Fair enough.
Saw this a few months back on the hunt quietly IG account....
- Thread starter tod osier
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@Eric Patterson,
it happens A LOT! Any fowl hunting around Amarillo Tx is long gone. Its impossible to free lance that area anymore. Used to, I could roll out to Tx, run around and find a feed. Knock a door and get access. It was never really an issue. Sometimes I got told no, but for the most part it wasnt hard at all. Even if it wasnt the mega feed, there were other feeds going on around that would provide limits. Everyone was hunting and there was lots of birds to be had everywhere, and lots of success. Now its all locked up under contract. Some birds still use fields but they dont get hunted because that goose feed isnt as big as the goose feed that the guides have their clients on. Yet that field is leased by the guide service and if the landowner lets other hunters on it, its a breech of contract. Lots of the landowners ive talked to or knocked on their door says "I really wish I could let you out there, but guide company x has it leased and I face penalty if I let anyone out there to hunt without them". Landowner put themselves in the predicament by signing the lease during the off season. Guides get all the land in the area to hunt, and the avg joe hunter is SOL. Ive heard landowners beyond frustrated because they have geese in their fields all season. 15 people have asked permission to hunt it that season, but they cant let them because of the contract. That guide company may never hunt that field because that feed just isnt big enough to run 10-15 guns on. Kind of a drag.
See post 62. I explain it there. Im sure its happening around the country more and more.
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That woukd tick me off, too. But sounds like something that should take care of itself pretty quickly - either farmers will stop entering contracts or will negotiate guaranteed number of hunt days/week if birds are present (if not met they can offer out). Or perhaps there isnt enough guide competition out there that the bottom feeders can get away with it.
There is so much dove guide competition in S Texas the farmers really have the upper hand, from what I can tell. A guide that can't both bring consistent clients and manage the resource to maximize a long season loses their fields to another who can.
There really is only one guide service. They came from Arkansas and ran that motto out there. They saw opportunity when they realized no one had it locked up and they took full advantage and had the funding behind their guide service in Arkansas to do so. I give them props, they saw an opportunity and made it work in a major way. Just sucked the life out of free lancing that had been going on for years though. They entered and took over...... RAPIDLY! Its been going on for the last 10 years. Its finally getting to the point where farmers are slowly not signing contracts, but its not resolving quick enough. But they have owned the area for quite some time.
For some odd reason, snows are only 5/day now and no conservation season. No one can figure out why. Its beyond dumb as that area holds one of the biggest wintering grounds for snows. Some have said its because of the guide presence that is there. Some say it was one bad year of migration and biologists freaked out and thought numbers were dropping. I can promise you, the numbers are back in full swing in a major way. We sat on a playa and watched thousands in and out of the decoys for a couple hours. Nothing we could do, we had our 20 on the ground already. Used to be 25/day during regular season and unlimited during conservation season. Oh the days we shot hundreds and hundreds of snows.
If you cannot see the difference between paying someone for success and working for success yourself the problem is yours not mine.
You can try to tell the tale that paying a guide to tell you what to bring, to carry your gear, to feed you, to house you and take you to the animals is hunting, but to me it isn't even a crude facsimile of what it means to be actually hunting. Sorry to burst your bubble but there are many of us that see right through the 50K you spent on your trophies for what they are.
That's harsh, and way over-generalizing.
Yes, there are guides that simply take people to the game. Yes there are people (I agree, not hunters) that do no work, no study, no learning and just want to be put in front of something to shoot so they can take photos. But it is totally unfair to say that just because someone chooses to use a guide in certain situations/locations they are less a hunter.
That's like saying a person is less of a traveler because they choose to find local folks in whatever country/destination they visit than the person who does it without any assistance. Personally, I'd rather get to know local customs, eateries, activities through local eyes when I take the time to travel.
I feel similarly about hunting and fishing in distant, unknown areas. Until retiring recently, I've never been able to afford the time to go spend more than a few days a year on such endeavors, so couldn't spend days scouting on my own. Where I had friends or acquaintances, I hit them up for tips and assistance. Where I didn't, I researched to find locally-based guides to provide intel, boats, and/or property access - but more importantly to me to provide local flavor and insights. But I'm in it for a much broader experience than just the killing - I want to get to know local people and places as much as I want to hunt.
Now that I've retired, I'm beginning to do more by road and more freestyling. Building the boat will give me more opportunities to explore in a lot more depth even locally. But I'm not doing any more or less hunting in these scenarios than when I've hunted with property owners, friends, or guides.
I'll fully qualify the above by saying I'm not a deer or big-game hunter and never have been, so that guide game may be totally different.
Alaska does in fact require a guide for brown bear/grizzly, Dall sheep and mountain goat. These were the animals that I harvested on my trips to Alaska although I was also fortunate to get a black bear, which does not require a guide, on my mountain goat hunt. A guided mountain hunt in Alaska is not any less difficult and I was grateful for the help they provided. Both client and guide suffer and work together as a team. Every guide I have known from those hunts have had one if not two hip replacement surgeries. Training for these trips involved backpacking the Superior Hiking Trail beginning to end. Nevertheless, even in my prime it would have been impossible for me to carry a wet brown bear hide out of the bush.
RM
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