"Posting" hunting spots.

William Stahl

William Stahl

Active member
I have been hunting Lk. Champlain on the NY side for 15+ years and have been witnessing a strange phenomenon of other duck hunters putting up signs with their names and the year on them to hold the spot for their duck hunting spot. I've never seen anyone actually use them, but then I'm not around for opener. I usually start late Oct./early Nov. because of work. I guess its just for the beginning of the season/opening day. I usually just ignore them or take them down if I'm hunting near them. This year something new showed up- an actual NO TRESPASSING-PRIVATE PROPERTY-VIOLATORS WILL BE PROSECUTED, etc, etc. On STATE LAND!!!!!!!!! I give up. Is it me, or is it just around here? I've hunted a few other states before and have never seen anything like it except around here. Thoughts?-
Thanks either way, I feel better letting that out.-
 
It's quite common around here for people to post state land to try to keep others off. Especially for deer hunting. I posted property that I acutally own only to have someone come along and remove mine and put theirs up. If it doesn't have the owners name and the block and lot number listed on the posted sign than most likely it is bogus. Around here that is...so if you don't kow where you are hunting then you may be missing out on some opportunities.
 
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I guess its just for the beginning of the season/opening day.
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I have not seen that around here,,,,yet. I have had deer hunters think that just because they have hung a tree stand in a spot on public ground, that they have "squatters rights" to that spot all season long.
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I have found a lot of public land posted in areas I grouse hunt. Even stuff that has been posted for a long time and I never gave it another thought until I was looking over a plat book and found otherwise. Turned out to be a lot more common than I thought. Very common in fact. It's not always hunters looking to thin out competition. Often its people who own land in the area trying to keep hunters away .
 
best to just ignore ignorance and have a good time! If on public, just make them disappear!
Sigh? What sign?
This is, after all, public property!!
 
Here on the islands where I hunt we (as in my age) deer/duck hunters grew up hunting the islands and knew each other or about each other and had a gentlemans rule. If you spotted a stand you moved on down the island because we all understood hown much time went into tramping around the woods finding that perfect scrape or run. Now that so many have lost private lands to hunt the islands are a different place. I don't leave anything but footprints. I've had 2 ladder stands stolen in the past ten years.....I get the hint. One guy I know called me a few years ago to see if I was hunting. Seemed he needed a ride to the ramp. Someone had stolen his gas tank and hose out of his boat.....!
 
Not uncommon at all IMHO

On a little different note, my dad posted his land to keep the "locals" from driving deer through his woods, or more the point, out of his woods, where he hunts himself. He was telling me how it doesn't seem to stop them if he isn't back there...I told him I think he needs to make bi-lingual signs, in English and German.

Chuck
 
Amazing the stuff people will do. I haven't seen it, but I have seen plenty of folks who don't know what a poster means in the deer woods :).
 
I haven't seen the posting of public land in my area, however I have had a problem with hunters building permanent duck blinds on public land. Those same people expect others to stay away from that spot. It is just pure laziness, they feel that they do not have to leave as early in the morning because their spot is "reserved". I could go on and on, it is a sore spot as I am sure the posting of public land is in NY.
 
We have the opposite problem...people trespassing on posted private land...


Back when I was in college, I was turkey hunting once in the middle of our 60 acres...a couple hundred yards from any fenceline, I'd snuck in in the dark to where I knew the birds had roosted the night before. Just as it started to lighten up a little, I gave a couple of clucks and a gobbler let loose about 30 yds away, but across the slough that splits our property in half. about 30 seconds later, I was straining to see/hear something and suddenly BOOOOMMMM. I nearly wet myself. Some idiot had snuck in and shot the gobbler out of the tree. I was terrified to even move, so I sat there for a minute. I couldn't see him, but I heard him moving around.

Unfortunately back then, I was too young to really get mad and take a couple of shots across his bow in the dark and start yelling at him. I was way more concerned with having someone walking around in the dark shooting things that might be turkeys...and making sure that wasn't ME. By the time I'd recovered from the shock, and did yell, he was well on his way off the property, turkey in tow.

We regularly find footprints on our land after snow falls. Even though we know both neighbors well, the people that hunt their land have now qualms crossing the fences. In 40 years, I have crossed the fences twice to retrieve deer that I had shot with a bow. In both cases, I went and asked the neighbor first and they had no problem with it either time. Is it that difficult to just ask and when told no, to respect the answer?
 
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Hi Bill. You'd be amazed how prevelant sign posting is on the Vt side of Champlain. It doesn't have any basis in Vt law, and technicly could be considered littering under Vt law. Every time I see one, I pull it up. When engaged in pre season scouting, I will often see a half dozen spots posted by the same guy. I swear people like that think they're "locking in" a private spot for them selves.

Since I hunt many times in a season, I am on the water and around the lake a lot. Theres been years where no one has ever hunted one of those spots, even once through the whole season. Those signs and the thought process behind it drive me nuts.

John Bourbon
 
If they put their name on a posted sign on public land, I personally would do my damnest to locate them and "return" the sign. They would also get a little talking to.
 
Kevin- I've thought about it.
John B.- I had a feeling it was like that across the lake too. I feel the same way. Its a strange world we live in sometimes. I made a couple disappear today.
On a better note, Wood Ducks are still around.
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If they put their name on a posted sign on public land, I personally would do my damnest to locate them and "return" the sign. They would also get a little talking to.
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Well that is one approach, but I've had better luck letting my local DNR officer give them a talking to. I have a very good working relationship with several of the surrounding officers. I am sure that I am not the only one in this area that provide them with an extra set of eyes. I do my best to give the officer as much info and as accurate as I can make it. I'll draw out a map and/or give them GPS coordinates to an illegal item or occurrence. Anything to make their job easier.

Best thing about it, is that this approach is effective, very effective. When a violator gets fined, you can bet he is telling his friends.
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i have a few stories to go along with this one. i was part owner of a pretty nice chunk of property that was surrounded by state land and everytime we went hunting there would be people setup on the property. we posted as best we could with signs in the marsh using pvc etc. long story short, we ended up donating the land to the state cause it was getting so rediculous. now anyone can hunt it and no ones ever there! two years ago i heard a shot on my property and drove over checking treestands and found a guy that ended up being a police officer dressed in orange in one of my treestands! i couldn't believe it! he shot a little 7 point buck i had passed up numerous times right out of my stand. he quickly stated that he had permission to hunt the farm etc etc. either he was lying or he really thought he was hunting part of a different farm he had permission to hunt. i have also caught a club trying to drive the property but what can you do theres less and less land to hunt and everyone thinks they can hunt every uninhabited property on earth even if its posted.
 
I have seen this in NJ on several occasions , not nearly as bad as the week I spent in Colorado, 20 yrs ago .

there were people, property owners who would block off roads
next to their property,that accessed public property. worst case we saw was a guy who built a barn with double doors over the road, he had the doors closed and locked, no one could access the public property and drive down the public road to get to it. he was standing outside the barn and I asked him what the deal was, he told me I was lost and to go away LOL. Drove us nuts for a week straight, the maps and game wardens would direct us to a piece of public land and then you could not get to them, we saw cars, trees ,
and old equipment parked on public roads with no thru access to get to somewhere we could hunt.
 
Hi Bill. I am pleasantly surprised at the numbers of woodies and teal still around. They're not on the lake mind you, but off in the back water potholes. Its supposed to be in the 60's this week??? Heck of a Nov.

John
 
Down here on Mobile Bay and the Mobile/Tensaw River Delta, we have a gentlemen's agreement that has been in place as long as anyone can remembers, seems to have arisen in the 40s or 50s:
Before opening day, each person goes out and puts up a sign with his initials and the year, they then build a blind out of cane. Not a permanent blind, just a bunch of cane stuck in the bottoms.
This "reserves" the spot for opening day and opening day only. After opening days, its is understood that all spots and blinds are first come, first serve.
It doesnt work perfect, every year there are minor arguments when someone set up too close to another person or someones sign was removed by another, etc... But for the most part, this gentlemens agreement works fine for us.

That said, NO TRESPASSING-PRIVATE PROPERTY-VIOLATORS signs are a totally different story, I find that simply mind-boggling.
But then I am on tidal waters, which are all owned by the state here in Alabama.
In non-tidal areas, and/or places with differrent riparian rights and regulations, posted signs could actually be legal.
Doesnt Maryland and/or some parts of North Carolina & Virginia have some really strange blind regulations???
 


I was going to make a Port Henry comment. I have not hunted the lake for several now, but from the late 80s to 2002, I was a fixture from Panton to Shoreham. One the reasons I never hunted the back waters was because of the ridiculous yahoo factor encountered there. What was the guides name that got busted back in Hospital Creek? That kind of behavior. There were other places we hunted in the interior zone that we be over run by what we referred to as "Brandon Boat People". I loved it when deer season started, all the yahoos left the lake. :)



Hi Bill. You'd be amazed how prevelant sign posting is on the Vt side of Champlain. It doesn't have any basis in Vt law, and technicly could be considered littering under Vt law. Every time I see one, I pull it up. When engaged in pre season scouting, I will often see a half dozen spots posted by the same guy. I swear people like that think they're "locking in" a private spot for them selves.

Since I hunt many times in a season, I am on the water and around the lake a lot. Theres been years where no one has ever hunted one of those spots, even once through the whole season. Those signs and the thought process behind it drive me nuts.

John Bourbon
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