Posted: 9/29/2014 1:40:43 AM EDT
| If so what's your experience? Care to share stories, tips and tricks? I've done it out of my canoe twice and would like to glean info. |
| It is not our primary hunting tactic, but hunting pressure/weather have forced us to float the Snake River a few times. I have a buddy with an inflatable raft, the kind you would raft whit water with. We don't camo it as its olive drab in color, but we do strap sage brush and other type of vegetation to the front and sides of the raft so it looks like a glob of bushes/brush floating down the river. Obviously we stay low then jump them off the water. It has been very productive for us but not very feasible due to lack of put-ins/take-outs on the stretch of the Snake we float. |
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I've done it quite a bit in Michigan and Montana. In a canoe and a raft..It can be very effective. I've had problems with canoeists and kayakers. Land owners can be a problem in places. Check your local laws regarding access. Quoted:
I've done it quite a bit in Michigan and Montana. In a canoe and a raft..It can be very effective. I've had problems with canoeists and kayakers. Land owners can be a problem in places. Check your local laws regarding access. Quoted:
I've done it quite a bit in Michigan and Montana. In a canoe and a raft..It can be very effective. I've had problems with canoeists and kayakers. Land owners can be a problem in places. Check your local laws regarding access. Care to expand on your successes in a canoe? Mode & method? |
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Not sure what you mean by float hunt, but in the past we have hunted out of the boat, on West Branch. You usually build some sort of camo frame and put decoys around you. Haven't done that in a while as we have had a blind drawn each year.
As for hunting a river in a boat, we hunt the river late season, but just sit on the bank and send a dog for the dead. |
| We drift down stream in a canoe or raft,taking turns in the bow. We are camoed up and sometimes use local foilage to break up the outline of the bow of the canoe.. Once ducks are spotted the tiller guy/stern man steers towards them, trying to approach them on the left for best shooting. Pretty effective once the you get the teamwork down. |
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Not sure what you mean by float hunt, but in the past we have hunted out of the boat, on West Branch. You usually build some sort of camo frame and put decoys around you. Haven't done that in a while as we have had a blind drawn each year. As for hunting a river in a boat, we hunt the river late season, but just sit on the bank and send a dog for the dead. Float hunting is more specifically drifting with the current/steering not anchoring or beaching the vessel. The idea is you drift around bends in a river/stream and catch the ducks close enough. The added camo/brush might help in looking like river debris to the ducks. I haven't done it in years but it was fun but I recall the ducks were not all that cooperative and were spooky to anything of size drifting in toward them. I actually had more luck shooting squirrels out of the canopy trees from a canoe. They never seemed to be wary of vessels. |
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We do it alot, after the morning flight they hold on the river pretty hard for the day.
We take a small canoe and one gun. Guy up front has a short paddle and a shotgun, most of the time is spent ready to fire and watching the little hiding spots for ducks to flush. Guy in the back uses a kayak style paddle to steer and we let the current do most of the work. You need to hug the inside of corners as long as you can and then kick the ass end around for the gun in front to get the best angle possible. You also need to be prepared to take longer shots and empty your gun more. It isn't uncommon to regularly take 40 yard shots on our stretch of river and I saw my friend somehow pull off a stone cold kill at nearly 50 last year, I still contend it was entirely luck. We load up with BB's because of the longer shots. It really is a blast and it is a rush later in the season because the water is cold, and falling in means a cold day. Be super safe, wear a life jacket all the time, crack open the shotgun bolt and put the safety on when the front guy is paddling, and just always be ready to take a shot. |
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Float hunting is more specifically drifting with the current/steering not anchoring or beaching the vessel. The idea is you drift around bends in a river/stream and catch the ducks close enough. The added camo/brush might help in looking like river debris to the ducks. I haven't done it in years but it was fun but I recall the ducks were not all that cooperative and were spooky to anything of size drifting in toward them. I actually had more luck shooting squirrels out of the canopy trees from a canoe. They never seemed to be wary of vessels. Quoted:
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Not sure what you mean by float hunt, but in the past we have hunted out of the boat, on West Branch. You usually build some sort of camo frame and put decoys around you. Haven't done that in a while as we have had a blind drawn each year. As for hunting a river in a boat, we hunt the river late season, but just sit on the bank and send a dog for the dead. Float hunting is more specifically drifting with the current/steering not anchoring or beaching the vessel. The idea is you drift around bends in a river/stream and catch the ducks close enough. The added camo/brush might help in looking like river debris to the ducks. I haven't done it in years but it was fun but I recall the ducks were not all that cooperative and were spooky to anything of size drifting in toward them. I actually had more luck shooting squirrels out of the canopy trees from a canoe. They never seemed to be wary of vessels. Later in the season the ducks start hanging out in the longer straight runs and it gets a bit annoying, we just learn where to lock up totally, no paddling or breathing or anything, and when they jump you just have to be ready to start shucking shells. |
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Later in the season the ducks start hanging out in the longer straight runs and it gets a bit annoying, we just learn where to lock up totally, no paddling or breathing or anything, and when they jump you just have to be ready to start shucking shells. Quoted:
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Not sure what you mean by float hunt, but in the past we have hunted out of the boat, on West Branch. You usually build some sort of camo frame and put decoys around you. Haven't done that in a while as we have had a blind drawn each year. As for hunting a river in a boat, we hunt the river late season, but just sit on the bank and send a dog for the dead. Float hunting is more specifically drifting with the current/steering not anchoring or beaching the vessel. The idea is you drift around bends in a river/stream and catch the ducks close enough. The added camo/brush might help in looking like river debris to the ducks. I haven't done it in years but it was fun but I recall the ducks were not all that cooperative and were spooky to anything of size drifting in toward them. I actually had more luck shooting squirrels out of the canopy trees from a canoe. They never seemed to be wary of vessels. Later in the season the ducks start hanging out in the longer straight runs and it gets a bit annoying, we just learn where to lock up totally, no paddling or breathing or anything, and when they jump you just have to be ready to start shucking shells. Sounds right, I always tend to be slow and reserved and it does affect the game bag. |
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You really should go pattern your gun with different chokes at 10 yard intervals, it's expensive but gives you a perfect example of the shots you should be taking.
I use #2 or BB on the river, I keep my shots under 40 yards usually. We floated Friday and Saturday, I didn't shoot either day but I saw my friend hit a mallard at 30 yards twice, it still was hauling ass up the river. I spun us over to the bank while he reloaded and he had to put two more into it. Then I saw him miss 3 mallards at around 40 yards, and another friend yesterday missed some wood ducks at a 20 yard jump. Shooting out of a boat is tough usually, and when you are floating it seems like they never present you with a "good" shot. It can be frustrating, but at least it gets the birds up and moving instead of loafing on the water all day. Our strategy for a full day is usually a morning sit. Then if I have guys with me I will leave them at the first spot and I walk all over hell jumping puddles, sometimes I kick a flight back to where they are. After that romp we go and eat and let them do the second flight around 9am. We start getting loaded up around 9am and do the truck shuffle, we are usually on the water around 9:30-9:45 and it takes 2-3 hours do a do a float between the towns. After noon though I stay right home unless I am really frustrated. If we got skunked I will hit my spot again and jump all the puddles one more time just to try to get a shot off, otherwise though I eat lunch and call it a day. They don't do crap around here in the evening except flock up and fly super high right after legal light. |
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Sounds right, I always tend to be slow and reserved and it does affect the game bag. For next year I want to get a small trolling motor so instead of locking right up on the straights I can at least steer us quietly toward the bank. We have to stop paddling when we see them way up and more than once we have ended up pointing the wrong way but didn't want to brake with a paddle because of the motion. |
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Thanks! What's the best shit size to use? Ill be using a sp-10...I need distance. That gun is expensive to feed. I had a 10 gauge and the cost of shells was crazy. For duck hunting the 12 gauge is way easier on the wallet. Save that 10 for sniping geese. |
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That gun is expensive to feed. I had a 10 gauge and the cost of shells was crazy. For duck hunting the 12 gauge is way easier on the wallet. Save that 10 for sniping geese. Quoted:
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Thanks! What's the best shit size to use? Ill be using a sp-10...I need distance. That gun is expensive to feed. I had a 10 gauge and the cost of shells was crazy. For duck hunting the 12 gauge is way easier on the wallet. Save that 10 for sniping geese. Any other useful tips or tricks? Get in the river post 9am..use the BB, although ill be using BBB (its all I have in 10) and don't be afraid to,take long shots. |
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Any tips I give you can only be generalizations really.
Your local birds might be totally different. Scouting is key. Find out where they are roosting, where they are feeding, take kayak trips in the early fall and figure out where they like to hang out during the day. Just get out and hunt, you'll figure out what works best for you. It just takes a good deal of time. |
| What I do (and I am far from an authority on these things) is hunt almost exclusively from kayak on small ponds. I have to know my ponds because a good portion of my spots are in nice sheltered coves where I paddle around a corner to get a jump on any ducks in the cove. This means shots towards shore. I have to know that there are no houses on the shore in that cove, be sure of my "back stop", etc. This is a tough way to hunt because ducks are spooky of large moving objects coming towards them, but I just cant stand sitting still in a blind. Also, while some may not find it "sporting" to shoot a sitting duck, I find it to be no problem when hunting this way. A duck sitting in a decoy spread at 20 yards I can see as "cheating". When your trying to paddle stealthily to 40 yards without spooking them, thats alot different; and if you can paddle within 20 yards to take a sitting shot, well that is just Darwin's natural selection at work. |