anyone ever use marsh skis?

[sk1]

i have a lot of areas i can hunt deer that involve getting through cattail marshes.....ive read of some people that is them for duck hunting to get to some honey holes in the middle of marshes. they are about 10 ft long and 6 inches wide i guess. ive never seen more than a picture of them.

just curious if anyone has any experience with them and how well they worked for you

 

[beachbunny]

never heard of them but i am very curious.

 

[sk1]

http://www.travelwisconsin.com/article/hunting/article/waterfowl-hunting-with-marsh-skis

best picture and info ive been able to find so far.

 

[wyosteve]

This brought back a lot of old memories. Grew up in Wis. on the marshes. The marsh skis work ok if just trying to walk on mostly grass with a little water underneath. Not good if more than about a foot of water. But they are pretty unwieldly and hard to manuever.

 

[colonel00]

But they are pretty unwieldly and hard to manuever.

Yeah, looks like they do fine in a straight line but if you have to turn, you might have the turning radius of a 747.

 

[sk1]

This brought back a lot of old memories. Grew up in Wis. on the marshes. The marsh skis work ok if just trying to walk on mostly grass with a little water underneath. Not good if more than about a foot of water. But they are pretty unwieldly and hard to manuever.

any experience with cattail marshes and the clumps of grass? im wondering how well that's going to work or not

 

[beachbunny]

that is kind of what i figured. kind of tough going but it was neat someone here had done it.

 

[sk1]

that is kind of what i figured. kind of tough going but it was neat someone here had done it.

tough is what i want, means not many other people are going to be doing it

just trying to get more info on it before i give it a try

 

[Tod osier]

I've used them, only in joining someone who had them. The traditional practice from what I understand is to beat in a path through dense cattails to isolated holes and visit the hole to hunt, key part being beating the path in the first time. Before the season. Following a path through a thick marsh is pretty easy but breaking a new path is a lot of work. What you are skiing across needs to be pretty consolidated, that is, open patches are problematic. The area I hunted was solid cattails an it was an efficient means of travel.

One other experience is that I have tried cross country skis and the work surprisingly well to cross the marsh, but again, once the vegetation becomes sparse, you can really get mired if a ski gets in the mud. Really mired.


To use marsh skis to get into an area like an island or hummock would work. I can't see how you could actually hunt from them.

The bindings on the marsh skis I've seen are just a rubber loop to shove your wadered foot in. They would not be hard to make. Given my attempts with cross country skis, I'd try them first, they are narrower and shorter, but they did work.

 

[sk1]

I've used them, only in joining someone who had them. The traditional practice from what I understand is to beat in a path through dense cattails to isolated holes and visit the hole to hunt, key part being beating the path in the first time. Before the season. Following a path through a thick marsh is pretty easy but breaking a new path is a lot of work. What you are skiing across needs to be pretty consolidated, that is, open patches are problematic. The area I hunted was solid cattails an it was an efficient means of travel.

One other experience is that I have tried cross country skis and the work surprisingly well to cross the marsh, but again, once the vegetation becomes sparse, you can really get mired if a ski gets in the mud. Really mired.


To use marsh skis to get into an area like an island or hummock would work. I can't see how you could actually hunt from them.

The bindings on the marsh skis I've seen are just a rubber loop to shove your wadered foot in. They would not be hard to make. Given my attempts with cross country skis, I'd try them first, they are narrower and shorter, but they did work.

thanks for the input, that's the type of info i am looking for. i see alot of guys use fire hose to make loops for your feet, not sure why but i'll go with it being that i work at the fire department. i did wonder about trying to find a side set of skis and giving that a try