Mud motor ban?

P

Pat Richter

Active member
Talked to a warden the other day . He told me alot of talk is going around about trying to ban mudmotors due to vegetation damage and the birds having less places to feed and rest because of these motors . Has anyone else heard this ?
 
It has been thrown around down here in past years (mainly for the second reason) but has never been officially considered by the Department.
 
I first heard it discussed at the Feb Waterfowl Conference in St. Point about 4-5 years ago. Heard nothing since then though with enough grumbling by hunters it might sway the DNR to try a partial ban. I doubt it will go far, at least any time soon. Just look at how long it has taken to get ANY additional lakes opened up for open water hunting or the partial concealment law - we've had that one on the books for 125 YEARS!
 
I haven't heard this, but have often wondered how much impact mud motors had on areas that are heavily hunted.

We rarely see them here.
 
More crap talk to make it harder for duck hunters. Sort of like when they changed the Mississippi Flyway legal spots to hunt up around Wabasha. Same claim - we need to close these areas so the birds have a place to rest blah bah blah.....

Most places I see mud motors are not that they are going willy nilly all through the plants. Seems one guys makes a trail and the rest follow the same trail. Same thing the guys with normal outboards do. One guy makes a trail and the rest follow that trail.

Bunch of hooey I tell you..... which mkaes me think it is for real.

Mark W
 



More crap talk to make it harder for duck hunters. Sort of
like when they changed the Mississippi Flyway legal spots to hunt up around
Wabasha. Same claim - we need to close these areas so the birds have a place to
rest blah bah blah.....

Most places I see mud motors are not that they
are going willy nilly all through the plants. Seems one guys makes a trail and
the rest follow the same trail. Same thing the guys with normal outboards do.
One guy makes a trail and the rest follow that trail.

Bunch of hooey I
tell you..... which mkaes me think it is for real.

Mark W
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Mark,

I respectfully disagree. "More crap talk to make it harder for duck hunters." Harder than before? Before when? Before mud motors, before motors in general, before sails, before oars, pick your point in time.

I personally am a bit apprehensive when I see the trails left by mud motors. We all leave our mark in some shape or form however the trails that I see, create entirely new channels in the marsh and river bottoms. I am not sure that is an entirely good thing.

As an example, it is already (here in Iowa) illegal to cut live vegetation on public land. I see little difference between cutting a path thru the timber to deer hunt and cutting a path thru the emergent vegetation to duck hunt.
 
For us, its not a vegetation issue: our submerged grass beds recovered quickly from disturbance, in summer prop scars can heal in a matter of weeks or even days.

Where I see the potential impact is on disturbing resting/feeding birds.
We have a lot of big shallow bays filled with grass. These bays are accessed via tidal creeks coming in off the main rivers. These tidal creeks normally fizzle out just inside the bay.

Years past, because it's either to shallow or too weedy to run in an outboard, guys would scout by pulling up where the creek mouths comes into the bays and break out the binos. Birds never knew you were there or were far enough away they didn't care.
Now, scouting consists of every boat with a mud-motor out there running the entirety of every shallow bay, flushing the birds up and scattering them. They rarely get a rest for more than 30 minutes before some other guy runs them up again.
There are no numbers to back up that this is having an impact, and it would be hard to quantify without closing some areas, but anecdotal evidences is that this may be a factor in the lower number of birds we overwinter here.
 
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Mark,

I respectfully disagree. "More crap talk to make it harder for duck hunters." Harder than before? Before when? Before mud motors, before motors in general, before sails, before oars, pick your point in time.

I personally am a bit apprehensive when I see the trails left by mud motors. We all leave our mark in some shape or form however the trails that I see, create entirely new channels in the marsh and river bottoms. I am not sure that is an entirely good thing.

As an example, it is already (here in Iowa) illegal to cut live vegetation on public land. I see little difference between cutting a path thru the timber to deer hunt and cutting a path thru the emergent vegetation to duck hunt. [/QUOTE]


Then we will disagree like we do on many things duck hunting related. We keep losing the good, accessible spots in MN and keep getting pushed farther and farther away from landings etc.... To keep duck hunting, we need to get to where the ducks are. Your experience is different than mine. Most places mud motors go up here follow the same path as the first guy who pushed through. Same as with the guys who have outboards. One guy makes a path, and others follow that path. Are the mud motor guys worse? - Not so much from what I see.

Most of the stuff the mud motors go through, up here, regrows next season and then the same old paths are 'cut' through them the next season. Just like the outboard guys.

Unless an outboard motor guyy can state that they NEVER go through small cuts in the vegetation (that aren't natural) with an outboard, I don't see a huge difference.

Mark W
 
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I look at it from this perspective....ducks, geese, and swans that dabble goe down to the mud and grab vegetation within the mud....look at the side of their beeks...I would think is some cases the mud motor would churn up some feed that they otherwise wouldn't get to....


All in all, as the owner of a new, low horsepower mud motor...lets tread lightly....
 
Just to stir the pot--

Where I hunt most often--all motors ARE restricted outside the marked navigation channel. You can proceed under headway speed only outside the channel, and most people take down the motor and scull or row or pole to their hunting spots soon after leaving it. I can pole my boat as fast as idle speed on the motor.

In a crowded spot, it makes for a much more pleasant hunting experience, and protects an awful lot of rafted ducks from being pounded by wakes.

The rules have been that way for as long as anyone can remember. Knock on wood--we're still hunting there.

I guess I see mud motors much the way I see "traditional motors", ATV's, and other modern conveniences. Of course they shouldn't be banned outright, but there probably are some places that are particularly sensitive where we ought to tread lightly. If the evidence shows a problem that could be solved with some restrictions on our toys, we should consider it. That doesn't mean we support every restriction anyone proposes, but it should mean we consider each proposal and the evidence behind it before we oppose it on principle.

Off the soap box now.
 
Part of what I was saying earlier is that,,,,,,,, there are in most cases, laws already on the books which would curtail much of the use of mudmotors or even any motor for that matter. If you run your motor thru live vegetation and the prop cuts said vegetation, you would be "cutting live vegetation" and in violation of existing regulations ( at least here in Iowa). (does not matter how quickly the vegetation may or may not grow back.)

If you run your motor in open water, shut it off, then push pole, paddle, row, etc, thru the weeds then you would be fine. It would not surprise me to see officers writing tickets for damage done by motors and/or mudmotors.
 
We have seen a major restriction in airboats here in Florida. There are several states that I know of that have mudmotor restructions i.e. times, places and size restrictions. Particularly in WMA'S with heavy duck hunting pressure.
 
Our management areas and refuges prohibit airboats from Oct-March. There are no restrictions on Mud motors. Seems kind of contradictory. They don't allow airboats because hunters could run all the ducks out of the area, as can mud motors. Having said that the spread of alligatorweed and other invasive aquatic vegetation makes it difficult to reach areas that were reachable 20 years ago by outboard. I wouldn't support any new restrictions that protect that kind of vegetation.
 
In Louisiana we have areas of WMA that gas powered motors are banned, can paddle or use electric trolling motor.

It is usually a small area that can be paddled into. Keeps from having mudboats zipping in and out of the area.

Many folks get into general area with mud but than lunch pirogue.
Has made for better hunts for those willing to paddle in.
 
MN also bans motors in their WMA's and there has been some discussion regarding some inland lakes. I believe lake Christina may have been one of them. Don't get me wrong I own a mud motor which I use for both duck hunting and back water bass fishing but Unfortunately the Mud Motor industry is caught up in the lets tear it up, big, bad and loud marketing. I owned an airboat for about 10 years which I sold in 2008. Was great for ice fishing and ice up duck hunting but the hand writing was on the wall when the started closing areas along the river mainly due to guys joy riding in air boats. Shingle creek & Reno to name a few. I had the boat tricked out to be a quiet as possible so I never had an issue with the wardens (my boat was quieter than theirs)
........
But now these open header mud buddy's are louder than an airboat and with more of them on the water noise regs are sure to follow. We got one guy up here that I can hear his boat from the time it leaves the Alma marina until it gets to his hunting spot a distance of 2+ miles.
.........
You can see my old boat in the back round - river was freezing up and we did great for 3 days until she locked up tight
View attachment IA Duckhunt Reduced.jpg
Dog is watching mallards as we try to take a picture.
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If you run your motor in open water, shut it off, then push pole, paddle, row, etc, thru the weeds then you would be fine. It would not surprise me to see officers writing tickets for damage done by motors and/or mudmotors.
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No way in hell.. will a ticket be written... not should it be...

There are far MORE than enough resting and feeding areas (refuges) on the River...
 
Mud motors are not much of a factor in Southern Maryland, nor do I see many of them. The problem here is that the shorelines are so locked up by land owners and the blind registration is so restrictive, it is very difficult to get to the ducks. Many great spots will not be reached just because of the unsafe distance or conditions a hunter would face trying to reach it from the few boat ramps in the area. There is NO shortage of resting areas for ducks and geese in this area and with the inability to jump shoot because of the land lock-up, the season can be very frustrating after just a little pressure is aplied to them.

dc
 
I often wondered when the crack-down would start. I hunt areas where you don't need one or no motors are allowed. I would own one if there was any advantage for me to do so. I also have a friend who was fined a couple years back for crossing a creek several times on his tractor. He was on his farm but was told he was damaging the stream bed!
That is the reason I expected a problem at some point, John
 
Talked to a warden the other day . He told me alot of talk is going around about trying to ban mudmotors due to vegetation damage and the birds having less places to feed and rest because of these motors . Has anyone else heard this ?
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Well it wouldn't surprize me now that I have invested in a Beavertail MM and a new boat to put it on!

With that said the river where I intend to use mine is'nt about vegitation as much as it's about low water and silted in water ways. The two marshes in my area I'll use pretty much have trails cut from many years of mud motor use and most stay to these trails since the pockets that are huntable are well established. Other areas I'd like to explore are deep water with thick grass and lilly pad areas that are just impossible to motor through with a conventional outboard. I don't think much will be said around here but then I've been wrong before.
 
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