Our season opened Friday. I was out due to a painful back strain. Thomas and a group of friends scouted the week leading up to the opener and found very few ducks and were at a bit of a loss as to where to go for the opener. Thursday afternoon they got a call from a hunting buddy who said he had located a few ducks on a local WMA and they should all hunt the opener together. So with that being the plan they left after Thanksgiving dinner to try and be at the ramp first, and they were. This WMA has a rule of no activity before 2 a.m. so they waited at the launch, first in line, until 2:00 and then launched and motored to the location, a short ten minute boat ride. When they arrived there were two hunters, who henceforth shall be referred to as the ill reputes, who had walked in long before 2:00 a.m. as evidenced by their campfire and had set up exactly where Thomas and co. planned to hunt.
The boys told the ill reputes they had beat them to the spot illegally so they needed to leave. The ill reputes then misquoted the regulation as "no boats prior to 2:00 a.m." and they were legal to walk in. The rule clearly states "No activity" making the ill reputes dead wrong. The ill reputes refused to yield the spot so Thomas's group went to a lesser location and when the hunt was over had little to show for the long morning. They did call the game warden who was unsuccessful at locating the ill reputes.
So with the above facts I ask what would you have done? I have talked to Thomas and his friends at length as to what I would do but they are more flexible than I and conceded to the ill reputes. I'll share what my moves would have been in a later post but would like to hear what you would have done.
Eric Patterson
The boys told the ill reputes they had beat them to the spot illegally so they needed to leave. The ill reputes then misquoted the regulation as "no boats prior to 2:00 a.m." and they were legal to walk in. The rule clearly states "No activity" making the ill reputes dead wrong. The ill reputes refused to yield the spot so Thomas's group went to a lesser location and when the hunt was over had little to show for the long morning. They did call the game warden who was unsuccessful at locating the ill reputes.
So with the above facts I ask what would you have done? I have talked to Thomas and his friends at length as to what I would do but they are more flexible than I and conceded to the ill reputes. I'll share what my moves would have been in a later post but would like to hear what you would have done.
Eric Patterson