I picked up a layout boat so I can hunt out in the open and just pull hydrilla or lily pads up on the boat late in the season. Any advice as to where to put the spread in relation to the boat?

Like most, I keep the boat upwind of my spread when hunting out of the boat but I've heard and read that in the open, you don't want birds that are locked up and decoying in looking right at the layout on the way in, and it's better to put it off to one side or the other. On the other hand, I've heard of guys laying right in the middle of their spread. Thoughts?

I'm not talking about open water layout hunting with 200+ decoys. These are teal and ringers, but they get wary late in the season and sometimes they won't come near cover tall enough to conceal a boat.

12 decoys around you I like coots with a few big birds

How close with the closest ones?

20 feet a lot of cover

Make yourself look like a island patch of grass you know what I mean

Ehhh, I'll be in areas where there's not much to work with and no grass islands at all. That's why the birds are there; because they've been getting their faces shot off. They get smart and set down in wide open areas of hydrilla or lily pads.

Was thinking of cutting either a sheet of black visqueen or a sheet of screen like you'd see on a screen door and affixing fake lily pads to it, and covering the whole boat with it, with an upside down "L" cutout for me to throw open when I sit up.

Might make another sheet and use the fake aquarium plants that look like hydrilla for when I'm in hydrilla.

Pull into hydrillas cover up quit putting to much into it

Just paint the boat brown to match the mud and throw a couple lily's on you when you get set up. The biggest thing is to keep the low profile and not move when they are coming in. I'd try without the visqueen first and if you feel it's not working go with the super thick clear stuff. It almost looks white but it has the same sheen as water supposedly. I have tried it open water hunting out of a pumpkinseed style layout but I didn't notice much of a difference. Definitely adds more to have to deal with though.

Won't need many decoys. Dozen or dozen and a half is plenty. I like hunting a cross wind from the right to left (right hand shooter).

I hunt out of layouts about 90% of the time and I put my decoys out just as I would hunting out of the big boat. I can tell you that hunting in the wide open, nothing but hydrilla, is worth a shot but I have had limited success when there is nothing around at all. It does not take much to hide it, Kissimmee grass or a few lilies here and there are all it takes to break it up.

I used to have a layout rig. We would hunt open water though. Decoys would be all around the boat with an opening to the left corner. Never have the opening for them to land straight out from you. If you are right handed the kill zone should be on your left side. We put a bracket on the back of the boat that would hold two mojo s. The decoys should be close to the boat. Almost hitting it. All my opinion.

Frog, I've seen the c/k Puddler knockoff you are referring to. I bought a Hellbender from Derek over in Fort Myers.

I didn't want to jump through a couple of the hoops required to get the same one you have, but the one you have is nice.

Here's the hellbender that Derek makes:

I used to build busik layout boats until someone stole the molds we made. They are a nice boat. I would be dry in 2 to 4 footers. Had a sailboat keel hook on to the anchor line and drag the boat backwards at 10mph. It didn't flip. Pooped in my pants though

This is the one I just re resined .

H Finn

I haven't used it yet.

If you are not hunting the edge, and are not going to grass up, you need this style boat



The edges of the boat come down to the water line so there is no shadow, and your body sits mostly under the waterline. You will need at least 8 doz decoys to hide the boat from higher flying teal.

I have spent hundreds of hours laying in, or tendering layout spreads for divers, geese, and occasional puddle ducks.
(teal, and shovelers act like divers in open water)

These type of boats are really popular in Missouri and Kansas. In 1991 I was able to obtain the templates and building instructions to one of the best layout boat one can make. I hunted out of a borrowed boat the first year and knew it was THE boat to hunt waterfowl out of. I built 14 of them and sold all but one.
When you think light weight it is good to one extent however a heavier boat will draft better if you are paddling it out to your hunting spot. If you are boating out and then hunting out of a layout boat the lighter boat is best. I personally paddle mine out to where I'm going to hunt. Around here in Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois everyone hunts the backwater when the rivers are high and have flooded the fields. Big boats tucked into the trees with big spreads are the norm. However I found a dozen duck decoys and four bigfoot decoys are enough when you paddle out smack dab right in the middle of a huge flooded field and set up. I would put the decoys out and then use my short cane blind to roll out over the boat and then stand the bigfeet onto the boat. The bigfeet standing on the boat resemble a small hump sticking out of the water. Most shots on birds are in the ten to fifteen yard range. I use 2 3/4 number fours for both ducks and canadas. I tie a short piece of paracord from the boat to the bigfoots. I will move the bigfoots with my gun barrel right before I lower the boom on the birds. They sometimes will fall off and the string keeps them close by.
One boat I built I designed small platforms built onto the boat for the bigfoots. I sold that boat on the gravel road after the hunt. The wooden layouts will last many years if you take care of them. I keep mine in the garage and don't allow excess water to stay in them after the hunt.
My plans are to build a layout from aluminum using my templates and plans.
I too have many hours laying in these boats. They are the key to fast hunts and up close shots.

Yeah. For the longest time even when we ran a jon boat with a trolling motor we pulled a layout boat behind it to our flooded stuff. We only had one layout boat so what we would do is setup the decoys leave a guy there in the layout boat and drive off, when he got his limit he'd paddle to the big boat and someone else would go sit in the layout boat.

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