johnboat

Whether you are in the market for a new boat or you are ready to take the plunge and buy your first, there are countless options: big, beefy, sea-worthy sleds that take you beyond the surf, nimble johnboats that run through timber and one-man skiffs perfect for quiet beaver ponds and backwaters.

* TWO-MAN TACTICS Few hunters can master poling a half-ton boat, so they use smaller johnboats or canoes.

Slowly fading away, ancient Gulf mariners somehow still survive on the houseboats, johnboats, dinghies, barstools and tree-shaded folding chairs paradise hasn't yet grabbed.

And roped up to the porch beams was a makeshift raft--a canoe and two johnboats, their gunwales lashed together--loaded with sled dogs, tied in and waiting.

"We were using johnboats on the rivers," Wood said.

Over much of the country, creeks, small rivers, sloughs or swamps navigable only by canoes or small johnboats can carry the hunter into seldom-hunted deer country.

Structurally speaking, the metal johnboats that Star Tank branched into bore some resemblance to the giant feed tanks it already was making.

"I had two aluminum johnboats when I was younger, and made a blind on the 17-footer, but it wasn't what I needed," Sasser said.

Flat bottom skiffs, shallow draft flats boats and even johnboats with tillers excel in this environment.

There it stayed for almost 35 years, turning out tens of thousands of fishing boats ranging from 12-foot johnboats to 24-foot center-console bass palaces.

Dry weather in fall causes some rivers to run too low for johnboats and big canoes.