So i went out yesterday morning on my day off, got out to my spot about 5:15 got set up and waited for LST. Well LST comes around and all the birds are landing in the front of the cove, instead of the back where i am at, but i decide to wait and see if i get more of a late morning shot. Well about 7:00 i see a truck driving down the road, you can see the dirt road from where i am hunting, and i figure well they will see my truck and go back to the front of the cove, well i never see them come back. SO i continue to hunt well about 7:25 or so i hear the familiar sound of a flat bottom being dragged through the woods, and they are making all kinds of noise and commotion, and i am thinking to myself what the *#$@# is going on here do they not see my truck!!! So i blow my call loud a few times to let em know i where i am at, and remember this is 45 mins after LST, well i soon see there heads pop out of the woods and they look dead at me and kind of give me a blank look like what are you doin here.. Well they proceed to push the boat into the water, and i begin to think to myself well maybe they will go across to the other side and go down some where i have seen the birds landing, and so i calm myself down, well these idiots go straight across and set up directly in front of me about 200 yrs, and i mean straight across, they don't put out deks or anything!! I felt like they were just trying to hunt off my spread, well i decide to stick it out for a while and i finally get a pair of mallards that begin to work, and they are looking hard at my spread, they make 2 circles and on the third they get real low and make a wide swing, i just know they are coming in, but when they get on the far bank i guess they saw there boat or them and flared off... finally i had enough so i finally picked up and went to the front of the cove and got a few shots in, but was still furious and missed everything, the bad part is they parked right next to my truck!! Just a word of advice, if whoever did that reads this, you need to be careful, i am a little more forgiving than some people i know, there are some people that if you do that too they may not take to kindly to you or your truck or something like that.... Sorry for the rant, but i mean what do you do in a situation like that....?

that unfortunately is part of the challenge of public hunting, like the obstacles, that make success even sweeter when it happens. I feel sorry for those people, there are many out there that have no clue on how to act in a respectful nature.

and to top it all off when i got to my little blind i had made a while back someone had let coke cans, water bottles, and shell boxes all over the place, i know its public land, but dang it have a little respect for nature its self!!! I don't know i just thought that sometimes people would have a little more common sense than that. I have even shot a widgeon before from that same spot that was on a fly by and when it landed, it was about maybe 20 yrds or so from that bank, so if i would have shot a duck and had to go on a long retrieve i would have been right in there shooting path...

200 yards...hell that would be considerate compared to some of the stuff I've seen. But then again distance isnt always the main factor...the layout of the land would be important as well. Kind of sounds like the way they set up pretty much poached on your birds.

This is true but this is just a shollow water cove that there is nothing between me and them, and at the most it was 200 yrds, but o well i guess what is done is done.. like i said i just hope they don't come out 45 mins after LST to the wrong people it could get ugly...

This is what we get when we as a society teach kids to "get by" for decades en masse. This is just like a bunch of clowns hunting hogs over other folks feeders on Fort Hood. It may be legal, but is it right? If you don't know the answer, you are a real idiot that has no place in an honest man's woods or waters. Sorry you had this proble E TX. I am afraid it is a sign of the times.

This is why I took this year off from hunting public, I am fortunate enough to have access to a private lease. Sucks E TX, glad you kept your cool, I know its hard for me to.

I'm a walk-in hunter and 3 times I have had guys in boats get there 5-15 minutes before LST when I am set-up 2 hours early and set up 50-100 yards away. I've been peppered more than once and had a boat hunter setting up his dekes still when LST rolled around. These were guys that I flashed off heavily.

I feel Ya TexasEd, i don't know why some people think they just have more right than others, o well maybe one day some people will finally grow up...

I tend to wait till its light enough to see, then set up over someone else's spread cause they probably scouted the area and know where the birds are. I tend to do better this way, regardless of their yelling and spotlight flashing. You should try it sometime. Just set up 50 yrds downwind of someone's spread and you will get plenty of shots at birds starting to cup before they flare at something they dont like in the spread. Plus, it saves you the time of scouting. Everyone wins.. well, except for the guy who actually put the time in to scout and got up early to try to claim a spot. HAHA! FOOLS!

I'm a walk in hunter as well and I have had folks set up on me pretty close. On our very first duck hunting trip ever, opening day fo the first segment we got to the water about 5:00 in the morning and was there ahead of all the boat folks. I had some guys set up about 75 yards from us. We had a big thicket between us and them so it worked out OK we still got to shoot at plenty of ducks and they did too. These guys got stuck on a stump coming in and I even helped them get loose from it.