Duck Hunting From Canoe?

Used to hunt on a WMA that was a swamp with about 8" of water, so we used a 17' square stern with a 4.5 Merc. We'd cover the canoe about 1/4 mile from the blind on an elevated place. A 12' would be to unstable and if it's wood, to tender to put the clamps for a tie-down.
 
Mikenbarb, I've hunted geese on the Delaware.They didn't seem to be bothered by a red canoe.In earlier times the goose season was in early Nov so I made outriggers with 4" pvc about 27" long and attached to 6' long cross pieces.The tube length was picked so we could detach and put the rig into the canoe for transport and storage. Two of use , each 200+ ,couldn't even start to tip over the canoe.My hunting buddy went across the Hudson at Newburgh with it - crazy but possible only with the outriggers !
Normally it's a two man job ,one shooter and one paddler. We drove along the river and spotting a flock [usually small] we put in above them and hoped they would stay there.Some were very tame , some wary. I've done it solo but that's difficult too much to do, watch the geese,make sure of background [safe shots away from houses etc] ,paddle the canoe.But even solo I was successful .It takes skill .Try not to shoot off the side. I met a fellow who hunted deer from a canoe and shot off the side with a 7mm Mag . Rifle,hunter,canoe took a bath ! :rolleyes:
If you take care of the geese immediately and cook them properly [braised] they taste great not gamey. :)
 
We use them to get to hard to reach spots. They are handy to bring dogs and decoys in with. If you have some resemblance of balance then there should be no reason why could not shoot from the canoe. Me on the other hand would be found dead 6 miles down river from drowning.
 
Mikenbarb hasn't posted since last may. We did learn back then about him loosing his wife.
I Pray he is alright and would love to see him back posting again.
 
I went duck hunting with my older brother once when I was back in the NE on leave from the military.

He had a piece of 4" (Maybe 6") thin walled PVC pipe, capped off at both ends that he used as an out rigger. He had a two wheeled cart that used bicycle tires to cart the canoe into the river with. We had to walk over an old game trail about 1/2 mile and he put the canoe on the cart and the outrigger in the canoe along with a few decoys and our guns. When we got to the rivers edge, he assembled the outrigger by hooking it to the canoe (He unscrewed the cap on the outrigger and pulled out two more pieces of PVC pipe). It was great for working the very shallow areas of the river and between polling and paddling, we had a pretty good time.

I just realized this thread is almost two years old. Sorry. Maybe someone else looking for info will find it.
 
Just had a little reminiscing session with my neighbor Egor today at his shack, when I went to check out my hunting shack. He used to own a Grumman Sport canoe. His late BIL Dick and I were using his canoe to jump shoot a small river. We were having a wonderful time. We came to some white water and Old Dick said we have to portage around this area and looking up the banks I was thinking, is he nuts! I told him to let me get a closer look(Dick was in the stern) and seeing the white water was only about 100 yards through and moving well I gave a hard stroke and down we went. It wasn't going to well, and when I could, I glanced back to see Old Dick hugging his 1100 Rem to his chest. I hollered at him to grab his paddle and help! All he could say was, "No way am I going to loose this shotgun! I worker to many overtime shifts to loose it".
When we got through I had a short stick left, nothing resembling a paddle!
No way did I think my old friend would react that way!
Then he said, Egor(his BIL) had ordered some touch-up paint to fix a scratch on this canoe. When we flipped it over onto the car rack there wasn't hardly any paint left on the bottom, so I told him he better tell Egor to order more paint! ( I offered to pay) ;)
The next time Egor took the canoe out hunting (2 weeks later) he flipped it, and sold it the next week!
 
I duck hunt from a 14' Poke Boat kayak and absolutely love it. I tether the paddle and lay the gun down along my leg and have a small action packer with shells and stuff on the floor between my legs. The Poke Boat is ideal for this as it weighs so little. In shallow water you can tie it to your belt and drag it along behind you. It's stable as hell too and will hold around a dozen decoys in the front and back. I can get into places only a Mud Buddy can go. Very fun I assure you. Sometimes I park it in thigh deep water and stand beside it to shoot then jump in to fetch downed ducks. I've also done a lot of duck hunting on a small creek with a canoe. That is too fun also as you never know whether there will be ducks around the next bend. I did have to dive 6' down for my gun once when it flipped off the thwarts into a hole; that was interesting in the Alaskan cold.
 
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