So there's this cove on a public lake that has been holding birds for a week or so and my buddy finally got permission from the land owner who had the lake front property around it. So we decide we're going to keep an eye out for birds on it and the day before we hunt it, we drive out there and notice someone has hunted it already. We say, alright, we know they didn't shoot it up because there's birds on it, but maybe he won't be there Saturday morning, afterall, it is illegal for him to hunt off land on our property. So we spend a couple hours building a nice blind and cut some cane and brush it up nice and good. Come back the next morning to hunt and get there around 6 and we see a reflection through the woods. Flash our light through the woods and someone flashes back. Walked out of the woods towards the light and we meet up with this guy halfway between the woods and our blind. He actually stands there and says, "yeah, I'm glad ya'll didn't shoot me, the game warden told me I would be trespassing if I was hunting on land." Here's your sign, buddy! So he gives us this sob story about how it's his son's first duck hunt, so I'm thinking, alright he probably has a 8 year old down there so we'll just hunt with ya'll. We start walking down towards the blind and I notice they're not in our blind that we built, but they actually took the cane we used to brush our blind with and stuck it in the mud in their own little spot. I was pissed then. Without saying anything, we get to their blind and his son was probably 17 or 18 years old. While we were waiting on LST, I heard the son tell the dad he and his friend had shot some ducks the first day they got out of school, (thought it was his first hunt man?) That isn't even the worst part. The father and son skyblasted at a couple different groups of teal that were just taking a look and I was pretty positive would decoy fairly easy it looked like and didn't hit not one of them, way too far off. So a group of 6 spoons comes in and we drop 5 of them and it's about 6:50 and this guys says, "alright son, let's get out of here and let these guys hunt their own place." So while they're picking up decoys, we have groups of gadwall, mallard, teal, and small flock of snow geese fly over us. They too 30 minutes to get out of the cove and wouldn't have gotten out unless it wasn't for my group of 3 guys pushing his 16 foot flat bottom out of the sludge he had banked on. From 6:50 to 7:20 which is one of the best times in my area, we had a boat in our decoy spread. I will never, ever hunt public again in my life. It should not be like that.

I've never hunted public but from what I hear from the guys on here you should always expect the worse. But I must say that would of ticked me off about him using your cane and to top it off with lying about his sons first hunt. There will always be skyblasters though. Some people just don't know how to hunt either which makes it tough sometimes for the guys that do. I bite my tongue on plenty of stuff but next time I'd speak up.

I thought you said it was private land and they were trespassing? A story like that would make me think twice about letting them stay, especially if the warden had already given them one warning.

I am usually friendly and forgiving with other public land hunters and normally would have done the same as you, but I also would have had some concerns with the trespassing and stripping of my blind on private property. Not to mention worry of them leaving with a feeling of an open door to come back and do the same things again. I could see these guys dropping your names to the game warden as giving them permission if checked there again.

I agree. They feel comfortable and will probably return.

Kick 'em to the curb... You can only take so many people under your wing.

If he boated into the decoys and stayed in the lake bed then I don't understand how he was tresspassing. Is this a corp. lake?? Most lakes are low right now and he prolly wouldn't have to leave the lake bed to get around.

Most lakes also have rules about building blinds and cutting vegetation to brush blinds.

If he was really tresspassing then you should have called the GW.

Kick em out if they are on your land. Period!

I based my response on this.
"out of the woods towards the light and we meet up with this guy halfway between the woods and our blind. He actually stands there and says, "yeah, I'm glad ya'll didn't shoot me, the game warden told me I would be trespassing if I was hunting on land." "

Reads like the perp had walked away from his boat and was on private land. It also reads as if the kemon86's blind was on private land and the perp had stripped some of it for their temporary blind in the water. But yea, if the perp was below whatever the designated boundary line is and the blind was in the water or below that boundary, then the guys in the boat had first rights to the spot and kemon86 was actually the guest hunter.

The way the guy explained it to us was that the GW told him if he was hunting off the land over public water and the land itself wasn't public, then it was trespassing. He said the GW actually told him that if you're going to do it, you might as well get as close to the water as possible, which I don't believe a GW ever said that. I think the sorriest thing about the whole situation is taking the cane from our blind and moving it to the other spot they had set up... That isn't right IMO.

The thing that is a deal breaker for me is the boldface lying...I can't stand liars. I would have had to call him out on it.

kemon86,

If he set foot on dry land he was probably trespassing (insert technicality about water levels, etc here)

If he stayed in a boat anchored over water he probably was not (insert details about flooded private land here).

You should not encourage or condone trespassing, especially if you are a guest on the land to begin with. At a minimum, I would have gotten out my phone and called the land owner(or at least pretended to) and then told the guy landowner says he needs to move on.

If you run into him again, which you probably will, tell him that the land owner instructed you to call the game warden if you see him again.

I have a similar situation where I am a guest hunter on land and I ran across some trespassers shooting dove once. I got it pretty good for not running them off.

Not all public is like that where I go is usually no line and I always get my first couple choices.

He said that part was private.

If it was RC reservoir, above a certain elevation, it is private. If the lake was low, even if they got on the bank, they may not have been outside or above the lake's pool elevation.

I’m kinda repeating what a lot of folks have said, but here are my comments:

* If he was trespassing, then you should have done something about it, but then again, you are not the property owner or leasing it.

* If you are below the pool level, it is not trespassing, even if you are on land.

* If the blind was set-up in the mud as said, I’m guessing it was not on private land, but public. And most lakes want you to take down your blind on public water when done. Personally, I always take down my blind, I do not want to draw attention to the spot. And I have no problem using a blind on public water that some else made, and I do not have a problem taking it down when I’m done either, or moving the blind.