Hunter Constructs Ultimate Boat Blind

Hundreds of the region’s waterfowl hunters have built blinds for their boats. Some are so good at allaying the suspicions of ducks and geese that their builders easily take limits. Many, however, are so poorly conceived that birds take one look at what’s on the water and turn on their afterburners.

One of the best I’ve seen in years is the blind that Don Ostlund created for his 16-foot flatbottomed boat a few weeks ago. Even suspicious birds don’t realize until it’s too late that the mound on the water hides gunners.

The blind is the culmination of Ostlund’s experiences with creating boat blinds over the last 25 years. It represents the best of blinds he has seen, plus some of his own ideas.

Most sportsmen know Ostlund is one of the most innovative fishermen in the region. He’s a menace to every game fish that swims. But few hunters know that he’s also a highly efficient waterfowl and big-game hunter.

A few weeks ago, he told me he was creating a blind. At the time, I figured it would be no more complicated than others I’ve seen and built to hide hunters in boats.

I found out a few days ago at a lake west of Spokane that his creation is a waterfowler’s dream.

For nearly six hours, we sat comfortably on standard, cushioned chairs meant more for a dining room than a boat. The camouflaged material around and partly above the boat hid us so well that we could move around without alerting flying ducks to our presence.

Ostlund told me that he and a couple friends had hunted at the lake a few days before he invited me to join him. His rig, he said, blended so well with tules that geese, usually extremely wary of blinds and decoys this time of year, tried to land among the decoys, which were only about 20 yards from the boat. A few geese almost landed in the boat.

Ostlund’s blind consists of a combination of welded angle irons, long 1-by-2-inch boards and lightweight camouflage material.

When we arrived at the lake, we bolted two U-shaped pieces of angle iron to the boat’s gunwhale. He had welded pieces of angle irons to create the U-shape. After loading the boat with our guns and other hunting equipment, we headed for a big patch of tules.

We set out a couple of dozen goose decoys and two dozen duck decoys about 20 yards out from the tules. Next, we hung Advantage camouflage netting around the boat.

Ostlund had permanently attached the netting, Ducks Unlimited’s official camouflage material, to 14-foot-long 1-by-2s. We quickly bolted some of the boards to the U-shaped angle irons, making a rigid frame. When we were finished, we were surrounded by the netting.

Two boards weren’t attached to the frame. Ostlund had purposely left them free so they could rest on the frame. When they are in place, hunters are hidden so well that ducks and geese can’t see them. And when birds come to the decoys, hunters stand up and push the boards off the frame, enabling them to shoot.

We didn’t complete assembling the blind until a few minutes after shooting time. Just as we sat down to uncase our shotguns, a flock of mallards flew over the decoys, turned around, approached the spread with their feet down and then, seeing us, flared off.

However, we were ready the next time mallards appeared down the lake. The ducks dove right into the decoys.

Several more small flocks of mallards flew over the lake during the next few hours. Most saw the decoys, made one pass over the spread and then, ignoring the blind, dropped their feet to land.

By the time the ducks stopped flying, we had enough mallards for several meals. Several small flocks of goldeneyes flew over the decoys, but we had decided to shoot only mallards.

We saw only a few geese and they were flying out to feed. They probably had just left water and weren’t interested in the big spread of goose and duck decoys on the lake.

It was obvious the big blind didn’t make the ducks suspicious. Ostlund was elated. He knew that he had finally created a boat blind that wouldn’t scare ducks and geese.

His blind is a compromise. He figured that metal, such as the angle irons, would be needed to create a strong frame, but he didn’t want so much that the frame would be prohibitively heavy. So, he used a minimum amount of metal.

The long 1-by-4-inch boards proved light enough to manage easily. And the camouflage material is extremely light but durable.

The waterfowl season is winding down, but Ostlund and friends will be sitting in his boat for a dozen or more days before they have to put away their guns.

Most lakes in Eastern Washington now are capped with ice, so ducks and geese have moved to the Snake and Columbia rivers.

That’s where Ostlund likely will hunt until mid-January.