We used to hunt a prize destination marsh complex off a waterfowl refuge in the eastern U.P. each duck opener. After rafting the boats the evening prior the opener, we would sit until full dark watching birds pitch in to a variety of shoreline and open marsh spots, with each boat's "captain" choosing his opener site and setting a GPS route to get there. Prior GPS handheld units we would use sighting compasses and dead reckoning to stumble our way to our hunting sites in the pre-dawn darkness. Since many downstate hunters would travel north for the Region 1 waterfowl opener that preceded theirs by two to three weeks, this huge marsh would be buzzing with navigation lights and the associated sounds of outboards, men, and dogs from 2:00AM to shooting time. After the near-continuous barrage of shotgun fire through the first hours of opening day, hunters would sequentially depart over the remainder of the weekend, leaving us with the majority of the marsh complex to ourselves. We would organize jump shoots that better resembled pheasant drives, moving through "time proven" marshy points, small islands, and backwaters, mostly shooting cripples and retrieving birds via the dogs. Frequently we would push across a small partially submerged island that held three to five hunting parties at the opener, seldom firing a shot, but completing the sweep with a limit of birds for the three to four people in the group effort. Never once did a CO arrest us or issue a ticket, though they often observed our "progress", watching us through their binoculars...I always viewed the effort as the converse of wanton waste!
