(Photo courtesy of David Stimac.)
July 12, 2024
By David Rearick
Owning a duck boat isn’t necessary to kill ducks, but it sure helps. For instance, as the season progresses and the birds begin to smarten up, ducks may no longer covet the cove where the elderly couple was feeding them bread all summer. Instead, they may fly over to the less-accessible side of the lake, and then laugh at you as they fly just out of range, flipping you the “bird” as they cruise on by. If you want to pay these birds a return favor, a boat may help even the odds.
The good news is duck boats are readily available from multiple manufacturers and built with duck-worthy options that make them more than just your grandparents’ fishing boat. Duck boats are more like the street dragsters of boats; tweaked, tuned, and designed for duck-hunting performance. Sold in all shapes and sizes, whether you are hunting a marsh or the Great Lakes, there is a boat designed just for that. Plus, who needs a 401K, right?
Go-Devil 16x7x8 Floating Duck Blind If you are looking for a duck boat with legendary performance using a slick, one-piece hull design, do yourself a favor and check out Go-Devil. Go-Devil manufactures a full line-up of duck hunting and surface drive boats in addition to their longtail and surface drive engines. A unique offering, Go-Devil sells a floating duck blind that is half-boat, half-hide. It combines all the best attributes of their duck boats with a slick hide to create a Trojan Horse on water. This floating hide uses a 16x7 foot boat and places a 9x5 blind on top that easily holds 3-4 hunters. It has brush pipe rail for easy grassing, and even has four built-in gun rests and a front and rear door. Couple this with a Go-Devil surface drive and you’ll be filling straps all season long.
Go-Devil 16x7x 8 Floating Duck Blind Gator Trax Custom Boat Hulls When Gator Trax says they build custom boats, don’t let the over-used term “custom” fool you. Boats built by Gator Trax are truly made-to-order, allowing the user to provide input into every nook and cranny, thus creating a one-of-a-kind creation that will have your hunting crew drooling. These boats are designed for everything from hunting ducks to bowfishing for carp. Gator Trax allows you to bypass getting your Maritime Architecture & Design degree by allowing you to utilize their extensive knowledge and experience to create the craft of your dreams. You produce the design, and they build it. You can also start your design by using one of their base concepts, like the GT, which gives you the layout for your design. With over 23 years’ experience, they know how to make a boat float.
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Gator Trax Custom Boat Hulls Gator-Tail GTR23M New to the Gator-Tail line is the GTR23M. Sporting a 23-hp EFI motor, Gator-Tail is filling a gap in the market with a smaller motor for smaller vessels, without having to sacrifice the power. Gone are the days of having to mount an 8-hp motor because you have a shorter boat. Gator-Tail is allowing hunters to keep the same amount of speed, without needing a giant motor. With a “quick draw” option, you can easily set the motor into a lower mud or reverse position. They’ve also added an easily accessible control box, an integrated free-floating handle, and they offer a lifetime warranty. If you’re like most duck hunters and don’t have a 20-foot barge rated for 40-hp, Gator-Tail has you covered!
Gator-Tail GTR23M Excel Boats River Warrior Some of the best hunting out there happens on the rocky rivers that ducks follow during the migration. Excel designed something just for these birds. Their River Warrior duck boat was designed to hunt moving bodies of water, but it also works like a dream in the marsh. Available in 16 and 17-foot lengths, this boat, rated for an astonishing 60-hp outboard, can fly! Using a reverse chine hull, it has incredible agility and speed, even in tight corners. Some neat features include an integrated gun box, rear corner steps, and an optional 40-gallon livewell. You can even get it cloaked in Gore Optifade.
Excel Boats River Warrior Mud Buddy Warrior Performance Plus Propeller Mud Buddy and Backwater Performance teamed up to design the ultimate propeller. After extensive R&D, they are proud to introduce the Warrior Performance Plus propeller. This prop brings a “whole new gear” to your surface drive mud motor. The two-blade Warrior propeller is designed for large block mud motors that need more speed and more power in deep mud. This 12.75-inch diameter propeller with a 10-pitch blade boasts a thicker surface for tough conditions, harder stainless steel that extends the blade life, and a superior electronic balance. By combining two legendary prop designs—the Mud Buddy Big Blade and the Hammer propeller— the new Warrior propeller will ensure you get to the duck hole first!
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Mud Buddy Warrior Performance Plus Propeller Yamaha Outboards The problem with most conventional outboards is that they are designed for aesthetics, featuring shiny finishes and colorful paint schemes in very indiscreet colors. The answer to concealing said motor usually lies somewhere between covering it with burlap that never stays in place or breaking out a rattle can and doing your best to paint what you hope will turn into a matching color of the habitat you hunt. All that changed when Yamaha introduced their F25 outboard in a desirable matte brown color. The new matte brown finish on the F25 creates much less reflection to help conceal the outboard and blend it in perfectly with a fully cloaked boat hull. Or, if you have OCD about matching colors, matte brown is the perfect backdrop for any custom paint scheme, eliminating the need to paint the entire motor just to cover up that shiny white. It is great to see Yamaha recognizing and appropriately addressing the needs of duck hunters.
Yamaha Outboards F25 Pro-Drive “X Series” TD Duck Boat We all know that Pro-Drive makes surface drive outboards with a legendary Full Power Reverse (FPR), but what do you know about their full line of duck boats that complement their outboards? Their “X Series” TD Edition duck boats combine the features of their X Series with a Timber Deck (TD). This combination creates an ultra-shallow duck hull that has easy in-and-out access using the rear Timber Deck. The older I get, the more I appreciate functional attributes, and having a step sure beats rolling out over the side of the boat and hoping you don’t take a spill as you find your footing in the process. It also includes a fully flush floor design, which is a brilliant idea for a duck boat, leaving plenty of room to store decoys, shell boxes, gun cases, Fido, or whatever else you take into the marsh with you. No worrying about open space with this boat. The X Series TD is available in 18 and 20-foot lengths. You can outfit it with a Pro-Drive X40, and you had better hold on or the boat will leave you at the launch.
Pro-Drive “X Series” TD Duck Boat. Backwater Inc. SWOMP 40 Longtail Mud Motor Most waterfowlers have heard about Backwater’s SWOMP line of longtail mud motors by now. Using a direct drive system, these mud motors can deliver full power transfer to the propeller shaft by eliminating power-robbing u-joints, all with less vibration. The largest in the line, their 40-hp, uses a Vanguard 40 EFI powerplant that doesn’t require the tricky tuning and jetting of carbureted engines. We know that Backwater builds longtails, but did you know they are now building boats? These boats are loaded with features and built for durability, available in 1648 and 1856 configurations. Slap one of their SWAMP 40 longtails on the back, and you’ll be the envy of duck hunters far and wide.
Backwater Inc. SWOMP 40 Longtail Mud Motor This article originally appeared in WILDFOWL Magazine.