- Dec 27, 2012
- 30,203
Got a couple, missed a couple, caught a decent smallmouth afterwards.
I had a fairly typical opening day at a popular public land spot on Saturday morning. The last three years I have just listened to the action from nearby fields out of curiosity as much as anything. That yielded one bird in a passing shot and lots of entertainment at what really sounds like a military skirmish going on. This year I decided to go to the water after seeing lots of successful hunters with ducks last year. I got in position 3 hours before shooting time, knowing that it was a popular spot and accepting that I could be overrun. I didn't have a better alternative location, so I just decided to go for it and see what happens. Like clockwork, 15 minutes before shooting time, a guy set up 30 yards from me (I signaled to him with my flashlight and whistled but he didn't seem to care).
Many birds flew right at first light/first shot. I didn't have a good shot on a flock that flew by, but my neighbor did. He dropped one and then spent the next hour walking around the pond directly in front of me (literally walking through my 10 decoy spread), talking and carrying on, as he looked for his shot duck. I saw four more flocks come and flail away at the site of this guy walking around in the water. He eventually found it after literally an hour of searching. I decided to pack it up at that point and immediately went and gathered my decoys to get out of there. Within ten minutes, I was walking back to the parking lot. Then someone jumped out of his blind and told me to look out as he literally shot over my head wildly at a bird that must have been 150 feet in the air. That's when I started walking a little faster! I knew it'd be nutty going out there on opening day and I knew I'd run into some inconsiderate people. And I did! I won't go out there again on opening day. No thanks! But I will go out one morning this week I hope!
Call the DNR poacher hotline. It is illegal to setup within 250 yards of another blind on the floating blind system, like the Potomac. My buddy just told me they just bought 3 new inboard jet boats to get around better and I am sure they had them all manned Saturday. They hired a lot of new, younger ambitious wardens also in the past couple years.
The 250 yard rule is a safety thing and if they are going to F up your hunt you might as well return the favor. If they can't follow those rules I would bet the warden can find other things to drop paying papers on them. If you don't call you are letting the ignorant hunter win and not teaching them.
I've also had other guys tie their boat to mine and made new friends. If that doesn't work and they don;t listen, have the DNR app on your phone like reporting deer and the number to call is right there and I think it even dials for you.
The DNR wants to fix these things and you also have the MDWFA for political issues. We have our e-mail on our website. Just saying, posting on a website forum maybe feel like its off your chest, but isn't really fixing the problem.