Hunting Kayak Thoughts

My Current Ride

The above is a Beavertail Stealth 2000 that I use for duck hunting and fishing. I've got 40 decoys in there along with other gear. I paddle it everywhere, but I don't set any speed records. This boat is a hunting/fishing platform 1st, Kayak 2nd. There's no other boat (other than the sister ship Stealth 1200) that has as much space for hauling, or is as wide with a cat hull for stability.

I got this boat from a dealer who had it leftover from a sales show. I paid $575 still in the very large box. I see them on Craigslist for ~$600-$700. New from a box store is $950 when not on sale. I wouldn't be afraid to get one used - short of shooting holes in it, I can't imagine how you can hurt it.

Other Boats

I've got a fairly short list of boats that I would love to have if I had the $:

• 1. Hobie Pro Angler 14 - the Mirage drive is flat out cool. Even the largest Hobies are designed to move through the water efficiently. And everything on a Hobie seems 1st rate. But the Hobie is not cheap at $3500 and they don't appear to cater to the hunting crowd.

  2. Wilderness Systems A.T.A.K 140 - A very well thought out, well engineered boat. Comes equipped - not bare bones. Has a very cool motor well and an advanced trolling motor to go with it. Cheaper than Hobie, but pretty clear that the A.T.A.K is a serious competitor that is targeting the hunting crowd. Typical price of $2200.

  3. Nucanoe Frontier 12 - Has the cheapest entry price at $1500, but is priced up close to the A.T.A.K once equivalently equipped. But if you want to solve your own problems, and create your own solutions, you can get into a very nice SOT Kayak for hundreds less. Typical out the door at $2000.

These are boats that are Kayaks first, hunting/fishing platforms second. That means that you will give up hauling space and platform stability for the ability to cover more water. These are the boats you need if you are going to go miles to your favorite spot.

Camo Ideas

The Stealth is a big boat as far as kayaks go, and it doesn't hide all that easy. What little I've learned from hunting is that ducks look things over from above before dropping down into shooting range. So I wanted to make the Stealth less boat-like as viewed from above. I don't usually hunt from the boat anymore because I don't hunt divers (yeuck!), but I'd like the option. Besides, it is a lot easier to hide the boat in plain sight when I'm hunting from a little hole in the brush.

So the first thing I did was get couple zig-zag pattern stencils, and give the boat a cheezy digital camo paint job. Then I hit the local Goodwill Bins (last place before the dump) and picked up a cubic yard of fake plants. And I got some green plastic fence netting. I probably spent $15 at most. I used some Harbor Freight clamps to hold it on the superstructure - I removed the blaze orange tips from the clamps.

I changed my paint scheme to a more digital look and created a fake plant mat that I use to change how the boat looks from above.

A bag of small Harbor Freight zip ties to attach the fake plants

Here's the side-view.

And here is the duck's view.

The nice part about this approach is that I roll it up when traveling, and roll it out and clamp it on when I'm hunting.