# Flats boat/Lay out boat



## DuckNut (Apr 3, 2009)

Drag the layout to the middle and then take the boat to the side and hunt/fish while the guy in the layout is freezing hunting.


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## BigSkyDave (Oct 18, 2011)

I know that's the classic way to layout hunt. But I usually hunt alone. I've had a little success using my old Sears Gamefisher Tri-hull. But it's about worn out. Thinking of replacing it with something that would be a better (quiet) flats skiff that could also work as a layout.

Speaking of freezing - I've gone over the tops of my hip boots when it was twenty below, shot one mallard after 3 hours at 18 below, laid out under a sheet on ice for hours watching swans cavort it the only open water on the lake hoping the ducks and geeese would come at 10 degrees, rescuded an exhausted deer-hunting canoer blowing in the dusk toward his death on thin sheet ice a mile from shore --- gotawanna.

So what color do you think would work best for a Florida layout? Up nort' they're often light gray.


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## DuckNut (Apr 3, 2009)

We use 20-24' jon's up there and camo them up with so much crap you think it is a floating island of weeds, throw out a few hundred dekes. In MI some buddies had a barge that has been converted to a quasi live aboard that the shuttle boats can park inside and can hunt 20 with ease. Once again cover it up with so much stuff you cant see it. This thing is so big it had trees growing on it. It has since become a reef.

When we would get the really fast freezes we would use visqueen and lay it on the snow and place goose decoys around the edges and it would simulate open water for all of the migrating geese that got caught by the freeze over. Chuck Lichon wrote a story about us in Wildfowl mag.

The color is more a function of the area hunted. The water in FL has lots of tanin (brown), grey is not a good choice. If you are hunting the gulf, grey would work.

Are you hunting in FL or MT?


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## WhiteDog70810 (May 6, 2008)

I plan on doing exactly that for late season rafted up ducks.  I think the main problem is the style of camo instead of the actual color.  Most blinds/duck boats end up being glorious camo boxes of some form or another.  Instead of a box, smooth the transition from the water to all vertical faces and break up every straight line.  The odd shadows and straight lines are very unnatural and I think late season ducks start to notice the common scissor blinds due to them.  A layout blind has a much lower profile and it is therefore easier to smooth the transitions.  Old school sneak boats and scull boats have few vertical surfaces above the water line so that hiding them isn't much work.  A flats boat will have a more vertical surfaces, but with some thought, you can hide them.

Nate


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## BigSkyDave (Oct 18, 2011)

Ducknut, I hunt both Montana and Florida. 

We've been retired 6 years, summering until the end of Oct (Ok it ain't summer here we had 3" of snow today) and wintering in FL.

So far I'm doing much better in Montana than I am in Fl. Sure don't have FL. duck hunting figured out.


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## BigSkyDave (Oct 18, 2011)

Nate, Please keep us posted on what you do and how well it works!


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## mwk (Jul 3, 2008)

We use kayaks


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## DuckNut (Apr 3, 2009)

I know the lake you are hunting...send a pm when you get down here


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## BigSkyDave (Oct 18, 2011)

Will do!

Thanks


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