extremely fast especially if they can catch the wind.
Posted on 11/7/24 at 2:19 pm to AwgustaDawg
What model Gheenoe do you have and is it setup special for layout hunting?
I’ve been thinking about getting one to get my son and I on the water more and have the option to hunt skinny marsh sounds pretty good.
I’ve been thinking about getting one to get my son and I on the water more and have the option to hunt skinny marsh sounds pretty good.
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