Dealing With Public Land Jerks

Eric Patterson

Eric Patterson

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Staff member
So how would you handle the situation where you plan to hunt a popular public area and you were the second rig at the ramp eight hours before shooting time, not accompanied with your partners who were coming later. You plan to launch your boat but party one has intentionally blocked the ramp. Their friends show up and they move allowing him to launch, cutting in line before you, and then both party one and three take off and grab two of the best spots, one of which you intended to hunt. You even had a short discussion when you arrived with your plans with party one. In short they manipulated the ramp to their advantage in spite of you being there earlier, and you got screwed out of your day's plans.

Are you pissed? How would you have handled the situation? How do you deal with assholes on public land who take advantage of other's? Keep in mind you are one and they are four plus and have a reputation for brawls. Crying to the area manager will not net any justice.

So what would you do?


Eric
 
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Just say your prayers and eat your vitamins brother.

Anything else pretty much puts you on a level with the kind of doofbags who do these sorts of things. On one hand it's extremely frustrating. At the same time we all know public hunting areas. I don't mean to say suck it up, but there's no good recourse.

Someday these guys will do it to the off-duty warden or something but we know good things can happen for bad people and vice versa. Therefore, I don't think you should adjust your mode of thinking to revenge or victim for different situations. You totally got bamboozled but there's no way to make it right in my opinion. Just move on and predict those types of operators will take their lumps one day.
 
That's a terrible situation and just makes you have negative thoughts about what was supposed to be a fun morning on the water. I don't see anything good you could have done. Certainly nothing legal.

I had my own annoying public land hunting issue this morning. I launched very, very early and got set up. Fifteen minutes before legal a lone gunner comes by and sets up right next to me. This is a very large area and he could have easily gone another hundred yards farther (or much more). No blinds, we were both hunting from our boats. We were the only two boats there. Absolutely ruined my hunt. I'll be honest when I say that when birds headed his direction I didn't exactly do all I could to stay concealed and quiet.
 
Not poking fun because I've been on the receiving end of some bullarkey too. I just think it's impossible to expect smooth and courtesy-filled interactions with the goofball people out there. When it goes good or you meet solid characters it's nice but not the norm.
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Long ago I learned don't go early, unless ya want to deal with such BS. Yer just part of the problem, and yer BP goes up. Wait until most if not all the early birds have returned, and then go, if a public suck hole is your choice for a hunt.

The older ya get the less time ya have to waste on BS. Late morning and afternoon hunts for all types of game with as little equipment as possible work just fine. It boils down to quality time spent how you like with adjustments that mostly work out.

Time was all my waterfowling partners and I had boats and equipment for all types of hunting. Those days have past. Now canoes and marshboats, and good waders for walk in. If that does not work hunt other game that challenges you and tastes good.

Waterfowling is a state of mind, a lifestyle and addiction. Even when yer not "out there" yer mind still is, and that seldom if ever goes away.




my 2 cents
 
About the only thing I think you could do is take lots of photos including license plate, send it to the local warden and hope they at least contact the guy and let him he?s being watched.
Otherwise take a deep breath and hunt as far away from the yahoos as you can.
Or send me the information via email and I will send to the asst director of FFW. We went to school together
 
Thanks. I knew you all would be supportive of the frustrating situation.

It didn't happen to me, but to Thomas. He left the workshop around 9:30 and drove an hour plus to the launch. Then the above happened to him. After they cleared the ramp he launched and tried to get to the spot he and I intended to hunt, but no way to beat them with the head start they stole. In fact he tried an alternate route and stuck his loaded down boat boat, all by himself. I got a call from him as he was struggling to unstick the boat and he was PISSED, and rightfully so, and I was too, more so than if it happened to me. It was going to be our first hunt of the season together. Anticipation was high because the conditions were right for a good hunt.

Thomas went to plan B and I was meeting him there at that new location. I immediately hit the road and arrived at the launch only to be greeted by one of the goons in this group. The guy came up and tried to talk me out of going to the area Thomas and I originally intended to hunt. He said "The water was ripping and dangerous" and "I shouldn't take a small boat up the creek." He asked me how long I'd been hunting there. I told him since 1982. Silence... Guess he then knew he couldn't bullshit me.

We did enjoy our hunt together but the whole screw job kind of wrecked the morning. Thomas is a straight shooter and, as I, expect people to be decent. It happened so fast he was stunned and slack jawed. Assholes like these guys get their way most of the time because most hunters are decent and just how many of us are prepared to win an argument at the ramp when they have the upper hand in force and positioning?

Eric
 
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Eric,

That really sucks for you and Thomas. I have had folk do that down here and there isn't much you can do about it that wouldn't cause a problem. Karma is a bitch and one day they will get theirs. Best you can do is take pics/video of the guys and let the warden know.

If you wanted to be the the ass then you could have gone to the same general area and set up close enough to flare all the birds but not be close enough to easily be shot. But then you are just making things worse and a potentially dangerous situation if you have a group of jerkwads that are willing and able to brawl.

Depending on the location down here and the people that happened to, there is a very real possibility both of those rigs (trucks and trailers) would have valve stems removed from all tires. At the very least.

I learned to just keep my mouth shut on where I was going. Sometimes it didn't matter because EVERYONE was trying to go there but sometimes I got the feeling that folk only went somewhere cuz I said that was where I was going. I could be wrong but it made me feel better showing up seeing my spots taken and knowing it wasn't cuz I opened my mouth about it.
 
Intentionally blocking a boat ramp not allowing others access after legal access time should be deemed hunter harassment and they should be charged.

The evil side of me says to pour sugar in the truck fuel tank and pull valve stems.
 
Vince Pagliaroli said:
Long ago I learned don't go early, unless ya want to deal with such BS. Yer just part of the problem, and yer BP goes up. Wait until most if not all the early birds have returned, and then go, if a public suck hole is your choice for a hunt.

The older ya get the less time ya have to waste on BS. Late morning and afternoon hunts for all types of game with as little equipment as possible work just fine. It boils down to quality time spent how you like with adjustments that mostly work out.

Time was all my waterfowling partners and I had boats and equipment for all types of hunting. Those days have past. Now canoes and marshboats, and good waders for walk in. If that does not work hunt other game that challenges you and tastes good.

Waterfowling is a state of mind, a lifestyle and addiction. Even when yer not "out there" yer mind still is, and that seldom if ever goes away.

my 2 cents
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Vince is 100% correct. I see it as I age in this sport. Thomas on the other hand is 23 and entering his waterfowling prime with a lot of energy and ability to go on little sleep and no wife nor kids. Most of my early morning hunts are on private and I hunt public in the afternoon. To potentially complicate matters there is talk of eliminating hunting after 12:00 on WMAs. If that happens Thomas and I both agree will no longer hunt Alabama WMAs because a significant amount of our hunting is afternoon when crowds are the thinnest and, honestly, ducks most cooperative. But there are some mornings we want to hunt WMAs because the conditions are best for it. This Thursday was one of those mornings.

You know times like this make me miss Jeff even more. He was so clever when dealing with assholes, either verbally or clandestine. His quick mind and expansive command of English would simultaneously baffle and insult. Assholes didn't stand a chance. Well he did get punched in the face once, but I'd say it was his only defeat. There was one time some rednecks pulled some crap with him in a public swamp off the TN River. Jeff let them proceed with their hunting and called it an early morning. After walking back to the river from the swamp he jumped in his boat, located theirs, and gifted them an anchor he deployed in the middle of the navigation channel. They either had to swim 1/4 mile in frigid water or walk 2 miles to the nearest road to get help. Cracks me up just thinking about it. Damn I miss him.

Eric
 
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Man, that's tough. Everything I hunt is public but fortunately have had years of good experiences. There's just no way I'm going 8 hours before legal, just to get a spot at the ramp.... That's just me and I've been spoiled hunting my lifetime in Maine and NH.
 


Around about 1964, before my cousin and I had drivers licenses we begged my Uncle Frank to take us to Pymatuning first day of duck & goose.

He just shook his head. Cuz he well knew the circus that took place on the public hunting areas there. We didn't sleep a wink the night before, and in pitch black dark off we went. We arrived with the rest of the hunters, and found a place we thought was safe. About 10mins. before legal time the barrage began. Never in our young lives had we heard so much shooting, yelling, cussing and some birds falling.

A Canada goose fell about 50 yards out into the lake. A guy took some of his clothes off and swam out and got it. When he got back he was celebrating with his buddy (killing a goose back then was major stuff). Another guy walked down to them leveled his shotgun at them and said. "That's my goose."

Uncle Frank looked at my cousin and I and said. "Have ya seen enough?" YA

That experience had a profound effect on how my cousin and I waterfowl hunted. Beware of jerks on public land with guns. Better yet try your best not to put yourself in that situation, and if so get out ASAP. Ain't worth it.
 
Eric et al,
Eric's predicament is one reason I have moved to deer hunting.

Here in the Piedmont, there are a limited number of public spots. With only a little investigation anyone can find them. Thus you have several parties crammed into a spot that in truth, only hunts one party.

This past Saturday, a friend of mine was out at 2:30 am to claim his spot on opening day of a duck split season. Didn't matter. Three other parties, not hunters but parties, set up within 50 yards of him.

I will duck hunt come January. But my deer hunting has allowed me to find some back creeks where the woodies loaf. This will not be a classic ducks over decoys in a boat spread, but walking down a creek and doing so in the middle of the day. And in January I will float a few creeks.

But most likely, I have seen the end of my time of enjoying a ducks over decoys hunt. It simply is not worth it to me to have the anticipation and enjoyment of the marsh ruined by hunters who don't give a bleep about old time character traits. Character has been replaced by me, me, me.

Larry
 
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Troy Fields said:
Man, that's tough. Everything I hunt is public but fortunately have had years of good experiences. There's just no way I'm going 8 hours before legal, just to get a spot at the ramp.... That's just me and I've been spoiled hunting my lifetime in Maine and NH.
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Amen. We are spoiled up here by an abundance of land and water open to the public, and a relatively low number of waterfowl hunters. I've had way more good experiences with other hunters at the ramp or in the field than bad ones. The handful of really bad ones can mostly be attributed to inexperienced hunters just figuring things out, and one encounter with non-hunters that bordered on hunter harassment.
 
Larry Eckart said:
Eric et al,
Eric's predicament is one reason I have moved to deer hunting.

Here in the Piedmont, there are a limited number of public spots. With only a little investigation anyone can find them. Thus you have several parties crammed into a spot that in truth, only hunts one party.

This past Saturday, a friend of mine was out at 2:30 am to claim his spot on opening day of a duck split season. Didn't matter. Three other parties, not hunters but parties, set up within 50 yards of him.

I will duck hunt come January. But my deer hunting has allowed me to find some back creeks where the woodies loaf. This will not be a classic ducks over decoys in a boat spread, but walking down a creek and doing so in the middle of the day. And in January I will float a few creeks.

But most likely, I have seen the end of my time of enjoying a ducks over decoys hunt unless. It simply is not worth it to me to have the anticipation and enjoyment of the marsh ruined by hunters who don't give a bleep about old time character traits. Character has been replaced by me, me, me.

Larry
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Sadly, it is much like that down here in eastern NC.
 
The whole blocking the ramp thing is crazy. I can't understand how anyone could do that and not worry that someone is going to damage your truck, but obviously those guys are wired different. I don't think these days I'd get hot enough to put a chain on their truck, but when I was younger, I could see getting pretty fired up.

I ran across a similar thing the other day in google reviews... I was looking up a neighbor in Wyoming that runs an outfitting business and checked out his reviews and this fall apparently he pissed off quite a few folks by parking a stock trailer on a bridge on a public blocking access to the mountains where he has a camp. Pictures and everything in the reviews.
 
Tod

As much as I'd like to retaliate, that's not my modus operandi. Although I must admit fantasizing about it does feel good. I do take comfort in the salty bible verses about such things, like Deuteronomy 32:35 and Romans 12:19.

Thomas came up with a pretty good means to handle the situation next time. He said he would tell them to move their rig, or he'd post aerial maps with dots of their hunting spots all over social media along with info on the best times to hunt and load it up with kill pics. Plus, he'd let everyone know why he did it and name them by name. That would get their attention. Might get him assaulted but if that happened we'd lawyer up, criminal and civil. I'm talking full court press.

I spoke to him last night about calling the area manager and game warden to report the behavior and he refuses to do so. Reason being our state waterfowl biologist really likes the special opportunity areas (SOAs) and Thomas fears the state's solution to misbehavior is to pull the area from open access and make it an SOA which are closed most of the season and only open to lottery winners. Whether that would happen is debatable, but to us folks that like hunting freedom and despise lotteries its logical thinking.

Was that a public road the outfitter blocked? If so, that's even more ballsy than blocking a ramp. Couldn't a tow truck be called, and bill sent to the outfitter? I bet he guides non-residents and cares more about his business than his non-paying neighbors. That's a losing long-term strategy.

Eric
 
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Eric Patterson said:
Tod

As much as I'd like to retaliate, that's not my modus operandi. Although I must admit fantasizing about it does feel good. I do take comfort in the salty bible verses about such things, like Deuteronomy 32:35 and Romans 12:19.

Thomas came up with a pretty good means to handle the situation next time. He said he would tell them to move their rig, or he'd post aerial maps with dots of their hunting spots all over social media along with info on the best times to hunt and load it up with kill pics. Plus, he'd let everyone know why he did it and name them by name. That would get their attention. Might get him assaulted but if that happened we'd lawyer up, criminal and civil. I'm talking full court press.

I spoke to him last night about calling the area manager and game warden to report the behavior and he refuses to do so. Reason being our state waterfowl biologist really likes the special opportunity areas (SOAs) and Thomas fears the state's solution to misbehavior is to pull the area from open access and make it an SOA which are closed most of the season and only open to lottery winners. Whether that would happen is debatable, but to us folks that like hunting freedom and despise lotteries its logical thinking.

Was that a public road the outfitter blocked? If so, that's even more ballsy than blocking a ramp. Couldn't a tow truck be called, and bill sent to the outfitter? I bet he guides non-residents and cares more about his business than his non-paying neighbors. That's a losing long-term strategy.

Eric
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I like the modern social media solution. I hear you on the SOAs.

The outfitter was blocking a forest service road, which is a public maintained road. As I gather it, he feels that since he has a permitted outfitting camp in the area, that he can exclude the public - but that isn't the case.
 
In NW Iowa where I was from we had areas that were notorius for poor behaviors, then in around 1991-1992. Several big papers and magazines wrote articles on how good the goose hunting was where I grew up and was living. It went from 2 rigs on a small lake to 5-6 as well as many walk ins. People driving from all over because the articles discussed and named particular lakes. This is nothing new, heck look at the history of Lake Odessa near wapello, iowa. I can name many many more, sadly enough I have seen a generation of hunters more mobile, with more and better equipment that have taken it to a bigger level and with a more ENTITLED view.
 
I'd set up just down wind of them even if there wasn't a good place to hunt. If they cheat to ruin my hunt I'd do the same. And the second they came over to confront me I'd call 911 and have the video running.
 
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