Figured I'd post this here, since there's not a boating forum.

I went down around Demopolis today to scout around and do some bow hunting out of my boat. I found a spot that looked good to run up on shore a little and tied off at the bow (line fairly taut) and the stern (loose). In hindsight this was a mistake because the boat was parallel to the bank. Well, I heard a barge go by while I was in the tree and to my surprise when I came back the inside of my boat was SOAKING WET. It looked like it had been sprayed with a fire hose. Even my inflatable life vest inflated because it got soaked enough to trigger it. At first I thought someone was messing with my boat as a "keep out" type thing and douched my boat with their wake multiple times. But, the more I think about it I think it was the wake from the barge. It almost turned out really bad as the boat was LOADED with water and my bilge line was plugged up with dirt dauber nests (I can't make this crap up).

So, what's the best way to moor a boat on the side of the river without it getting swamped? Should I anchor from the stern and bow and leave plenty of slack in both? What do the River Rats have to say? Find somewhere off the main channel?

Run a rope thru the eye on the front of the boat push the boat away from the bank feed it some slack so the anchor hits the bottom then tie it off to a tree. Make sure you have another rope tied to a cleat for easy recovery if the anchor becomes snagged. now go forth and kill stuffs.

Doesn't hurt to put a hunter orange vest on your motor

Yup barge traffic a real pain

This is the solution. I have bailed out my share of boats tied on the bank until I learned this trick. The yatchs are much worse than the barges.

I got down with my climber on Wheeler a lot of years ago and found my boat parallel with the bank and 10 feet from any water. It was dark already and well after dark when I finally got it floating again. Heard the tow of barges go thru about 2 hours before dark and knew that was what caused it. From then on I dropped an anchor off the stern about 20 feet from shore and then locked the bow to a tree. No more issues.

Thanks gents. I went up to Smith Lake today and got my other anchor. Going to do as y'all said.

Dang. You better have a shitton of rope to drop anchor on smith

I use to hunt the corps land around that area for several years. Several times I came out to a almost sunk boat. Usually it was the big yachts that never let up pushing 5 foot wakes. If possible try to find a small creek flowing in to the river close to where you are wanting to hunt and pull your boat in it as far as you can and tie the off. About the only solution I ever found. I remember one year one ol boy flung an arrow or two at one of those yachts. Or so I heard lol

This.


I've hunted Demopolis for a long time and never had any issues on the Warrior side of the place. Were you on the Tombigbee side?

yes I hunted up around epes and Boligee on the tombigbee

I was on the Tombigbee, probably going to head down there in a week or so. Spend some time messing around.