Sleeping in boat overnight

In my quest for larger flatheads, and more time spent on the water, I have been thinking about sleeping in my boat overnights. It would not be on main channels, and I would have to turn my anchor light on (I sometimes turn it off when fishing).

Any other concerns I should have about doing this? Anyone else do this?

I have thought about it, I was thinking if I did do it I would try to anchor or beach the boat on shore if possible.

snakes

Ask BrianK……he sleeps in the boat all the time!

Make sure you tie your power pro around your big toe. I once slept through getting spooled.

This reminds me of an almost unfortunate incident two years ago between chaska and carver.

I was anchored and the river level had been dropping and there was no visible debris all day.

About 1:30 AM a large log brushed the boat and we didn’t think much about it. Then another……an another.

I got the spotlight and shone it upriver and to my surprise there was a logjam the width of the river and 4 to 6 feet high coming down river about 100 yards up from us.

We had to pull anchor and head down to the ramp.

Turns out the railroad had cleared the log jam from the carver rail bridge and this barge of logs coming at us was the result.

So my suggestion to you is not to sleep in your boat if it is anchored in the main river channel. Beach the boat in a backwater eddy from a point…..or beach it on the far inside bank of a sharp turn in the river.

You never know what could be coming down river in the middle of the night.

Anytime your anchored, you should have a sharp knife at the ready to cut the anchor free. If a large tree grabs the anchor rope and starts to pull the boat down, you should have a plan. Even when awake, most catfisherman are fishing with their backs turned to the current and they would never know what’s coming until it hits them.

If you’re going to have any appreciable temperature drop during the night make sure you bring a sheet of plastic to throw over the top of yourself and your sleeping bag. I’ve done the all-nighter a couple times when there was a 20 degree temp drop and the amount of condensation is CRAZY. You fall asleep all toasty and warm in your bag and you wake up soaked inside and out. The thin sheet of plastic works wonders to keep the condensation off you and should you get a quick rain it will save your night.

Try to avoid taking beef jerky

No Beef Jerky. Good to know

Thanks for the thoughts. I always hate the drive home, as well as leaving the water.

Thanks for the offer of the Beer Saturday night James. I never thought anyone would still be around at 2:00 AM

Someone here has a good story about napping on the river and a big old heron.

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Thanks for the offer of the Beer Saturday night James. I never thought anyone would still be around at 2:00 AM

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Never give up. Never surrender!

Farmboy1
I have done that alot and I would take James advise on the plastic even the warm nights we woke with alot of condesation on our plastic bag.
when are you going to do this ? I may still some HUGE plastic bags left we use on our overnighters.
Our sleeping bags fit very nicely inside of them
One guy even duct taped his on his sleeping bag.

Godd luck and PLEASE be safe by all standards

I did it on a lake once and everything went fine. Except I didn’t turn my graph off and I drained my starter battery down so bad that I couldn’t start my boat the next
morning. And I didn’t sleep worth a darn either.

dd

Do it all the time Watch out for CatFISH Neck…. which is sleeping with your neck over the gunnel of the boat took 8 trips to the bone doctor to straighten me out last time. i just dont fit well on a 1548 front deck

I slept in my boat in my driveway the first night I got it home after buying it from MossBoss. I thought I was the only one that thought of that… Who knew !?

Tie Power Pro to your toe!?? I can see it now…”this little piggie (that’s missing) went catfishing”.

Although I’ve never had anything hop in the boat I didn’t want…sort of…I believe it was Backwater Eddie that was snoozing and woke up to a beaver saying “good morning” to him.

I suppose you could tie a 4lb dropper to it and save your rig.

In the days before I had anything with a clicker, I did once tie the line around my pinkie and go to sleep. I woke up with the line wrapped around my legs and the sleeping bag but I did get the fish somehow. Sometimes the sun shines in (really dark places). haha.

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I did once tie the line around my pinkie and go to sleep. I woke up with the line wrapped around my legs and the sleeping bag

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I’m not going there Josh!