I've got a story/situation I wanted to see what y'all thought:

It was opening day on a medium sized private lake (~30 acres). My buddy and I were going out to have some fun, no boat, and only about a dozen decoys - neither of us have the room or money to expand yet. Well, it was about 30 minutes before shooting light, we see a car pull up, a few people head to the water, and then they get into a boat and start boating around the whole lake. They come up close to where we are, shine their light right at us, we wave and acknowledge them. We are almost set up at this time, our dozen decoys in the water and still working on a brush blind. The guys go and park on the best side of the lake, which we unfortunately do not have access to by foot, but I figure some ducks will fly our way, some will fly theirs. Since it was already close to shooting light, I assumed they couldn't have too many decoys to set out. As the sun comes up, we realize we will likely be seeing no ducks - the other guys had ~75-100 decoys out, in the best wind direction, with their floating blind, versus our dozen decoys, on the shore with a headwind (the only spot we had access to), and a makeshift brush blind.

So my question - what would you have done if you were the two people in the boat and you saw my friend and I on the shore, before first shooting light?

Any protocol, courtesy, first come first serve, etc. aside, I was most annoyed that they got ~50 birds (in maybe 10 different groups) into their decoy set, but only harvested 10 or 11.

If I'm hunting a 30 acre lake that I've leased and there was already a group there on the wrong side... I would quickly come to the conclusion that they don't know what they're doing so I'd stay clear. I'd get in my boat, head to the right side, throw out all my dekes, and do what I paid to do.

We were on the north side, they were on the east side, so no, not other side of the lake, about 200 yards away, maybe. All but two sets flew away west-southwest. We had 3 flyovers and 1 bird that came into our set to shoot at all morning.

I'm not saying they did anything wrong, I was just curious what y'all thought.

If they setup that close on a 30 acre lake then that was kind of a chicken chit thing to do. In that case I would have gone way away from you and hunted a cross wind. I typically will not hunt with folks I don't know tho cuz I don't know how they handle their guns. I've done it twice... once an ol fella that had been hunting longer than I have been alive (and I'm not young) and once recently with a guy that I could immediately tell was military.

I just have to ask what about him made you know he was military?,..................

I've got a story/situation I wanted to see what y'all thought:

It was opening day on a medium sized private lake (~30 acres). My buddy and I were going out to have some fun, no boat, and only about a dozen decoys - neither of us have the room or money to expand yet. Well, it was about 30 minutes before shooting light, we see a car pull up, a few people head to the water, and then they get into a boat and start boating around the whole lake. They come up close to where we are, shine their light right at us, we wave and acknowledge them. We are almost set up at this time, our dozen decoys in the water and still working on a brush blind. The guys go and park on the best side of the lake, which we unfortunately do not have access to by foot, but I figure some ducks will fly our way, some will fly theirs. Since it was already close to shooting light, I assumed they couldn't have too many decoys to set out. As the sun comes up, we realize we will likely be seeing no ducks - the other guys had ~75-100 decoys out, in the best wind direction, with their floating blind, versus our dozen decoys, on the shore with a headwind (the only spot we had access to), and a makeshift brush blind.

So my questions - what would you have done if you were the two people in the boat and you saw my friend and I on the shore, before first shooting light?


And also flip it - what advice would you give to me hunting this lake in the future? - I only have access to the North Shore (predominantly a head wind) and will for the foreseeable future be hunting from shore with a minimal decoy spread.

Any protocol, courtesy, first come first serve, etc. aside, I was most annoyed that they got ~50 birds (in maybe 10 different groups) into their decoy set, but only harvested 10 or 11.

BDB:

A quick search for jon boat on craiglist brings up one for $600 - that's about my hunting/fun budget for the year - last year was my gun, ammo, and license, this year - a bow (to open up more deer and hog hunting public lands), ammo, license and a dozen decoys, next year - a boat and a house to store it?

It does sound like a boat is the best course of action - it may end up being an inflatable kayak and some camo netting and solo hunting on that lake. Definitely getting my brain thinking, thanks y'all!

BDB:

A quick search for jon boat on craiglist brings up one for $600 - that's about my hunting/fun budget for the year - last year was my gun, ammo, and license, this year - a bow (to open up more deer and hog hunting public lands), ammo, license and a dozen decoys, next year - a boat and a house to store it?

It does sound like a boat is the best course of action - it may end up being an inflatable kayak and some camo netting and solo hunting on that lake. Definitely getting my brain thinking, thanks y'all!