Jonboat for Birding

We chose our jonboat and its gear especially as a platform to observe and photograph wildlife. Most boats and gear of this kind are used for fishing, but neither of us fishes. We wanted a birding boat.

For others who, so to speak, find themselves in the same boat, and might find our experience useful, here is what we chose and why we chose it.

BOAT: A used aluminum jonboat and trailer

Why we chose a jonboat
We had often visited MacCoon Access, a campground and boating access on the Skunk River in southeast Iowa. It was a good birding spot. But every time we visited we longed to venture away from the river bank. The river that disappeared in both directions seemed so inviting and mysterious. After all, here was a wild place, a new habitat, only 20 minutes from home, that we had never explored. We vowed to get a boat and find out what adventures lay up river.

So we started studying the boats at MacCoon Access. We soon realized that all the boats we saw there were the same type -- jonboats.

The jonboat is a wide-bodied, flat-bottomed, shallow, square-ended utility boat designed for rivers. It's more stable than a canoe, it can carry lots of cargo, and you can stand up in it. You can run the square bow into the river bank and step off without getting your feet wet. Fishermen love it.

A jonboat can be paddled, rowed, or poled and can take a good size outboard motor. Its large flat bottom lets it plane easily without requiring a lot of horsepower.

A jonboat is a creature of rivers, lakes, and ponds. It's perfect for still, flat waters. It is not a good choice for open water, where its flat bottom pounds noisily against waves, and its low sides can easily get swamped. But in its own habitat, nothing can compete with it.

The original American jonboats were made of wood. Modern ones are copies of the best wooden designs, reproduced in aluminum. They are relatively cheap, require almost no upkeep, and are easily repaired.

Got a hole in your jonboat? Reach into your toolbox and pull out a glob of aluminum-patching epoxy the consistency of putty. Knead it with your fingers for a minute or so, and shove it in the hole. Thirty minutes later, the epoxy has hardened. Another thirty minutes allows the epoxy to finish curing, and your boat is riverworthy. This fix works even if the hole was under water.

Got a dent? Pound it out with a hammer.

Aluminum jonboats last forever. Used ones are cheap. You don't need a new or fancy model. Almost anything that will float will do.

However, you will need to get a boat with enough transom height and strength that it can accept the kind of outboard motor you want to use. Birders will want a boat/motor combination that will work in shallow waters. You want the prop to extend not even an inch deeper than it really needs to. It's good to pay some attention to this issue before you purchase. Talk to your boat/motor dealer for advice.

We paid $200 for a much-used jonboat, an olive-drab 14 footer with a compartment in front whose flat top could be a base for mounting a tripod head for photography. The trailer, which came with it, was another $100. We have added a number of improvements, and fixed some things that needed repair, but the basic hull is as we found it. I think it was manufactured in the 1970's.

This old boat works for us. Its dents and dings give it character. Birding from this boat has opened up a whole new universe of experience. It has let us get close, intimate views of wildlife in an incredibly effortless manner. Many happy hours we have spent in the shade of the river bank enjoying a degree of silence we'd have been hard pressed to find elsewhere such a short distance from town. Who would have thought there was this corridor of wilderness in the heart of Iowa?

To the inventor of water, we give thanks.

Birding by boat
More about the jonboat and its gear
The outboard motor | The electric trolling motor