Picture Tuesday....Last Day on The River...

Jay Anglin

Jay Anglin

Well-known member
Like Pierce, I spent two days on the river to end the season. I'd done real well a week ago...two of us got our six Canadas in classic form. Over the week somebody found them and that deal was gone. I ended up running 7 miles downstream to a spot where roughly 600 birds were roosted. I hate to hit them on a roost like that but we bumped them right at legal time drifting through and never burned more than maybe 100 as they filtered back to get our 6 this past Saturday. Unfortunately, we had some unsavory interaction from the guy that owns the mansion on the hill. We couldn't even see his place but I guess he decided he didn't want us there. It was a shame because we had our limit and he showed up...he was flipping me off and making a motion as if he was shooting us. I tried to calm him down but it wasn't going to happen. It left a bad taste in our mouth so I didn't even bother taking pictures. It's definately time to move.

The next day I was back upstream. The mother of all lake effect snow systems has been pounding SW Michigan for days now. When I pulled up to the ramp there was maybe 10 inches on the ground. We hit the river and realized we couldn't see. I wore goggles and still couldn't see so I ended up idling. The boat was full of snow in no time. The birds we did see were bundled up so tight that it didn't appear they'd move anytime soon. We decided to call it a season. I got back to the ramp in less than an hour and my bunks had 6 inches of snow on them! It was snowing that hard. By the time we left town there was well over 20 inches. By that evening my buddy called to tell me that he had 32 inches in his yard(one day) and it's been snowing ever since. It reminded me of the UP. We snapped a few photos. Another river in a blizzard. For some reason I never get tired of boats in the snow!

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Wow...cool pictures...I miss getting snow like that. Love the one of the Lab with snow on the muzzle...even the dog gets snow camo.

Sorry you got too much snow, but it'll make the spring runoff that much better...spring steelhead...mmmmmm.....of course, if your weather has been anything like ours, it'll melt next week....
 
Man! Pics like those really make me miss Michigan.
You know it's Michigan when you're thinking about shovelling the boat and the dog!

Great pics. Sorry about the selfish neighbor.

Get out the next couple of weeks without a gun and do some scouting. You might find better places for next season!
 
DANG! We only got about 5 inches over here..two counties away. The guy on the bank probably bitches all summer about the goose shit on his lawn.Nice pics..been a while since I hunted in that kind of snow.
 
Hey Lee...what was the deal with that idiot contest over on 69? I didn't think they were getting much in the way of snow over there. Looked like a real mess on TV.

I just noticed that the snow band that caused school to be cancelled is raging over in Niles again. They have been absolutely pounded over there and you don't hear anything about it on the news...not even South Bend. Strange.

Bill, that's the problem with this area. There is a house every 200 yards anymore everywhere. With Michigan's "riparian rights" laws it's going to basically eliminate legal hunting on water in that state. In Indiana it's legal but there's something about hunting when you can watch the ballgame through some guys picture window that turns me off BIG TIME! Field hunting is where it's at but when you have a year like this where it's basically impossible to pattern birds you hunt water.

Rick, there are probably steelhead in that picture..you just can't see them. About 200 yards downstream is the mouth of one of the best tribs in Michigan(my opinion of course). It's chuck full of fish right now. I motored up to the first bend and the water had the gorgeous snot green look that means tiny nymphs, light tippet and big steel. I gotta get over there ASAP but with these temps I hate the work. The guides ice up on every cast. You can spray them with Pam or use Stanley's ice off paste but dipping the rod in the water on every cast is the best way.

Which reminds me Lee...you and Pete better get your rotator cuffs warmed up...it ain't gonna be long now.
 
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I was just thinking about that while the grandson and I were watching a fishing show on tv the other day. Not sure about what happened on 69..saw some dude was killed on 96 last night..and traffic was backed up with a chain reaction at the Blue Chip exit on the India..errr..foreign owned toll rd. Yuppie idiots with SUV's I suppose..think they can drive like idiots year round.
 
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That exit on 94 is like a crash up derby. A guy got killed there last week when he exited and drove under a semi that was parked with blinkers on.

I was just thinking about my spread Saturday. I really wished I had some pics. There was shelf ice about 50 yards into the river. I broke off a huge piece...maybe a half acre and took 15 minutes to flip it around out of the way with the boat. That allowed us to sit up against the bank which was a 150 ft high and trees hanging over the river. We put 16 floaters out, 14 bigfoots were standing on the ice on either side of us with sleeper shells mixed in. They ate it up! They had to work in and circle like mallards. It was just awesome and then that asshole showed up. What a buzz kill!
 
Great Pics Jay!!! You guys finished it in style!!! I know what you mean about all the houses....



Your pup looks like he was wishing he was a Chessie.....LOL!!! Just foolin' with you bud!!!
 
Hey Jay-I feel your pain. There's a guy on one of the local rivers that has a sign on the end of dock that reads "Corn Fed ducks". From dummy blinds to stuff like that its just going to get worse with more metro types moving out to buy waterfront property that is left behind by folks that can't afford the property taxes anymore. More people more use conflicts. At least you had a good hunt.-j
 
Dang, that's some frickin snow. And to think... I was cold on the airboat ride back to the ramp Sunday night because I only had on jeans, flip flops and a t-shirt :)

Hitch
 
Don't get me wrong...I grew up on a lake and had MANY problems with guys setting up 25 yards out in front of the house which is legal in Indiana(see photo).

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These guys would normally set up on our side of the river believe or not...less than half that distance from the window but I had asked them to move when they showed up because my dad had just died and we were expecting company. That's as far as they got. It's this kind of crap that has created the problem in my opinion. We've had big debates about it in the past on this site. That home was built 75 years ago and the garage which is the original home is the oldest structure on the lake...well over 100 years old. So, I can see both sides of the problem.

Here is my problem in this particular situation. I hunted as far away from occupied dwellings as I possibly could've. This guys house was 150 up, back off the edge out of view, behind us, in the woods over 700 feet away. If he'd have been the same distance at water level I wouldn't have hunted there. The next closest place was over 1500 ft away. There were homes across the river at least 1/3 to 1/2 of a mile away and I went out of my way to go past and make sure that the homes directly across were summer places. That's how much I care about pissing people off. WAY more than the average hunter.

When the guy came out he was profane, insulting, flipping me off. I even apologized to him during his tyrade. He asked where I was from,"I grew up on a lake in Indiana where the hunters set up 50 feet from your porch" I told him and he replied,"Well, go back to your trailer in Indiana you fn ahole" and flipped me off. It gets really old and I guarantee that we are the bad guys in this situation regardless of the facts. I went to his mansion later and noticed he was a horse fanatic with the huge fenced in pasture and big NO TRESS signs everywhere. I think I'll drop a letter in his mail box sometime soon.
 
Jay,

first off, nice snow pics. Dang that would have been nice.

On the distance from shore. Not that WI has done anything right, but for most of the state you have to be either 500 or 1000 feet from shore, depending on where/what lake you are hunting. SORT of helps with this issue. Yah, on the Miss, you must be WITHIN the 100ft mark, but there are less homes due to the seasonal flooding issue. Would help in IN I am sure if they had some minimum distance. And MI riparian rights are just downright weird/wrong.

best of luck fishing.
 
In Iowa, you have to have permission to hunt with 200 yards...or is it 150 yards of any occupied building...
 
Wow, I can't believe they can hunt that close to an occupied house. That's unreal. Heck, they could shoot a duck and if it sails a little it might break your window and land in the house. We have to be 500' from a house to hunt here.
 
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500 feet from a dwelling here in RI, but the real law is the law of enjoying the hunt. Many guys hunt close and they get yelled at by the residents, or the cops come down at the urging of the residents and the cops don't know the wildlife laws.

I won't hunt near a house because it would ruin my day to get yelled at by some civilian if they were dead wrong. I can't believe that that guy flipped you off, you were too kind.
 
It happens more and more, we have had blinds set a fire in the middle of the night. People pulling up in there boats and yelling and hollering just outside of the decoys trying to scare of birds. And these were DNR blind sites!
 
Jason, do you mean that guy on the P-tank, just up strem of Holland Point? If ya wanna get his goat, just set up near his dock and don't load the gun. Drives him nuts. Ive had people come down to run me off and I tell them they are interfering with a legal hunt and I will press charges then take a coupe pics of them.
 

what about anti-harrassment laws? Over here it is illegal to harrass someone legally hunting. Not that always helps though. I've used the threat of that law to stop parks managers from harrassing me while hunting on our rivers and even used it on a game warden who thought he could bluff me into leaving where I was hunting.
I guess in my older age I just don't tolerate that $h** anymore. Makes me just mad as hell.
 
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