In addition to portable boat blinds, other hunters use permanent drive-in boat blinds.
While these blinds lack the mobility of portable boat blinds, they can still provide the ease and convenience of hunting from a boat, and more attention can be given to camouflage and cover.
One passionate duck hunter, who uses drive-in boat blinds exclusively is Jeff Vanardo, a Hammond resident who hunts near Lake Lery in St. Bernard Parish.
Vanardo loves to duck hunt, and last year hunted 44 days of the 60 day season. He has taken the art of permanent drive-in boat blinds to the extreme. Vanardo was almost giddy talking about the blinds he has built — especially “the Condo.”
“My goal with these blinds was to create a natural-looking island that looks just like all the other islands around,” he said.
His island drive-in blind houses his boat and includes a 17-foot long platform with three openings for hunters to shoot from, chairs, dog platform, interior lighting and even a duck counter to keep track of how many ducks are down.
In addition to his Condo, he has constructed several other, less-elaborate drive-in blinds for various wind and water level conditions.
“I use between 100 and 125 decoys of various species that we shoot,” he said of his setup. “I also use two motion decoys: It is important to get the ducks eyes off of the blind and looking at the spread.”
This must be working because Jeff and his guests took more than 500 ducks last season, most of them from the Condo.
The author accompanied Vanardo on a recent hunt and the ducks did not seem to flair from the blind.
“I think that the ducks think the blind is just another island,” Vanardo explained. “As long as you are still when the ducks are approaching, they do not seem to even notice the blind.”
