Choosing your hunting spot, how do you.....

david barnes

david barnes

Active member
In Maryland waterfront property owners can register their land thus making it illegal for a "squater" to come in and set up. However if your land is not registered by July 1st, then a Maryland residence can go to the DNR and purchase a Blind Site permit for $20 (up to 2 per day) and hunt the water below the tide line. Blind sites must be 150 yards from an occupied dwelling.The blind site drawings traditionally begin the 1st Tuesday of August.
I know Maryland law is different than most states and was curious how other states manage their waterways for hunting.
 
In genreal, in NJ as long as you are below the high water mark and 450 feet from a structure you are okay.
 
In Minnesota, if you can access the water legally and partially conceal yourself/boat with natural emergent vegetation, you are legal to hunt.

In SoDak, it has to do with meandered / non-meandered from the original land survey. The public can use meandered waters for hunting, but need permission to hunt non-meandered, unless public land adjoins it.

NR
 
What do the terms "meandered" and "non-meandered" mean? Here in Vt, we can drop anchor pretty much anywhere we please and still be legal.

John Bourbon
 
Here in Alabama, any waters below mean high tide and outside of a safety zone, are open to hunting as long as you access the water legally. In other words, you cant cross private property without permission to get to the water.

On non-tidal waters, as long as it is state waters & not a private lake or pond, you can hunt it as long as you access the water legally, meet safety zone requirements etc.

Safety zone is 100 yards from a dwelling or ROW.

Dont have to be near vegetation and layout boats are legal. Some of our spots are in 2' of water and over a mile from the nearest land or vegetation.

First come/First serve, no blind permits required as long as you dont build a permanent blind. And you won't get a permit to build a permanent blind unless you are the adjacent riparian owner. But then no one hunts from permanent blinds down here anyway.

I hear about some of the regulatsion you guys in other states have to put up with and it is scary.
 
Along the big river it is open access to the mean High Water mark.
Although that is tough to explain to someone that is shooting at you with a .22 cal from 100 yards away.
 
In MN, there are a fwe more rules than Nick stated above. You have to be so far from any structures for one (can't recall exacly how far but 500 ft sounds right). You can also open water hunt on two "lakes" in MN - Lake Pepin (actually the Mississippi) and one other lake.

These are the basic stated rules. As I ahve learned over the years, there are many more rules and exceptions than one can imagine. The rule book even states this. For instance, on certain bodies of water, even if it is surrounded by provate land, can be accessed without the landowners permission. Found that out a couple years back when some hunters were shooting ducks on a private slough. Slough was surrounded by private land but the general public could hunt it withou permission of the land owner (who I happen to be hunting with). Is that screwed up or what.

If in doubt, always check. If you don't think you can hunt a spot, always check with the local CO. You might be surprised at what you can actually hunt. That's my rule.

Mark W
 
IN NY coastal areas, you can hunt anywhere below the high tide mark, (public land), even if your less then 500',(the usual distance) from a road or building, as long as your shooting over the water, and there is no other structure within 500' in that direction.
That means you can hunt in someone's waterfront backyard behind the swing set as long as you are below the tide mark and shoot over the water. Doesn't mean it's a good idea, but technically legal.
 
In Nebraska all the major rivers....Platte, Missouri are considered private. Nebraska law says that the land owner owns the land beneath the water if there wasnt a waterway running through. No high water mark here in Nebraska.
 
David what you will find is only Maryland and a only few other counties in states have as many rules and a cluster---- of a process as we do here. Its August and I really have no idea were the ducks want to be this winter, but I have to go pay my $20 and be locked into that spot. I played the game this year for the first time in 6 years, so I am hoping that ducks will want to be in my spots, crossing my fingers and hope.
 
I thinking choosing a site is akin to science. I would think the ideal thing would be to find some ducks, preferably along a waterfront with nice homes and at least a few docks. Those ducks fed with Wonderbread on a regular basis would be ideal to target as well. To further pick the site, make sure you have scouted out where some other hunter (decked in scull cap and black hoodie) has a blind set up (preferably on a dock lease they a have paid) next to said dock and plan on hunting no more than 30 yards from them. Getting ducks at this point seems ideal to me.

Sorry, I couldn’t refuse.....

In CA, navigable water has precedence in areas for boat hunting. Navigable waters have a broad interpretation and enforcement issues can get very interesting. rule of thumb would be to hunt in areas obliged by all laws, in a navigable waterway. Navigable is the int. of the water your boat is in, can it operate unimpeded with property.
 
Wow, that is alot different than coastal waters and even our non-tidal rivers. On non-tidal waters, the state owns below mean low water and it is open to the public.
 
Man, gotta love that! Nothing like looking out the window in the morning and seeing if there is a 100 or a 1,000 birds to hunt that day!
 
Carl,
Lots of birds and this is actually Federal Waters as Canada is right across the pond. ;) I have video taped over 20,000 birds, starting about 100 feet from the end of our dock. Yup, it's a tough life but somebody has to do it. Yup.....I volunteered.
Lou
 
One of these days we are going to come up to my sisters for Thanksgiving and I am going to sneak out and sit on the end of your dock with a hundred decoys. :)


We could use my sisters 32 Carver for a tender.
It would be nice, watching TV in the heated cabin, cooking lunch while waiting to take turns.
But she has it shrink wrapped by time the season comes in.
 
One of these days we are going to come up to my sisters for Thanksgiving and I am going to sneak out and sit on the end of your dock with a hundred decoys. :)


We could use my sisters 32 Carver for a tender.
It would be nice, watching TV in the heated cabin, cooking lunch while waiting to take turns.
But she has it shrink wrapped by time the season comes in.
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Bring it........we'll do it. Always wanted to tender with a Carver. ;) Hmmmmmm, shrink wrap comes off very easily. Do you suppose she'd cook lunch for us.........naw, doubt it.
As you know, you're always welcome my friend. We've hunted together once and .......once is never enough.
Lou
 
One of these days, I will be back up for a hunt, I promise.
Not sure if she will cook on the boat but I bet we can talk her into meeting us at Tinfish for dinner.
 
One of these days, I will be back up for a hunt, I promise.
Not sure if she will cook on the boat but I bet we can talk her into meeting us at Tinfish for dinner.
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Ok, the TinFish will work just fine. I usually hit the Raft after a hunt but........the TinFish will do. ;)
Come on down...oh, that would be...come on up.
Lou
 
David what you will find is only Maryland and a only few other counties in states have as many rules and a cluster---- of a process as we do here. Its August and I really have no idea were the ducks want to be this winter, but I have to go pay my $20 and be locked into that spot. I played the game this year for the first time in 6 years, so I am hoping that ducks will want to be in my spots, crossing my fingers and hope.
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Bill, we purchased our stakes based on what we saw last year. We wasted a bunch of$$$$$$$$$$$$ last year on some new spots that never panned out. It would be nice to have a 1st come law and just charge a boat blind fee so the state still get's it's share.

Derek Z please do not laugh, we have some area's in my hometown that the guy's fight over. Your discription is so dead on I have to ask....... are you from Salisbury MD??????
 
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