Opening Morning Problems

Big Dave I think you hit the nail on the head right there ...most people dont care and since its public they dont have to care eff yah seems to be a growing trend. No dif than someone getting on the pic a cast from u when you have a charter. respect seems to be lacking in this day and age. sonny i was happy to see a nice safe spacing on sat that was def due to the pre season signs. after the busiest time of the yr which is opening the signage isnt as big a deal since the crowds arent out as a rule where i hunt
 
Hi Wicket. I dont think it is lack of respect on this guys part. He went to an area that was full of Kozak signs and since there was no one there he hunted it. The signs are a local tradition and people from other places may not choose to acknowledge it.

If I pull up on some coordinates to fish and find someone else there I dont ask them to move. I go else where.

BD

Big Daves Fishing Charter
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Dave for sure not everyone understands the sign thing I do ... never hunted lp but its a pop practice elsewhere. hey the guys, long and short did nothing wrong, and i def understand how it could happen especially with multiple signs with same name. personally i wouldnt have hunted someone elses sign opening day but to each their own. glad he didnt sit in decoys cause that would have escaladed the situation. appreciate your point of view, made me look at the problem differntly thanks.
you move when someone is fishing your co ordinates cause u have respect. maybe u didnt understand my example. when u are on the pick( anchored ) fishing and someone roars up and anchors within casting distance and starts fishing that rubs u the wrong way I know it does me when im fishing a particular rock on the the belle river hump and it happens. that person has no respect for your safety or your boats well being. thats all i meant there is a growing trend of lack of respect for each other and not just in the outdoors. On a personal note I think its great u post your reports and give people info like water depth, way to go.
 
Thanks Wicket.

BD

I am fishing tomorrow will post🙂

Big Daves Fishing Charter
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11075
 
Sonny,
I mostly hunt Lake St. Clair and this opening day I staked my opening spot and it was respect by other near by hunters. I would respect other stakes if they were out there as well. The only thing I don't get is the thats always my spot and the "I do so much for the area" line. As a hunter hunting in a competitive area, I don't care who you or what you have done. If I get my stake out there before you, that spots mine, I'm not giving it up because of your status or name. Its a tough game out there when everyone is competing for the same area and the same birds but I feel the traditions of duck hunting that are passed on should be kept.
 
I can only suppose they don't teach "traditions" during the Hunter Safety Course ? While true there is no legality to "posting a sign" to lay claim to a spot albeit just for Opening Day as it pertains to Crown Land it does shows a lack of charactor to piss on tradition.
 
As John Wayne said several times in the classic western "The Searchers "
"That'll be the day!"
In fairness I think it is time to end this thread as well as reply to"Grass Island".
Yes we showed up just after 6:00 (try getting an 88 year old ready and organized for a morning hunt in the rain).Yes we had 5 signs out but as OCLP and 3 others (including OCLP's son and our cousin ) pulled out due to last minute work commitments so there would have been 5 boats of 2 hunters each out there as planned.
For those discretions I apologise but I did think that as has been in the past that our signs would be honoured .
For Grass Island all I can say is yes you did offer us to sit beside you and hunt but I mentioned previously the potential for chaos there ,and as it is time to put this experience behind us and move on I am glad you got 2 BWT but you left around 10;00 am so why all that for not even 4 hours.
We will still post our signs for next year when the time comes and with the lesson learned from this year be out there very early to ensure our spot doesn't get taken.
In the 80's which is not that long ago hunters honoured other hunters signs the whole season. I would never have thought about going to another hunter's spot without contacting him first to see if he was going to be using it that day.But those traditions also have disappeared even though there were more hunters then than now and fewer places to hunt as no one had 20 foot boats with 90 hp motors to use .When my Dad started hunting Long Point he rented a pond like #21 or #27 for the season for $5.00 from Pete Overbaugh -- those were the days .
Anyway time to move on and put this behind us all as there are birds to be hunted and the season is young (although we're not )and maybe we will see all of you who replied either at the Park or on the water sometime .
 
I think what everyone including sonnyuphi and grass island need to understand is staking a blind is best put by "Respect Among Hunters"

Agree or disagree we can't be arguing amoungst ourselves as hunters being a somewhat small minority in todays society. Everyday the tradition of Duck Hunting, favorite hunting holes and "legal" land to hunt is rapidly decreasing due to population increase, housing developments, new gun laws etc..

As far as I'm concearned this bickering BS between us as hunters has gotta stop. Were fighting a loosing battle here boys and we need to be unified not against each other.

Let's just crush some ducks and after, crush a few pints...

Pintail
 
LOL... You really do beg the question: If you admit that you had 5 signs out and only 3 boats show up, why are you so angry that someone used one of "your" EXTRA spots? You'd think that an "ethical hunter" might say something like "hey, we had a couple of boats that had to back out, I'm glad that someone got to use this spot - I'd hate to see a great spot like this go un-hunted on the opener because someone couldn't make it out after posting it."
 
Being a new hunter and still getting into the sport traditions and locations, i'm hoping for some help:

Where is Jones? and how early can it be reserved? I'm thinking if I get down there in July to giv'er a scout and put some signage up that should ensure me a prime spot for the 2013 season opener.
 
My heart goes out to the Kocuk family on this matter. Without Traditions and sportsmenship the rest is just killing ducks. Long Point is special because of the traditions...the just "because it has always been done this way" is something to be learned and truely appreciated. This is why a very special group of people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to hunt here a few times a season and eat out lunch out of the same pail that members did in 1869. Hope that the "new comers" have their fun....kill some ducks...but I truely hope that they come away with the true Long Point Experience. It is a very special place on earth.

Gar
 
Duckman is correct that the Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS), which owns the property, only allows posting after Labour Day. And therein lies a message, I think.

CWS became the owner of the Little and Big Rice Bay property in the late '70s. Before that, it was owned by the Long Point Company, which had always allowed hunters to post a spot for opening day. When CWS took over the property, they decided to allow the tradition to continue because it was working well and served to space-out hunters and, thereby, increase safety and decrease disputes.

Seems to me that if the property owner respects and encourages this fine old tradition, it also makes sense for hunters using the property to do so as well. All it would take is a stroke of the pen in Ottawa for that area to be closed to hunting and don't think that there aren't some in CWS who'd like to see that happen 🙁
 
Just to set the record straight. There are 5 signs out there yes -how many hunters should really be hunting there- 2 set ups! The reason we have 5 signs is that we all hunt from the same cottage and we all know where the others are .If birds are working to one of the other stakes the others let them do so .We don't fire in the direction of one of the other guys because we are all fairly close to one another . One of the main reasons I mentioned about Grass Island's being there was a safety concern. As Canvasback.ca mentioned all it would take is a shooting accident to possibly shut the place down .Grass Island didn't probably know where the others were or how close they were so there was a real safety issue. We look at it as long as someone in our group manages to get birds we are all happy.I pass on birds that go right by me in range but are heading right into say my brother's decoys because he will have the better shot.My Dad always refers to the Opener as his real "Father's day " as we try to get as many of our family out that morning as we can in that confined area .Anyone who knows the area knows that 5 different groups of hunters who don't know one another would never be able to work together to hunt there .It is similar in the Park with #15 and #16 .They can be rented together by 4 hunters who are all together but not by 2 separate groups because they are so close together .
 
Hello Guys,

I just posted the following on the "My Side Of The Story" thread.

Hello Guys,

I have just read all the posts within the two (2) related threads.

I believe that the five (5) posts were set up with the intention of only hunting at post 2, post 3 and post 4 with the area around post 1 and post 5 being left vacant as a safety area to each side ... this would make sense.

I think that eveyone should read what "canvasback" wrote towards the end of the other thread. The CWS do not need any problems and one way to eliminate or to prevent problems from happening is to just ban waterfowling there all together.

I also think that perhaps we (as a group of dedicated sportsmen and sportswomen) could "formalize" the tradition of posting a sign along the CWS property "shoreline" and even register the spot prior to opening day.

I was not aware of any of this until this morning when I read these two (2) threads.

Sincerely,

Jerome

I hope that we can all learn something from this now that we have had an opportunity to read both sides of the unfortunate incident.

Jerome
 
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