Sunday, July 14, 2013

A Boat or Something Like That

I'm not too far from a river that flows out of a big lake.  The river has lots of inlets, the lake is loaded with islands and the islands are full of deer and hogs.   One of my brothers in law hunts the area, getting around by airboat.   Its nice.  Public land without the armies of opening day idiots tromping past your stand at 7:00 AM or shooting at everything that moves.   I've gone with him a couple of times but his wife hunts with him so I can only go when she doesn't.   He took this picture from his airboat recently.  That's his wife in the foreground.  I'd leave me out too.  I keep tellin' him to buy a friggin' lottery ticket.



A good friend owns some land on the river so I guess it was just a matter of time before I bought a boat.   Not an airboat.  That's way out of my budget.  Just something that will get me down the river and to an island and back.  Something I can toss on top of Ruth, the Jeep, and take places without having to fool with a trailer.  What I got wasn't too different from this picture from Shorpy.com:


Mine's basically a 16' canoe.  It has a flat stern that takes a small outboard motor.  Mine's not split open like the one in the picture and mine's plastic but, other than that, there's not much difference between this boat and mine.   It will go places that even a jon boat won't. 

Have not decided if I'm going to get a small gas engine or an electric one.  I prefer gas engines except when they decide not to start.  I did buy some expensive foam blocks to sit on Ruth's roof and I bought a $20 aluminum and plastic oar.  I will need to get a pole for moving through tall grass and do a few minor things to the boat before I put it in the water but it feels good to have it.

There's ducks on the lake too.  I plan to  hunt ducks as well this year.  I'm going to load my own 10 gauge shells with ITX shot from Ballistic Products.   Might even get one. 

I think it was Gordon MacQuarrie that wrote a story about hunting ducks on the Mississippi and paddling a boat across the river to get to them.  I'll have to read that again.  That's a serious hunter.  People were different back then too.  








2 comments:

Dean Weingarten said...

I just visited the lake where Gordon McQuarrie had his "shack", the middle Eau Clair lake in Northern Wisconsin.

My father knew him a little, as both were avid flyfishermen on the Namekagon.

It sounds as though you have a Scanoe. I have one as well.

You might consider a 2.5 or 3.5 horse used Tohatsu 2 stroke engines. A little looking and they can be had for about $150. They are probably the best small outboards ever built. Most of the small outboards sold in America are actually Tohatsu engines after about 1980. Nissan, Mercury, Mariner, Johnson, Evenrude, after about 1980, the 2.5 oor 3.5 horse 2 strokes are all Tohatu engines.

Otherwise, I have an electric trolling motor, and it works real well if you do not need to go more than about 5-6 miles.

I have been aiming to oars on my Scanoe, by all accounts they make a great rowing machine.

Lantry said...

Wow. I'm still amazed at how little time has passed since so many of the outdoors writers were in their heyday.

I don't know what you'd call my boat. It is a cheap one made by Coleman. I will definitely look for a Tohatsu. Thanks for the advice.