duck boat/San Francisco Bay

[imported_Bill]

Still searching for any information regarding duck boats used on San Francisco Bay.

[On Vacation]

I was not aware that people hunted in the San Francisco Bay. What type ducks and areas of habitat exist in that area? This might tell us what would be required for the job.

[Dave Fleming]

Erster, the north end of the Bay up at the mouth of the Sacramento River and near the mouth of both the Petaluma and Napa Rivers are marshy and flyways for migrating waterfowl. Several islands part of the Angel Island group were in private hands for many years and had exclusive duck clubs on them. Bing Crosby and his cronies used one for many years. The waters further north close to the above mentioned marshes are shallow and even shallower with the tidal effects. But hunters still worked them as well as a bit further north around Skaggs Island. That was then I cannot say what is going on now.
Oh the rice fields in the greater Sacramento area are a well known migratory fowl flyway and rest stop too.

[ 05-03-2003, 12:02 PM: Message edited by: Dave Fleming ]

[On Vacation]

Sounds like to me, a simple gunning dory, or punt, would do the job. Whatchu think? If a person is able to launch in the marsh area, even a electric trolling motor in could take you some distance.YO??

[Greg G]

I don,t know if you have looked at Sam Devlins web site or not but he has some great duck boats. Maybe some of his designs may be similar to what were used around SF. http://devlinboat.com/

[Steve Paskey]

I don't know about San Francisco bay itself, but there seems to have been a lot of hunting in nearby marshes along the lower Sacramento River delta. Here's a article discussing a bit of the history:

www.thereporter.com/Current/History/history021101.html (http://www.thereporter.com/Current/History/history021101.html)

As the article recounts, one market gunner and his partner made the trip from San Francisco in 1879, equipped with six vessels, including a 42-foot 'scow sloop' (!), two tule splitters (narrow, double-bowed boats ideally suited to pole through flooded tule grasses), two scull boats, and a small, fast sailboat to take the ducks back to San Francisco.

The author of the article is a curator at a small museum in the area and might be a good resource for information and pictures.

The page below shows an example of a "tule splitter," which looks much like a rail bird skiff. The bottom of the old boat pictured was made from a single 24-inch wide board!

www.nps.gov/safr/local/6small.html (http://www.nps.gov/safr/local/6small.html)

[ 05-05-2003, 07:29 AM: Message edited by: Steve Paskey ]