How do you guys that own duck boats like that style of duck hunting over the simplicity of a lease? I live in Houston and I have been on a wait list for 2 seasons to get on a lease. As well the lease is quite crowded with both hunters and dogs. It seems like the best option might be to buy a duck boat and hunt the coast instead (good for solo hunting). Anyone have anything negative to say about going the duck boat route over the simplicity of a duck lease?

crowded lease vs crowded public. choose your poison

Boat- Bring out another thousand

I love boats even if they are expensive so I wouldn't trade mine for a lease. Something about cruising through the glass smooth water at 4am gets me excited.

I agree with Tvilbig...... Id rather be in control over where i hunt... meaning i love to scout and i have numerous options where a lease your really concentrated on certain spots... If you have 3 spots on a lease and no birds well your stuck... on lakes and espicially on the coast... you put the time in and scout usually end up with better results.... but lease has its advantages... straight to the blind with no one waiting in your spot...

Good question,I'm not on a lease but I do have rights to hunt a few private spots both in Texas and Oklahoma and I do have a boat.For me I like the options it gives me but if you are talking about a lease that has that much pressure,I hope you guys have a lot of food or something the birds really want on that place or I can bet you will be spending a lot of time in the blind thinking about that Gator Trax boat you should have got.

Tough decision, but in my opinion I dont think I will ever go without a boat a day in my life. Ive got 3 boats, just sold my 4th...Duck season is just part of the fun, theres always fishing and summer time to enjoy a boat as well. If anybody is like me, I can't stay off the water.

I'm on a lease, and look at getting a duck boat all the time.

thats all i have ever hunted is public land and i havnt had a problem not killing bird...

As stated earlier, unless you've got a really good lease, your options are limited most days, where as with a boat you have the ability to change locations, even bodies of water.

I've done the lease thing and now i'm back on public but have not floated the boat on a duck hunt yet this season. I don't fish, so i think about selling it quite a bit on years like this.

I have both - a lease and a boat. I got the lease for the simplicity and ease as well as to access more, supposedly better, areas. The lease is my coastal hunting. It has it's advantages - someone does all the scouting, there are many fields/ponds so it's not crowded, no trying to beat the crowd out to a favorite hole and pretty much drive right up to the blind, which is so easy for duck hunting it's ridiculous.

Still, I have to get out in the boat once in a while. The lease is too easy and it feels like cheating. It just doesn't feel as authentic when you don't earn it. There is something to be said about busting one's butt for a good hunt. Besides, when I take the boat (or yak) out, it's a totally different hunt, flooded timber, sloughs, different ducks, different strategy... nice to have the mix and the option to switch between the two.

But if I had to choose just ONE... to be honest, I'm debating if I want to spend the money on the lease again next year. I've shot more ducks on public than on the lease and I keep wondering "what the heck did I pay for?" Then I sit there grumbling to myself cuz I wouldn't have picked the spot I was given. I grumble even more when I find out they were bustin limits at another spot I knew would be good. Not sure I can live peacefully with this business of having my location 'assigned' to me. If I'm gonna have a lousy hunt, at least I'd like it to be due to my own poor choice of location, not one that was assigned to me. It doesn't seem to bother my hunting buddies as much as it does me, so maybe I'm just too darned demanding, particular, independent... or something.

due to the lack of water I got on a lease this year and sold my duck rig since I would not be using it much. Now that I have hunted private all season this year I can tell you I miss the 3am boat rides and fighting the public. Those boat rides that freeze your face just make duck season feel like duck season.

I regret getting rid of the boat, but we dont have any water to use it in anyways unless I want to drive 6hrs for a weekend hunt.

Was gonna ask you some questions but your PM box is full.

For me a boat isnt something I can get away with at this point. I got two little girls so it would be a totally selfish purchase for me. So I'm on a lease.

I'd say if you are somewhat newer to duck hunting and can afford it go with a boat. Get the feel of what duck hunting is all about. Half the skill of being a duck hunter is finding spots to hunt...if you are on a lease it's almost like cheating. But at the same time finding a lease is a real hunt sometimes too, lol.

Boat

I'd rather have the lease. You can easily dump a lease if you get tired of it or money gets tight. Boats are a little harder to unload.

I had a boat last year and after dealing with the public retards a few times, getting up at 2am to drive to get away from folks and putting 24k miles between me and my buddies truck I sold the boat and seeked out a lease.

If you would've asked me at the split I would've told you I made a mistake. We shot one teal during teal season and 8 birds in the first split and that was the last weekend. We got rain the week of Thanksgiving that flooded everything and then came the birds. It is crazy how different this second split is shaping up from the first.

It has been a great 2nd split so far and I really expect it to get better. We leased this place for what we thought January would be like and we aren't even there and happy with the lease.

I think it depends all on the lease. I have zero interest in the hunt club leases they do down on the coast but if you can find you some ground and secure it yourself then I am all for the lease. It isn't cheaper from the money perspective but when you count I get to sleep in, the money I am saving on fuel and knowing you aren't gonna have some jackazz setup 100 yds from you and blow at birds working your spread it makes it easier to do. I actually have done more work cleaning the place up of old wood from blinds, building blinds, planting millet than I ever did on public so I don't feel like my lease has been cheating because nothing was done for us, we have done it all.

The upside to the boat is getting to see new water and being able to move where there is water, food and birds if you get a dry or abnormal year. But it seems there is always $20 worth of something needing fixed on the boat and storage because I didn't have a place to store it at home.

Again????!!!! I have the same problem with my work inbox, and my garage, and my kitchen sink.... I'll go clean it out.

Find a lease with less people and dogs and get on it, the up side to the boat is if you fish then it's not just sitting in the off season

i will allways keep a boat i run a mud rigg but i fish a little so i got a little bit of both love mine .

both

Having options and flexibility is everything in duck hunting. You just never know what will happen from one year to the next concerning water and weather patterns. I would rather take the boat out, but it sure is nice from time to time to hit a private spot and avoid the crowds and having to deal with trailering the boat to and from your spot. So if you got the time and money, a few leases and a duck boat would be the ticket.