inconsiderate people and public water hunting

M

Mitch B.

Member
It was about 10am and we were about to end our day of hunting a chain of 4 public lakes around Tri-county. We just got our blind down off the boat and put away when a big ball of about 30 ducks flew over so we decided to stay a while longer. We put our blind back up and just got sat down when a pontoon came through the canal and dropped anchor 20 yards from our decoys. We were hunting a chain of 4 lakes and we were 3rd back. I was mad at first but i couldn't blame the fishermen for a afternoon of fishing but seriously dropping anchor 20 yards from our decoys. You would think people would be considerate enough to give hunters some space wouldn't you?

A few years ago i was hunting with my dad and his friend up north on public ground and a pontoon came up and dropped anchor within 10 yards from our decoys. My dads friend stood up and said "Hey were hunting here" and the 4 people on the pontoon said oh ok and continued to fish. after a few minutes they cast a line just outside our J hook of decoys and my dads friend stood up and fired a shot right across the fishing line. Pretty quickly they pulled anchor and moved away from us. I never hunted with him again but i sure did want to do the same thing to the people that dropped anchor right beside us this weekend. thats the bad thing with public water hunting...you have to share with inconsiderate people and there is nothing you can do about it.
 
harassment? Call warden--perhaps one of indiana's finest can give you some assistance! We had that problem years ago when scoter hunting and jigging for weakfish---usually, after the firts group of scoter dropped in, the fishermen upped anchor!
 
It always amazes me how ignorant people can be. Sad thing is if you shoot at birds while they anchored there and they complain to the police guess who is going to be the one in the hot seat....the hunter!
Jim/Fowlfishing
 
yep, there are some incosiderates out there. There must have been a bass tournement a few weeks ago as a couple of bass boats came blasting in the cove and one started fishing right on top of the guys beside me.

Are you sure they saw you? If someone comes close to me, I always make a point to stand up and make sure they see me. Spinners are good for that!
 
It was about 10am and we were about to end our day of hunting a chain of 4 public lakes around Tri-county. We just got our blind down off the boat and put away when a big ball of about 30 ducks flew over so we decided to stay a while longer. We put our blind back up and just got sat down when a pontoon came through the canal and dropped anchor 20 yards from our decoys. We were hunting a chain of 4 lakes and we were 3rd back. I was mad at first but i couldn't blame the fishermen for a afternoon of fishing but seriously dropping anchor 20 yards from our decoys. You would think people would be considerate enough to give hunters some space wouldn't you?

A few years ago i was hunting with my dad and his friend up north on public ground and a pontoon came up and dropped anchor within 10 yards from our decoys. My dads friend stood up and said "Hey were hunting here" and the 4 people on the pontoon said oh ok and continued to fish. after a few minutes they cast a line just outside our J hook of decoys and my dads friend stood up and fired a shot right across the fishing line. Pretty quickly they pulled anchor and moved away from us. I never hunted with him again but i sure did want to do the same thing to the people that dropped anchor right beside us this weekend. thats the bad thing with public water hunting...you have to share with inconsiderate people and there is nothing you can do about it.
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The world is full of total douchebags - luckily they don't like the cold.

T
 
Mitch,
Most all of us now carry cell phones. a constant stream of calls to the local police or game dept complaining about harrassment, and I mean none stop, and the mentioning of lots of flocks of low flying birds, would be a first step. And what if lots of flocks were coming over almost straight up from you, but somewhat off to the side?
I had the same problem last season with horse back riders coming through hunting areas on NWR parcels. I brought these points up to the manager a couple of times and the potential safety issues and it seems to have been stopped.
Since they have no problem anchoring beside you, then why not up yours and reanchor right beside them. Surely that would create more bird action in the immediate vicinity.

Whatever you do, best of luck with it.
 
we have a bad problem with redfish guys down here. They think since they dropped 60k on a bay boat they trump duck hunters. Thankfully they dont like taking them out in cold windy days, sally's. I just like to tell myself that at least I'm not as stupid and inconsiderate as those douchers.
John
 
We had this problem 2 years ago with a Bass fisherman. We called the DNR and they came out. The fisherman were warned that we (Duck hunters) have 60 days to hunt, and that they have the whole year. They were also told if there was another complaint they could possible go to jail for hunter harrassment.
 
My hunting buddy and I drew a public blind on the Delaware River ,one year and were all set up .Along came this duck boat from New Jersey and began setting up 100 yrds to Our left. After shouting & warning them to cast off they paid no attention to our pleas . So my buddy who was hot to trot started to walk the shore line to them with gun in hand ,well these guys had picked up fast and took of back to N.J. before my buddy even got half-way to them. The must have been 1st timers and were surely breaking the rules.
 
Mitch, when we left Wabash we moved to Lake Tippecanoe...I went to Wawasee High School so I've hunted all those lakes quite a bit and still do every year. Over the past 10 years the hunting pressure on those lakes has increased ten fold. But, what has increased even more and had a HUGE impact on the quality of hunting is winter fishing. These warm winters have the bass and musky guys fishing virtually year round now. About 4 years ago on Tippy I broke ice for at least a mile to get to an opening along shore. I was pushing as much as 2 inches with the Lund and making a helluva noise. We eventually got to the opening and did well but what was absolutely shocking to me was that a couple hours after we set up a guy with his buddies in another Lund started trolling for muskies in the channel I had made!!!!! Like all the way to our decoys!!!! He said he hear me breaking ice and figured "why not". His boat was a wider one and it was crunching the ice and he was trolling in about 8 feet of water....I was stunned speechless. The definition of WTF? Guess what buddy, I don't get no better up here in the northwest part of the state. Its WORSE!
 
Mitch, I feel your pain man. I've had bass boats pull up and throw their plugs in the lilly pads right next to my decoys, people trolling dang near through the decoys, and even a fly-fisherman in a float tube casting just outside the spread! The float tuber takes the cake though because he really had no idea I was there! I blew my call to see what would happen and scared him half to death! :) Apparently I was hidden quite well and he couldn't tell the difference between plastic and feathers. He apologized and moved on but he's the only one ever to do so. It's maddening but apparently it happens all over and what do you do? Shoot over em'? I never have but people around here do. That doesn't seem like it would solve too much.

Lance, sounds like you have an awesome DNR dept. over there in Iowa!!! That definitely wouldn't happen around here. You never see anyone and if you do they don't really do or say to much. I've been stopped once and I've lived here in Spokane and hunted for 10 years! I've heard that some of the counties here have 2 or 3 game wardens to cover the whole county! Hmmmm.....is there any poaching or illegal activities going on?! Gotta make cuts somewhere in the budget right?!
 
Yeah, on opening day this year a guy came out walleye fishing and at one point was almost within 600 yard. Then he sat out drifting about 1200 yards away. It sucked...oh wait, nope, meant to say it was fine. Granted I haven't hunted on a lot of lakes that get fished heavily but never has an angler bothered me while I was hunting. (Knock on wood)
Have had a couple hunters do dumb things but not fishermen. I guess if it is public water there is always that chance. Luckily the few lakes that have cabins around here are greatly outnumbered by those without.

If you want to see some of the rudest people go fishing in MN on the walleye opener. There are plenty of fine Minnesotans but even they would have to admit that opening weekend brings out some crazies. SD pheasant opener can be bad also if you are hunting public ground. I have seen groups run to get in front of others already in the field so they can walk the best patches of cover. It's a freekin 2 1/2 pound bird people.

Tim
 
Shoot over em'? I never have but people around here do. That doesn't seem like it would solve too much.
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I got to agree with Derek here. If they feel threatened by you and YOUR LOADED WEAPON, even if you have no intentions of hurting them or their property...you just broke the law, and if convicted, I'm quite sure you could loose your hunting rights and gun rights for a minimum number of years. Right, wrong, confused or misunderstood...it don't mattter any more, IF THEY FEEL THREATENED, you are in violation of far bigger laws than hunter harassment. Take the high road, call the CO and report the harassment, or move on!
 
Most times its not harrassment on their part its just plain stupidity. Last year on public waters I had a pontoon plane decide that he was going to practice touch and goes on the channel about 700 yds from our blind. Now this lake has about 25 public blinds on it so the pilot should know that there are hunters in the area. But this did not stop him from flying directly over us at a height of about 75 to 100yds above us. This went on for an hour, him scareing the birds and preventing us from shooting. Couple of shots in the water as he flew over us finally got the point across and he left (or he was finally done). Anyway, called the FAA the next day and reported the guy for flying over a restricted area.

A week later had a guy motor right thru our decoys to come and ask directions to a bar on the other side of the lake. Ah the joys of public hunting! So just to add to the yahoos with 3 spinners in there spread, sky busting and calling constantly (badly at that) you have the fisherman and airplanes! Thank God they all go inside when the weather gets colder.
 
Over the years we've many of the same experiences as you guys, fishermen, airplanes buzzing us, PETA harrassers Etc.. On a slightly different note we have seen a change in where the divers raft up in response to the recent increase in late season fishermen. As a general rule along the coast here birds arrive from up North and set up shop for the winter, and the general feeding/resting/trading patterns are set by late November. The birds seem to be rafted farther out than they were twenty -thirty years ago, or have moved to areas that aren't popular fishing spots, I believe because every time they try to sit a boat runs them over until after Thanksgiving.
 
Two years back on our early goose season I had taken my son and a friend out. We got set up and waited. Wasnt long and a boat homesteads right out in front of us. I stood up and told the guys on the boat that we were hunting and were here first. They continued to fish. 5 minutes after that a flock starts coming in directly over their heads, I waited till the birds cleared them, then let my son kill his first goose ever. After the shots from my son and friend, those fisherman decided that some other spot on that 2 mmillion acre pond looked better and left
 
Since this is the thread for complaints, I have one. How about the guys that shoot, just as ducks are about to set down in your spread, so they flare, then call them into their spread and shoot them? We have had that, more than once this year. There is a guy that has been at the same place that I hunt three times this year. The early opener he put his boat in the water at the ramp, then got back into his truck to nap. When we showed up his pickup and trailer were blocking the ramp, so we couldn't unload. We finally went up and knocked on his window. He gets out of his truck and then proceeds to get his gear out and a leisurely pace and finally gets out of the way. We launch and head to our spot, seeing that he is on the far side of the marsh from us. We thought, "ok we have a good set-up here". Not too much time goes by and he is heading back to the ramp to pick up his buddies. We see him go by in the dark without any running lights on. He comes back and stops his boat less than 50 yds. from us and starts throwing out decoys! He is parked right next to the main navigation channel. We are hidden back in the cattails off the channel about 50 yds. We had the boat lights on, our headlamps on and everything and they still set up right in front of us! We had no choice, but to move. Everything we would have shot at, would have been in their direction. We pulled stakes and moved 400 yds. away. We actually found an even better spot and the ducks wanted to come to our spread, in spite of them having out nearly 100 decoys, compared to our 3 dozen. The ducks would circle, then lose altitude and put their feet down, then those idiots would shoot in the air and the ducks would flare off of us and fly around the marsh. They would call a little and the ducks would come right in to their spread. They shot at anything and everything. We managed three ducks, the same that they ended up with. They said that they actually shot their limits, but they couldn't find very many of them back. They were shooting over open water, so I don't know how they couldn't get their ducks back? They did shoot one Woodie that was saw, that flew at least 300 yards and then went down. They never bothered to even look for it. Like I said earlier, we ran into these bozos three times now.
 

I see this is more common than just my bad luck. Another hunt his year was hunting the Mississinewa Reservoir we were set up just outside a bay where I had seen 30 or so divers in it the day before. We sat there for about an hour and I stood up to stretch and looked behind us and there was a guy fishing from shore 20 yards behind us, we had seen a few birds that came close but didn't commit, I just thought they were seeing us but after seeing that guy I knew what the problem was. Less than 5 min later 3 redheads came in doing Mac 3 through our decoys made a loop and came and had their landing gear out and we took 2 of them. I think we fired 4 shots at them and after the excitement of my first redhead I looked back and he was hightailing it back to the parking lot.
 
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