Last season I walked into a spot on Lavon. Some S_B left their decoys out, mojo standing, and a jacket strapped to a stump in a very prime spot.

My question is what would you do?
(I set up 100 yds away in a different direction and waited till 10 am but nobody ever showed up!)

Steal the decoys or take target practice out on them. Take the jacket in remeberence. Or maybe look for a body floating around the area. Just kidding, I have buddies that used to hunt lavon. They said they ran across the same thing, however these guys even left there guns behind. I think if I were in that situation, if there decoys were keeping me from getting any ducks. I'd pick mine up and hunt over theres or throw theirs on the bank.

move thier decs a few hundred yds down the bank and laugh, i would never take thier decs, or gear but there is no holding your spot, and if they are going to leave them out, leave a note asking for what brand you like

cut the weight line and watch them float away

1 - throw the decoy, line, and weight up in the trees one at a time (not in the area you plan on hunting of course)

2 - spray paint them safety orange

3 - gather them all up in a bundle and tie them all together and throw them in the middle of the lake

4 - cut off all the anchors and let them drift off


there are many possibilities

unless they are G&H

The GW will take care of it. Let him know. That is public water and you cannot mark a spot as yours without being present!!!

You duck hunters are a strange breed....

leave a poster that says thanx for the decoys nxt time just leave them in the bag for me

Tie some hooks on the lines and bait them, then watch a big old high fin drag them off.

Now you have to admit thats funny...

yeah Id probly pick his stuff up and pile it on the bank. That would make them realize they could lose their stuff easily enough.

sounds like sombody has more money than sense

Man, you guys are harsh!

Haven't any of you set up your spread the evening before the hunt? When it's 20 degrees and the wind is howling, it's nice to only have to take up the decoys. You guys should try it some time. Of course, if they didn't show up soon after daylight I'd probably hunt their spread too, but some of that other stuff...man I wouldn't want to piss some of you guys off.

By the way, we've had some of the best hunts all year around Richland Chambers the last week or so. Quite a few green heads on our last trip.

spaz

I'd leave them be, and see if they show up. It sounds like they either had some emergency where they had to leave them, or that they hunt the area regularly and wanted to expedite things by setting them up the night before. I don't have a problem with that unless they start getting territorial and leaving them out more than 12 hrs at a time.

I'd have a hard time hunting someone elses spread, but if they leave them out for more than a day or so, and there are no other places to set up, I'd hunt it till they arrived.

Either way, I'd still respect thier property, and refrain from damaging their deeks; as tempting as it may be. If they haven't shown up by the end of the hunt, I'd get in touch with the warden.

I left my deeks in the bushes where I hunt all season. I noticed the brush wasn't on top off them a month ago. I then noticed deeks that had water in them from being shot........ Then I noticed I had no deeks left on the next trip. They took my bag and every deek. I wonder how needy they were. Those were my oldest nasty looking deeks I had......and they stole them!

I hope they slipped and twisted there ankle dragging them out of the woods! Go buy your own deeks. You can get them for $20 dz. How cheap can you be to steal old weathered deeks! Makes you wonder how they can afford shells if they can't buy there own deeks?

WEll, there are many things wrong with some of what is being said. Bottom line, I don't have a problem with someone beating me to a spot. I don't like it, but hey, I didn't wake up early enough.

NOw, people that stake claim to a spot the night before, and either don't show, or show up at shooting time, that just aint right. This is public land, not your land to do what you want or feel like doing on.

In the APH (type II) land, there is specific regulations about not camping out on a spot, or camping in undesignated property. I had this happen to me a couple times on Ray Roberts, and then my back-up spot, the guys put there boat over there and walked 800-1000 yards to the prime spot and screwed up the back-up spot that had about 1/2 as many ducks coming into it when I was scouting, but would have still produced a limit. What pissed me off about this is that they had their dekes out, but when I went to my back-up spot, they were sleeping in the boat, and there was nobody on the primary spot. This was at 2:30 AM mind you.

Bottom line, it just ain't right.

Nothing like the fresh smell of gunpowder at 2:30 in the morning.:D

back TTT

Please don't take my decoys. I like to sleep in and putting them out that early in the morning is just too much work. Another positive of leaving the decoys out is on those really cold mornings you can get to your spot and have ducks huddled in your decoys, skillet shot limit and head to the nice warm home.

Pick them up, Take them home, sell them on ebay and buy beer with your profit. That is the best thing to do. At the same time you will teach the selfish SOBs a lesson.

note to leave them outers, orphan duck decoys tend to migrate the flyway that starts with your brain fart and ends up in the warmer waters of ebay.

Thank you sir for the decoy migration report.

I like the game warden idea. I wouldn't hunt over 'em. If it happens again, the deeks get dispatched with.
Confrontations in the woods have a 50/50 chance of someone getting shot.
Sorry, but you lazy b-stards with the cold weather talk and too much work line don't deserve to hunt.
Bottom line, it's wrong and you know it.

I do have to work all the time to be able to afford the decoys I put on public lakes the night before I hunt, plus standing in the water on those cold mornings might make me sick. I put them out in the early season when it's still warm outside so I don't have to worry about getting sick.