Boats for Bucks

In the old days we hunted almost exclusively on public land.  That means high hunter pressure and skittish deer unless you were able to out walk the competition into some of the most god forsaken tangles in the woods.  The trouble with that is most public hunting areas don’t allow motorized vehicles, at all, so you might have out walked the other guys but getting your game out and back to the vehicle was a whole other story.  To put is concisely, I’ve been a part of some long drags.  

Sometimes you don’t have any land or maybe you don’t have a lot of time off for hunting and have to hunt close to home.  Highly pressured public land doesn’t mean you’re just SOL and have to live with a hunter in every tree; ever consider a boat? 

I’ve been studying a 4,000 acre public hunting area near my home that has a navigable river running right through the middle of it.  Most hunters stay on one side of the river where the road and parking lots are and the only way I can figure to get away from others and into the deer is a boat. 

Deer like water.  Every living thing needs water to survive and deer are no different.  In fact on our small tract of land we’ve placed water troughs and noticed that the first thing the deer do before they take a bite out of the food plots is get a drink.  They also use the waters of rivers and creeks and the associated thicker under-story for travel corridors and escape and bedding cover.   In short, rivers are deer magnets.

Boats can haul a lot of cargo.  Imagine instead of hiking for two miles back in and having to cross the river with all of your gear on your back that you just put in your kayak or canoe and float on down to your hunting spot.  The kayak holds the advantage here for getting back out as they are easier to paddle upstream.  The canoe holds the advantage when it comes to the amount of gear and game you can haul.  Now imagine that after you tag out you just make a short drag to the boat, load up the animal, and float or paddle it out to the launch.  From there it’s just a matter of pulling the vehicle around and loading your game and your boat. 

The boats of Salmon Camp.

Hunters thin out on the water.  In all my years of hunting I’ve only taken note of a handful of hunters who hunt by floating or use boats to get in and out of their hunting area.  As long as you’ve confirmed that there are no trails or parking lots close to your chosen area you should be virtually alone. 

It’s more work using a boat.  But you have got to ask yourself a question, “Are you in this cause its easy?”.  The guys taking the easy way are sitting it stands 100 yards from each other and you have a whole hunting area to yourself.  Yeah, you might have to load and unload the boat but once it’s in the water you have an easy walk in and once you fill that tag you have got a way to get that animal out that doesn’t involve a three mile drag.  Think about that long drag and that boat work doesn’t seem all that bad.