Better Blind

[JABIII]

Building a better duck blind

Friends rig boat to great success

By Phil Bloom

Outdoors editor


After his first season of waterfowl hunting, Eric Warden saw the need for a better duck blind.

So, he and his pal Travis Pliett made one.

Before they did, though, the two hunters spent four months discussing options and sketching out potential designs.

“We finally came up with this,” Warden said.

This is an 18-foot jon boat rigged with an aluminum framework clamped to the hull. The frame is topped with sheet metal and covered with artificial grass that leaves a narrow eight-inch viewing gap. With a tug on one cord, the roof pops up and the side drops down to provide a clear shot at passing waterfowl.

“I don’t know how many more like it are out there,” Warden said.

Warden and Pliett have continued tweaking their creation, with more changes in store, including gun racks, storage shelves and bigger hydraulic lifts.

“We went from laying in fields with a piece of mat over us to this in one year,” Warden said.

The metal framework is covered with a mesh net to which the artificial grass is attached with “about a million zip ties,” he said.

At first, they tucked green-leafed springs from maple trees but discovered they dried quickly and blew off.

“You’ll notice we’ve got pin oak branches on there now,” Warden said. “Oak leaves hold their leaves over the winter. Even though some of these have dried out, they hold up really well even after going up and down I-69 two or three times.”

Towing the duck blind behind his truck has drawn attention.

“I think I’ve almost caused a few accidents,” Warden said. “You see people going through intersections who aren’t paying attention and then all of a sudden stop. We get a lot of thumbs up and ‘Nice blind.’

“Motorcyclists really seem to like it. They always seem to wave. I’m sure it looks kind of interesting going down the highway at 55, 60 mph.”

The maiden voyage wasn’t without problems, though.

“It was a pain in the butt,” Warden said. “We didn’t have a door in the front, so it was difficult getting in and out and maneuvering it and figuring out how to drive it and setting out decoys.”

They added a door in the bow, made push poles to help in navigating shallow water and added a string of 17 interior lights attached to the gunwales.

“They come in real handy,” Warden said. “We get out about 2:30 or 3 (a.m.) and it takes awhile to set up.

“At least with the lights we’re not tripping over guns and stuff. It could be dangerous out there when it’s real dark, and this keeps everything nice and lit up in there.”

Warden and Pliett tested their hunting barge during the early goose season that ran from Sept. 1-15.

“We’ve done pretty good,” Warden said.

They bagged 18 Canada geese between them in the early season, two shy of a limit, but the real test is ahead.

“We’re going to try it out on ducks,” Warden said. “See, geese are pretty stupid, if you ask me. That’s going to be the clincher. If ducks can see us, we’ll have to go back to the drawing board. But I don’t think we’ll have a problem.”

Once duck hunting season ends, though, Warden the top comes off.

“There’s only about 124 pounds of aluminum and 30-40 pounds of sheet metal,” he said. “It just flies right off and the boat goes back to being a fishing boat. I’m a big, hard-core fisherman, too.”

Hunting seasons for most ducks begins Oct. 9 in the northern part of the state. It ends Oct. 11 but resumes Oct. 23 and runs through Dec. 18. Canvasback and pintail can be hunted in the North Zone (roughly the northern third of Indiana) from Oct. 23 to Nov. 21.

Season dates for the South Zone and Ohio River Zone are later.

Phil Bloom/The Journal Gazette

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journal...ts/9765921.htm

[Johnny Reb]

[img]graemlins/thumb2.gif[/img] Interesting! Thanks for sharing.