Say you were going to outfit a duck boat...

What are my priorities to pimp this ride?

assuming the motor is running, Lights! You can get away with the bare minimum... most only use their boat for transportation from A to B anyways. As someone on here once said, "a boat blind is a great way to watch a great hunt, that is if your close enough to the people who are not in a boat blind to see them shoot."

get all the safety requirements by law and enjoy your hunt

Im not planning on hunting out of it like a blind, but is it worth it to paint it just so i don't have to cover it with a net?

I've always gotten to my hunting location, unloaded everything and then went several hundred yards down the bank and stashed it.
Is my boat camo? yes
Is it a necessity? no

I've used a silver/white Ranger bassboat to get to the location. gone and stashed the boat and killed limits, also had birds go land 50yds from it... don't over think it

Spray painting the boat is fun though... we always seem to go wayyy overboard with "details" and start giggling like little girls, might be from the paint fumes

Same here

Convert to airboat

Aside from a ditch bag with appropriate safety gear, anchor, oars, and bailing bucket, I'd put a motor with some testicular fortitude on it (either surface drive or outboard w/hydro jackplate depending on application) followed by a 24v power system (two blue tops) and an LED running light bar. Then a grab bar helm station w/GPS behind a durable cooler/seat. Camo is probably optional if you're not going to hunt out of it. Make sure your trailer is in good working order. Nothing like 3:30am on the side of the freeway with smoked bearing.

I'm assuming that is a 14 ft with a 15 hp. Your biggest concern is keeeping it light as possible. Paint it
and get some decent lights. A bilge pump would be nice and maybe a push pole.
Thats a nice rig for one guy and a dog. maybe 2 but I hope you don't have fat friends.
You won't be crossing much big water with that rig with a big load. Rememeber when you come back between the birds and all the wet decoys and gear you're gonna gain about 75 lbs.
Thats a great rig if you learn your limitaions but its also a rig that can get you killed.

One more thing bring lots of shear pins and once you tear up that prop get it reconditioned and keep as a spare.don't worry about a net.

Best dang advise right there.

Put the motor, lights ect and go hunting. Park it, walk to hunt. Make it as simple as possible.

Bearings for the trailer and make sure those tires are road worthy. Can't hunt if you can't make the ride.

If that's a 14' then your 15hp motor should be plenty, I've had 3 guys a dog and all of our gear in a 14' with a 9.9hp. I would give the motor a tune up and replace the gear oil in the lower unit. Install a 12v power supply and some LED lights. Sand, prime and paint and your ready to roll.

My mouth starts watering just looking at the pics.. nice buy!!!

I just finished mine a few months ago. Keep priorities in order, motor, trailer, legality all come first.. if you don't know the condition of the bearings replace them and buy a spare to keep with you. Mine looked brand new but i happened to pull into the wal mart parking lot to find out the passenger side bearing had completely melted off. By some stroke of luck, wal-mart in Edna TX of all placed had replacement bearings ($14).

Once you're rolling paint it, add lights (i got the battery opperated NAV lights from Academy). Install 12V outlets in the front and back (for q-beams, phone chargers, etc..) LED light bars (next on my list), if you're handy, build a small plywood deck on the front end, you can buy the pontoon flotation blocks that add a lot of boyancy (will need a good tig welder).

I painted mine camo and am building a pop-up style blind for it now. I know some guys who have had a lot of great hunts out of their boat blinds.. you just have to do take the time to hide the outline of a boat - make it look like a bush!

Here's some before and after pics of mine.. good luck and if you have any questions im happy to help!

Nice job coach.

Sweet rig, you did a really nice job!!

Thanks! Been a great little boat! Named her SizeMatters

Spray paint does wonders and is cheap... rig up some lights and make sure the transom plate is in good shape... those little motors are rough on um.. also adding or rebuilding the floaters would be nice.

Aint gota be fancy to kill ducks... maybe to make people think you kill ducks then I would recommend a push pole set up that you could hang 6 dozen decoys from and a 35hp surface drive with led lights and a radio that looks cool while its parked on the trailer that sits on 20inch wheels...

I rather not draw attention... people seem to not take me serious and I like it that way

x2

B Break

O out

A another

T thousand

Have fun........

I've been in it on Sam Rayburn with waves coming over the side. Believe me it wasn't fun. Only planning on using it in the river or on very small lakes.

Very nice work on that boat!!

The places I'm hunting though are in the middle of big flats with tall grass all over. Can't park on the bank and walk. Need something I can push up into the grass in the middle of the lake and halfway conceal it and hunt about 100 yards from.

Mine's been to canyon lake and the coast several times. Took it across the bays fishing and things only got hairy once at night with 25-35 mph winds and 3-4 ft swells. That's something i dont think I'll be doing again but as long as you're smart about it and don't push your luck you'll be fine.

Even though you can pull the plug on plane to drain it, a high flow bilge pump is also not a bad idea!

Good little project.

Nothing wrong with pushing the limits to know what you can handle... just do all that in the summer and don't have waders on.... always good to know what happens when your boat gets swamped so you know how to react if it ever happens in a bad situation.. that's if you have good floaters and don't be in the middle of the lake... please don't go sink your boat on purpose and be upset with me... my first one wasn't on purpose and it was a rough day but it was good to know what to expect after that.. my second boat yeah I swamped it the first week of having it just to see what would happen. pretty cool sinkin a boat on purpose and harder than you would think

Thats true about a boat being hard to sink, most times they over turn before sinking not saying you cant sink a boat but a wave will flip you before sinking you.

My new "used" duck boat for this sesason "The Hulk"... Took it out on a 25mph north wind gusts around 35 just before teal season to test its limits and im sure glad I did! Ended up having to walk the boat on the trailer in chest deep water but I sure learned a lot about this boat! Not my first boat, and not my first sketchy moment on the water, sometimes its good to figure out where the breaking point is. That way when you get caught out there in a bad situation your prepared and know what to expect!

I do the same in my truck when we have ice storms, Last year after the mornings hunt I took my gf to the near by empty parking lot and showed her exactly what would happen and how to best act when your sliding out of control... Its also a lot of fun to play!

Well, we put a new tank and fuel line on it because the fuel pickup line in the tank had broken off at the plastic 90 degree part. Still couldn't get fuel to the fuel pump. The only thing in between the two was the fuel hookup on the motor. We took it off, and there was living larvae plugging up the entire hole. It was GROSS! Well, we cleared that out and got fuel shooting out of the pump. I pumped the bulb a few times to try and clear out that line as much as I could just in case a momma bug was in there. Still wouldn't start. Checked the plugs. They were wet and black, but would spark against the power head very easily. Going to break into the carb this weekend.

I guarantee you the carb needs to be rebuilt, and probably need to go ahead and change the impeller, along with the L/u fluid. did you do a spark and compression test on the motor before you bought it?

The motor is my father in law's. It was completely serviced 2 years ago. It ran great afterwards. Its just been sitting for a while. I didnt buy it. Just helping fix it so i can have access to use it during duck season instead of my Triton. We're going to tear down the carb this weekend.

make sure there are no dirt dover nest clogging anything.. and id drain the gas and start with fresh fuel.

dober*

I bet its the plugs! mine were black like that and they would spark, but wouldn't run the motor until they got hot (cranking the motor for about 10 minutes). I replaced them and it cranked right up the first try. At $2 a pop I'd try that before messing with the carb.

Plugs, fresh gas (add stabil!) then start working out the carb issues. If there was untreated gas sitting in the fuel line or carb, you may want to replace the whole fuel line. The ethanol breaks the liners down in the specially made marine ones. Just go get standard fuel hose from an auto parts store and then you'll be able to make it to your own length perfect for the boat (especially locating the tank forward).
The impeller is easy to do, should be done even if its just been sitting. So is a quick change of the lower unit oil.

Always carry spare plugs and a plug wrench too. Those lil two smokes foul plugs sometimes.

Just run 93 though it and you will get the best results.. and also a quality 2stroke oil... not some $3.00 bottle for weedeaters. Make sure you replace the gas when you replace the plugs if not the old gas will most likely foul them out again

We've got new gas/oil in the new tank with new fuel line and bulb. Headed to get a carb kit now and plugs.

May price a new carb also. Sometimes they aint that much more than a kit and your time putting it on.

Also put a fuel and water filter on it.

Change the air in your trailer tires too

Got her going!

Nice.

Ok...so I'm looking to get a john boat set up also. I've never really hunted out of a boat. Owned many a bass rockets and I'm really comfortable with a standard outboard. Do you guys like the standard outboard or the mud motor in the lakes and rivers of North Texas? Can you get shallow enough with a standard outboard?

Got a floor in! If you have a flat bottom, this is a great, cheap way to put a nice floor in it. We stacked two pieces of 3/4" insulation styrofoam in the gaps between the rungs which made the floor level, then put 3/8" rubber horse stall matting on top. Feels great under your feet! I'll be painting it tan to keep down on the heat.


Before:


After:

Good electronics with GPS helps a ton in the early morning darkness.
Also, rewiringit is worth the time and expense. I referbished my 4 years ago. It looked about the same as yours. We did a camo wrap. It looks great but it was a chore. Good wiring, good batteries, good electronics, good lights, and I added tilt and trim for the shallow water.
I also rewired the trailer, new tires and wheels, and new bearings.

Comin along nicely!!! Motor purrs like a kitty

Yes you cant get shallow enough with an Outboard.When you are running into your hole in the AM you should just get shallow enough to where everyone can get out and walk it in the rest of the way. I have a Mud motor and I never just run it into the point where everyone can just jump out and get into the blind.....its dangerous to run it like that and just flat out stupid. I tell guys dont be Freddy King with your mud motor or you may be found face down, these boats and motor combos are 4x4's and should be used as such, So basicly what im saying is get what you want because both will get you in the duck woods.

X2 unless you find lilies or mud

that's a great idea!

You don't even have to screw anything down, so if you need to clean it out, just lift up the mat and go to town! Water still drains like it should as well.

That horse stall matting is very heavy though and will add a lot of weight to your hull, especially if you need a couple of matts.

It's not the super thick stuff. 3/8" but heavy enough to stay down

gonna get a little warm in the summer. guess it's not an issue if you're not fishing out of it.. i use mine for both

Thought about spray painting it to keep down on heat. May just hold off and see how it works out first

not a bad idea.. im pretty pumped to see how it turns out! Keep posting pics!!!