Any tips on camouflaging boat blind?

[JDude]

I recently bought a Avery pop up boat blind for my 1542 war eagle and it seems like birds are steering clear of me when I’m hunting in the tidal marshes in southern ocean county. I zip tied 8  grass mats I bought from Cabela's to the blind to try and blend in with the natural vegetation but I think the ducks are seeing the boat and keeping far away. Anyone have any tips for what I could use to better conceal the boat? I was thinking about ditching the blind and trying to find natural vegetation to hide in but I find that the tallest the grass gets is about waist high and the ducks would certainly see me and my buddy's in that. I thought that I had taken some pictures of the blind but I can’t seem to find them. Attached is a picture of the stuff I used so maybe you can get an idea of what I’m talking about. Thanks.

[mazzgolf]

Interesting... one of my buddies that I hunt with has a War Eagle with what I think he said was also an Avery blind! And kinda in the same area (a little more south than you - Atlantic and Cape May counties)... I would be interested in seeing a picture of your boat/blind, I wonder if you hunt in a similar set up! I think his is a 16 foot, with a 40hp motor.

If your Avery blind is the same as his, I don't think it helps much. So I agree with you when you say, "I was thinking about ditching the blind and trying to find natural vegetation to hide in but I find that the tallest the grass gets is about waist high."

What we end up doing is finding a bank with taller grass and sitting the boat in front of that, hoping we get some concealment with the grass in back and his front blind wall up.

But then you have to worry about the tides. At high tide, forget it -- we just have to assume we're only killing the stupid birds... high tide it is very hard to conceal ourselves like this with natural vegetation and the War Eagle/blind. In that case, what we do is try to pick an ambush spot where, say, the birds have to come around a corner of some kind where they are going so fast and see your decoys right away that they are on top of you before they have time to react and you have time to pull the trigger. But we have better days at low tide for sure.

I have another buddy who has a different duck boat that I've hunted out of - it's a small 14 foot Duck Boss. I think the Duck Boss with a grass blind hides much better than the War Eagle (but that's just a given due to the nature of the boats).

 

[JDude]

1 hour ago, mazzgolf said:

Interesting... one of my buddies that I hunt with has a War Eagle with what I think he said was also an Avery blind! And kinda in the same area (a little more south than you - Atlantic and Cape May counties)... I would be interested in seeing a picture of your boat/blind, I wonder if you hunt in a similar set up! I think his is a 16 foot, with a 40hp motor.

If your Avery blind is the same as his, I don't think it helps much. So I agree with you when you say, "I was thinking about ditching the blind and trying to find natural vegetation to hide in but I find that the tallest the grass gets is about waist high."

What we end up doing is finding a bank with taller grass and sitting the boat in front of that, hoping we get some concealment with the grass in back and his front blind wall up.

But then you have to worry about the tides. At high tide, forget it -- we just have to assume we're only killing the stupid birds... high tide it is very hard to conceal ourselves like this with natural vegetation and the War Eagle/blind. In that case, what we do is try to pick an ambush spot where, say, the birds have to come around a corner of some kind where they are going so fast and see your decoys right away that they are on top of you before they have time to react and you have time to pull the trigger. But we have better days at low tide for sure.

I have another buddy who has a different duck boat that I've hunted out of - it's a small 14 foot Duck Boss. I think the Duck Boss with a grass blind hides much better than the War Eagle (but that's just a given due to the nature of the boats).

 

 I think the tide definitely plays a part in it because the boat sticks out like a sore thumb with a high tide. I was thinking something along the lines of what you mentioned if I can find some taller grass I can park the boat among it and it’ll be better blended in. I’ll post a few pictures when I get a chance. Thanks for the reply.

[hammer4reel]

20 minutes ago, JDude said:

 I think the tide definitely plays a part in it because the boat sticks out like a sore thumb with a high tide. I was thinking something along the lines of what you mentioned if I can find some taller grass I can park the boat among it and it’ll be better blended in. I’ll post a few pictures when I get a chance. Thanks for the reply.

Remember birds are seeing the top of your whole boat from above 

the reeds only help as they are coming down 

if you don’t camo top side birds less likely to commit 

[Rem Mag]

There could be a few different things going on that's causing your problems. 

Just like hammer mentioned,  the open top can be an issue. Not just because it's open but maybe they are seeing you move and especialy when looking up... if you and then everyone else are looking and you guys aren't wearing face paint or masks that's a lot of face flashing and can definitely flare birds..

Those grass mats may not have enough contrast or could be a little shiny..  an example is that we have spray painted layout blinds (even though they are already camo patterned) with a little flat tan, then muddied them up, then grassed them to kill any shine

Is the motor covered  sometimes guys forget to cover that also

Your spot selection and lack of available cover could be a problem but there are plenty of permanent blinds that guys use in different states and those blinds are sometimes  stuck out in the middle of no other cover and they still kill plenty of birds

It might not be the boat at all. You say tidal marsh and I've never hunted that but is there enough movement happening,  is there waves to move the decoys... if not a jerk rig can really make a big difference. Educated ducks seeing stationary decoys will ignore them

If you want to hunt out of the boat do you have a way to sit. I have and love my avery marsh seat ...of course there are some limitations with water depth or sometimes bottom types but I think its pretty useful and have even used on dry land under the right conditions.  there are a few other brands and slight design differences out there but haven't used any of those.

Remember human movement causes problems with ducks just like deer and turkey.

There are a lot of videos available these days because of drones that show overhead views of decoy spreads and blinds...after watching a bunch I am amazed how anyone kills ducks... the right videos reveal a great perspective.

Sorry for the long winded reply , hope it is food for thought

[JDude]

10 hours ago, hammer4reel said:

Remember birds are seeing the top of your whole boat from above 

the reeds only help as they are coming down 

if you don’t camo top side birds less likely to commit 

The good thing about the Avery blind is when you have the flaps up the top is almost completely covered besides a gap about wide enough to fit your head out. All the foliage on the blind is so thick that you can’t really see out of it so usually whoever is sitting on the bow pops their head out to look for birds. 

[JDude]

6 hours ago, Rem Mag said:

There could be a few different things going on that's causing your problems. 

Just like hammer mentioned,  the open top can be an issue. Not just because it's open but maybe they are seeing you move and especialy when looking up... if you and then everyone else are looking and you guys aren't wearing face paint or masks that's a lot of face flashing and can definitely flare birds..

Those grass mats may not have enough contrast or could be a little shiny..  an example is that we have spray painted layout blinds (even though they are already camo patterned) with a little flat tan, then muddied them up, then grassed them to kill any shine

Is the motor covered  sometimes guys forget to cover that also

Your spot selection and lack of available cover could be a problem but there are plenty of permanent blinds that guys use in different states and those blinds are sometimes  stuck out in the middle of no other cover and they still kill plenty of birds

It might not be the boat at all. You say tidal marsh and I've never hunted that but is there enough movement happening,  is there waves to move the decoys... if not a jerk rig can really make a big difference. Educated ducks seeing stationary decoys will ignore them

If you want to hunt out of the boat do you have a way to sit. I have and love my avery marsh seat ...of course there are some limitations with water depth or sometimes bottom types but I think its pretty useful and have even used on dry land under the right conditions.  there are a few other brands and slight design differences out there but haven't used any of those.

Remember human movement causes problems with ducks just like deer and turkey.

There are a lot of videos available these days because of drones that show overhead views of decoy spreads and blinds...after watching a bunch I am amazed how anyone kills ducks... the right videos reveal a great perspective.

Sorry for the long winded reply , hope it is food for thought

Thank you for the reply. I’ll definitely take what you said into consideration. I cover the engine with the left over blind material. The bow is a little exposed and I have two lights up front maybe the lenses of the light are glaring off the sun. I’m thinking I can rig something up to cover the bow up as well. 

[JDude]

Heres what the blind looks like. Went out today and had some geese come into the decoys. No duck though this season has been rough. I made a mat out of cat tails and jute cord to cover the lights up front. I ended up trimming it down to match the height of the rest of the blind. What do you guys think?

[mazzgolf]

That's looks 100% better camo'ed than the War Eagle I hunted out of

I'm not an expert waterfowl hunter, I just play one on TV. So take this with a grain of salt. But that picture shows you are about 5 to 10 yards from the bank, which might be a problem. Almost looks like an island unto itself; it looks out of place. Snug that thing up closer against a marsh bank nearer natural grass and you should do fine.

Here's my buddy's Duck Boss (not the War Eagle).. notice we found a spot where the grass goes all the way up to the bank edge and we just snuggled up right next to the bank, basically making us look like part of the bank. Now, there were a couple issues with this set up though -- one, I think our grass camo was double the height of the natural grass behind us (again, an effect of the tide), so that might be a tip-off. And two, the bow of the boat could have been covered up a bit more. The color of the fake grass didn't quite match the natural grass, but what are you going to do? It's close enough. We did OK here, so it did work.

[Sako76]

Looks like you need to cover the engine, too many exposed shiney parts.

[rgw]

It’s not your blind it’s your choice of spots in my opinion, got to find a spot the boat can be tucked up to the island to blend in, from the pictures you’re boat is sticking out like a sore thumb