any suggestions on making a dodger or blind for a kayak

Kirk Talbert

Kirk Talbert

Member





I have a kayak, mines green that I have used to duck hunt out of for several years. There are creeks in the area that hold good numbers of wooducks, but my only success at jump shooting them has been finding winding sections of the creek and suprising them when I come around the bend. But my problem is that alot of the sections are straight aways. I have had some success at piling brush in the cock pit and crouching behind it. But my problem is that there is really not much room to pile brush, fit my legs and keep it all in place. I was thinking along the lines of building some kind of dodger that would fit in front of me at the leading edge of the cock pit that I could crouch behind. Would also like it to hang over the sides to help conceal my paddling. Any thoughts or suggestions?
 
If you are OK with drilling into your boat then it is easy to make a frame out of PVC or EMT conduit and attach it to the front of the kayak. PVC is lighter and may present more options for shaping than EMT will if you can't bend the metal.

The frame can be covered with plastic garden fence in black, brown, or green all depending on the supplier. You then have several options for cover. Use your natural stuff from where you hunt since it is free. Or go to MOMarsh and get some invisa grass or invisa bungee to cover the frame. This material will last longer than natural grass, but using it as a base and then adding some natural stuff to it will make it blend even more. And if you don't want to spend the money, but have all the time in the world, you can buy raffia from a craft store and dye it yourself and then zip tie it to the fence. Lots of time and only half the money. And by lots of time I mean weeks unless you are single and have nothing better to do than spend hours in the shope cutting and then zip tiing grass to fence. Yup, I am still working on mine from last fall.
 
Don't really want to drill hole, but I know that I am going to have to at some point. Just want to get it close to right the first time. I can't be the first one to want to do this.
 
I don't have any personal experience but here is an idea to think about.

I saw this in the Cabelas waterfowl catalog and it got me thinking:

http://www.cabelas.com/...+blind&noImage=0

This is too big and not cheap for what you are looking to accomplish. Maybe try an old golf umbrella for the frame with grassed fencing or chicken wire for the blind. This should mount to your kayak easily and fold out of the way when you don't need it.

For better concealment when closing in on the birds try stowing your double bladed kayak paddle and use a short single paddle sneak boat style.

sneakpaddling2.jpg


sneakpaddling.jpg


sneak paddling.jpg
sneak paddling2.JPG
 
I have a poke boat I camo'd up with paint. I use a single small paddle during stalking procedures.

The dodger is a great idea - how about one of those umbrellas for a treestand hunter. I think they are like $10 bucks at walmart. Or an old decoy bag with some pvc mounted.

Once the ducks get pressured, I can't scull them anymore.
 
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