I'm home today still feeling the effects of Friday's surgery and want to share some thoughts that I've been having over the past few months. Thanks for listening.
I've spoken to some of you privately about issues at the private property I am able to hunt. Basically my employer allows me full access to some of the land he owns and to land that he has exclusive hunting rights to, over 400 acres total. I do a lot of the maintenance like prepare blinds, bush hog, clear trails, plant food plots, etc.. It is a lot of work and I bought the needed equipment (tractor, trailer, disc, spray rig, etc.) out of my own pocket. I assume many expenses but have 100% access whenever I want. I gladly take my employer and his family members whenever they wish and like it when they come but most of the time it's me and Thomas and sometimes a guest. Thomas and I have gotten a lot of pleasure out of the work and the hunts over the past 6 year. But with that said we've been in constant conflict with the farmer (he is not the landowner but has farming rights to the land my employer does not own). Specifically he has gone out of his way to tear out roads, and rip out our water control structures depriving of us water. For the past two seasons we've had no water meaning all the work we did putting in food plots was for nothing. This is just one example of many vindictive actions on his part. I have never spoken to him but he evidently has an issue with my employer and is doing his best to keep us from hunting. When my employer obtained exclusive hunting rights the farmer and his buddies lost them and I think that may be part of it. My employer has hired a lawyer to sue the farmer for harassment but I don't know what our chances are. I fear he can claim his actions were all done as part of his faming operations.
The above covers the issues I've had on private property. Public hunting has issues too. Specifically I enjoy WMAs on weekday afternoons when the crowds are the thinnest and save the private property for weekends. This allows me the most enjoyable hunting I can come up with in North Alabama. Now the state has decided to change the regs on our WMAs closing hunting tue-thur and no longer allowing motors in some of the areas I like. The new regs really limit me. Further, I have lost my taste for hunting the lake. It is crowded and too much commotion. I've grown too old to put up with it given limited success rates and hunter traffic. Some things just lose their appeal over time and this is an example for me.
So with the above I am considering a complete change in the way I have hunted ducks since 1982. That being joining a club in Arkansas and maybe a little freelancing on Black River. I'll drop from about 30 days a year to just a few weekends. It is a big change. If I go through with it I'll sell my tractor and equipment, Broadbill, and Black Brant and buy a 4 wheeler. Maybe in a year or two Thomas and I will do a father-son Cackler build. That is my wish. It's just such a big change I'm having a hard time going through with it, but something has to give. I only hunted 6 times this past season. I can't remember hunting less than 30 times a season.
Thomas (turned 18 Saturday) has a group of friends that hunt quite a bit and I think he's hit that time in his life where he's too independent to hunt with me all the time. Plus I don't have the desire to do the 3:00 am public hunts like him. I think he'd join me some in Arkansas but will continue to mostly hunt around here with his friends. He won't be happy with me selling most of the hunting items. I could keep the Brant until the Cackler.
Sorry for the rambling thoughts, I'm just working through the aspects before I make any long term decisions. Simply put things have changed, now I guess it's time for me to make some changes too.
Eric
I've spoken to some of you privately about issues at the private property I am able to hunt. Basically my employer allows me full access to some of the land he owns and to land that he has exclusive hunting rights to, over 400 acres total. I do a lot of the maintenance like prepare blinds, bush hog, clear trails, plant food plots, etc.. It is a lot of work and I bought the needed equipment (tractor, trailer, disc, spray rig, etc.) out of my own pocket. I assume many expenses but have 100% access whenever I want. I gladly take my employer and his family members whenever they wish and like it when they come but most of the time it's me and Thomas and sometimes a guest. Thomas and I have gotten a lot of pleasure out of the work and the hunts over the past 6 year. But with that said we've been in constant conflict with the farmer (he is not the landowner but has farming rights to the land my employer does not own). Specifically he has gone out of his way to tear out roads, and rip out our water control structures depriving of us water. For the past two seasons we've had no water meaning all the work we did putting in food plots was for nothing. This is just one example of many vindictive actions on his part. I have never spoken to him but he evidently has an issue with my employer and is doing his best to keep us from hunting. When my employer obtained exclusive hunting rights the farmer and his buddies lost them and I think that may be part of it. My employer has hired a lawyer to sue the farmer for harassment but I don't know what our chances are. I fear he can claim his actions were all done as part of his faming operations.
The above covers the issues I've had on private property. Public hunting has issues too. Specifically I enjoy WMAs on weekday afternoons when the crowds are the thinnest and save the private property for weekends. This allows me the most enjoyable hunting I can come up with in North Alabama. Now the state has decided to change the regs on our WMAs closing hunting tue-thur and no longer allowing motors in some of the areas I like. The new regs really limit me. Further, I have lost my taste for hunting the lake. It is crowded and too much commotion. I've grown too old to put up with it given limited success rates and hunter traffic. Some things just lose their appeal over time and this is an example for me.
So with the above I am considering a complete change in the way I have hunted ducks since 1982. That being joining a club in Arkansas and maybe a little freelancing on Black River. I'll drop from about 30 days a year to just a few weekends. It is a big change. If I go through with it I'll sell my tractor and equipment, Broadbill, and Black Brant and buy a 4 wheeler. Maybe in a year or two Thomas and I will do a father-son Cackler build. That is my wish. It's just such a big change I'm having a hard time going through with it, but something has to give. I only hunted 6 times this past season. I can't remember hunting less than 30 times a season.
Thomas (turned 18 Saturday) has a group of friends that hunt quite a bit and I think he's hit that time in his life where he's too independent to hunt with me all the time. Plus I don't have the desire to do the 3:00 am public hunts like him. I think he'd join me some in Arkansas but will continue to mostly hunt around here with his friends. He won't be happy with me selling most of the hunting items. I could keep the Brant until the Cackler.
Sorry for the rambling thoughts, I'm just working through the aspects before I make any long term decisions. Simply put things have changed, now I guess it's time for me to make some changes too.
Eric
