I see these guys parked on the side of the road all the time. Way too early for fisherman I would think. What happens to them if the Game Warden catches them?

Monetary fine?

Are they trespassing or walking into legal areas but just not from a designated access point?

curious too. about them walking into legal areas but not from designated access point. what if the point also has a sign that says no parking but they still there

maybe they have access to private land that allows them to do so?? I know guys on here that have such luck....as myself.

It's not a designated access Point. they walk through public land to get to the public hunting area along the beach.

So the question is, what happens if they get caught not using the designated access point?

No, the question is specific for public land, just not designated as access point.

If the specific lake in question has rules that requires hunters to park and enter at a designated access point, then a game warden could give ticket for not entering at a public access point. And yes Wardens have given this ticket at the "bob" which is probably the one your referring to. But this rule is not enforced at all lakes that have it. In the past it has not been enforced at (riddle - the lake where the chickens roost). Call your local GW and ask if it effects you.

If the specific lake in question has rules that only requires hunters register at a specific access point, but does not say they have to enter at that location, then then the game warden would do nothing if they did in fact stop and register before entering at the separate location. They would be legal.

If there are access points provided at a given lake, but there are no rules that say they have to enter at a specific access point, again they are not doing anything illegal and game warden would do nothing. But vehicles do get towed at (riddle again - the place that grapes grow) if parked on the wrong roads.

Ok, so it's a ticket. I was wondering how they enforced it. Wonder how much it is?

Where do you find this kind of info?

Land owner has to complain.
I get kids walking in on me all the time this year. The other day four kids young men walked in on me and set up 150 yards from me set up facing the wind. Land owners don't live in this state. I was not to warried about then at all setting up facing the wind with a big old mojo in front of them blowing duck calls like they where in a contest. I fig they where trying to impress me with there rolling feed calls all they did was push ducks to me. With this stupid weather and all the ducks still held up north and few ducks on lakes it really p!$$$ me off that all these new guys have no ethics and if you talk to them they all been hunting ducks for years they will tell you. And most of all they don't have a dog and then ask me if I would send me dog to get there one bird. I was really nice sent my dog then had a talk to them about ethics on duck hunting. Gave them my number told them to call me and I would talk them with me. As i left them the little prick throw my number in the lake. Ha ha ha ha ha

If the WMA has a rule of entering only through designated entry points then it is illegal to enter though private land access as well. I have seen this enforced on mulitiple occasions. Many WMA's have the rule and don't enforce it and some do enforce it.

In some cases it may be up to a park ranger/Corps of Engineers Ranger. If the land is for public hunting then they aren't necessarily trespassing. A game warden wouldn't be able to much in that case EXCEPT if there's a no parking sign then they could get a ticket for that.

If this is COE land I say talk to them more so than the GW.

For Example: Some COE lakes require a permit. I've been stopped by a GW and showed him my permit. He didn't care about that since it has nothing to do with state/fed law. In the same instance a COE Ranger can not really do anything about state/fed hunting laws they would call a GW in such case.... If the guy is parking on the side of the road and going on public land. He's not breaking any state/fed laws per se unless there's signs that say not to do so.

Many WMA's state that access to the WMA must be threw designated entry points. It's clearly stated in the book. I have seen it enforced.

Quick story. Several years back I found a small hard wood bottom that the beavers had damned up and the mallards were falling in the green timber really good back there. It was about a mile and a half walk in to that spot. The first time we hunted it about 30 minutes after daylight a couple of guys from the neighboring deer lease came up and told us we were hunting their spot and wondered how we got in there. They couldn't believe that we had walked all the way in from the "designated entry". They warned us that they would be hunting it the next day and for us to stay away.

Just so happened the GW was at the truck when we got back that day. We told him what had happened and he asked a few questions. The next morning we got in there a little earlier since we were expecting company. The GW was hiding in the woods when we got there. He greeted us and then about an hour later stopped the other guys after they jumped the fence. He wrote them tickets and told them the only legal way to access the spot was threw one of the designated entry points.



Several years later some friends got a ticket for parking and entering about 200 yards down the road from and check station at "the chicken roost lake". They were just trying to save a step.

Good point Stephen. That's what I meant. I was more referring to if it's on a COE lake(Probably not). But it was just a thought for the people that jump right to "contact the gw"

I had this happen to me. I parked on the side of the road and walked to the area I was going to duck hunt. Well right after I was packing up my decoys here comes the game warden. He had several calls that their was someone shooting the deer. Once the game warden realized we weren't shooting deer and were just merely duck hunting he opened up. The problem wasn't that we were duck hunting at it was were we walked in at. That hundred yards from the road to the shoreline was private property. Now we are trespassing with a firearm which could result in a felony. The game warden understood that we did not realize what we had done and let us off with a writin warning. He stated that if we were to do it again he was going to take us to jail.thank god he was a cool game warden.

This doesn't really bother me at all...living on a rural WMA I think it is fine to park anywhere you can access ducks legally. The thing that really bugs me is just the opposite situation and one of the reasons that I don't hunt weekends anymore. One of the prime walk in areas on the Barney is more often than not wrapped up with boats. I've seen guys literally set up next to the main trail going to one of the islands and have another boat not 50 yards from them and then there be several other boats out in the cove surounding it. To me it is just flat out dumb to spend $15k to $22K for a duck boat, buy the fuel to feed it, and a tow vehicle and then hunt some where you could walk into in a couple of minutes. Having a boat, there just has to be better places to hunt that no one else is using out on the Barney somewhere....my two cents

Gotta hunt were the birds wanna be and sometimes that is the best walkin area also, sometimes exactly where you are referring to.

I agree. My rule of thumb is that I'm not taking the boat anywhere that can be realistically walked in... legally or not. Sometimes boaters are technically legal but walking in is not. It just isn't enforced much of the time and I try to avoid it. Don't know about the "Barney" though.

With the drought the last couple of years walking in (or even driving in) has been the best bet at a lot of places. I've used my boat way less and made a short hike instead. On topic, some places are not supposed to be driven but people do and the way it is setup no controlling authority ever does anything about it. Kind of hacked me off the first time when I made a death march through the woods with my old azz, got to my spot, and here come a couple of trucks down the shoreline.

There are a few places I go that are impossible to walk in. Gonna hit them over the break.

Some folks apparently tried to "drive" out to the water on the Barney last year and they put up 'T'post at the boat ramp to stop this. You could tell some folks had gotten stuck at the base of the boat ramp......I would imagine if the GW caught you out on the lake in a vehicle that would kick things up a notch......

Don’t post much but I see what Larry is talking about most days during the season.

On the COE lake I live on hunters park where they want and even hunt areas not designated for hunting. Hunters park down the ATV trail by my house by the sign that says “no driving off road”. They would get fined by the corps if caught but just not enough park rangers to make a difference. It is a big lake. So where you see people park and what is really allowed are two different things from my experience.

The game warder was checking hunters set up just below my house one morning and I was surprised that he did not write them a ticket. Just below my house means a little more than 100 yards from my porch to the lake. And this is definitely not a COE designated hunting area. For the record I did not call him. He said a friend of his called him because a group set up right by them and they asked him to come check them out. As I talked to him I was surprised that he did not write them a ticket. He recognized they were not supposed to be there and told me the corps rangers had to enforce where people hunted on on the lake and access points and that I should call them.
I do duck hunt so not concerned but just really surprised by the discussion.

I had a conversation about this just last week with a north texas game warden while he checked us at a ramp. His answer was there is nothing they will do, other than a written warning. Total JOKE if you ask me, what's the point of putting a rule in place if you don't enforce it.