Opening Day - Duck Season 2009
Click the decoy pic above for more photos…
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Mag Bow-mount Trolling Motor
First I ‘fabricated’ a custom fit motor deck out of 3/4” exterior treated Fir plywood. Then I mounted the deck with stainless steel hardware. Next I gave it a nice coat of marsh-grass green, finally a few hours later I mounted the motor with more stainless hardware.
I didn’t have the right coupling for the battery, so I can’t say if it works yet.
Project Outline:
- 3/4” Plywood (free from previous project)
- Marsh-grass paint (free from previous project)
- Used bow-mount trolling motor ($40 from craigslist)
- Stainless steel hardware ($33 from Lowes)
Fun afternoon project, and a great improvement to the Duck Slayer 1K.
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Scouting Chatcolet
I spent a great morning scouting potential duck hunting spots on Lake Chatcolet, Round Lake, and the St. Joe River channel with my brother in-law Chris. Lots of potential spots, and we only encountered two other groups. Of course I’m blogging this so everyone will be there Thanksgiving Day. Who am I kidding, no one reads my tripe.
The Duck Slayer 1K ran beautifully. She is working out to be a great hunting and fishing boat. You can listen to her sweet little engine purr in this video.
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Drawdown Duck Hunting
The Lake Pend Oreille early draw down plan to restore Kokanne populations is killing our hunting spots. The lake is roughly 10 feet lower than it normally is this time of year. Most of the sportsman boat launches are dry, and our traditional spots are not huntable. We made the best of it, but we only came away with three birds.
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Duck Hunting - Opening Weekend 2008
I was unable to hunt opening day because of soccer, but I did make it down to the Chain Lakes area on Sunday for a morning of shooting fun.
Click either pic to go to the full photo set on Flickr:
Short video clip of Scrap calling in some Geese:
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Duck Slayer 1K July 7th 2008
Licensed and ready to roll. We (Ryan and I) took the Duck Slayer 1K out on her maiden voyage for a quick one hour trip around Hayden Lake. She performed admirably.
We discovered two small leaks, nothing serious for a 30+ year old aluminum boat, but something I will try to address.
After adjusting the tilt of the motor I was able to really get up to speed. The lake was too choppy to hit full throttle, but this boat really moves with a 25HP motor.
All in all I’m very happy with her. She’s a keeper. Next post I’ll tally up all the money I’ve spent to get her sea worthy.
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Duck Slayer 1K July 2nd 2008
The painting is complete. Hopefully next week I can get her licensed and in the water.
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Duck Slayer 1K July 1st 2008
The bottom and outside are ready for paint. The hull has been scrapped, peeled, and scratched. Amy helped me flip the boat and set it up.
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Duck Slayer 1K June 30th
New paint! Inside of the beast is now a nice flat Parker Paint Marsh Grass. Beautiful.
I still need to tackle painting the exterior of the boat.
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Duck Slayer 1K June 28th
Finished replacing all the hardware and wood on the transom. I use stainless steel bolts and pressure treated exterior grade Fir plywood. Two hours of work and only two bloodied knuckles.