# Opening Day Complaint thread



## shotgunwill (May 16, 2008)

Alright, I was set up, dekes out, makeshift blind, etc., by 0545. I thought no big deal right? At 0715, a group of younger men/teens?, made a B line to my blind. I stand up when they are 30 yds out, and they stop dead in their tracks. My blind was that good, I was pleased. They then proceeded to "enlighten" me about how I was in "their" spot. I had the trump card of "I got there first, at 0515 to boot." After some choice words from them, they headed 60 yds. N to a pot hole amidst 8' phrag, and proceeded to over call, sky bust, and flare seemingly every bird in the sky. 

Argggghhhh, grumble, grumble, grumble. Anyone else feel me?


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## Mojo1 (Sep 8, 2007)

My only complaint was that it was over way to quickly for me.


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## duckhunter1096 (Sep 25, 2007)

I've had the same experiences that you both listed.....so I didn't go out this year. That's my complaint. MORON HUNTERS!


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## utahgolf (Sep 8, 2007)

why did you wait until they were 30 yards out??? I make tons of noise when I hear anyone getting within a 100+ yards of me..I'll blow my duck call or blow on my whistle or talk real loud and walk out in the middle of my spread and shine my flashlight...it sucks busting your butt out in the marsh and have someone pop up out of their blind when your right on top of them... I think that might have been your bad on that one...if a guy is busting his butt out to a spot and someone pops up out of a blind when he's almost on top of him than what do you expect?? that guy is gonna be tired and probably set up right next to the guy..make yourself seen well before..I even set my headlamp up on my lucky duck so if anyone was walking could see it. I also blew my duck call and whistle a bunch..courtesy on both parts..


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## summit72 (Oct 4, 2008)

Don't worry to much. If the weather gets much colder than these types of hunters stay home and we can get in some good hunts!


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

summit72 said:


> Don't worry to much. If the weather gets much colder than these types of hunters stay home and we can get in some good hunts!


Pretty much. I wasn't going to do the opener... wound up walking down "shooters alley" with my daughter, shot one hen Gadwall which made the day for her and my dog, and honestly there were only about three groups (including us) on the dike until about three thirty in the afternoon so we had plenty of space and a few shots to keep the interest up. Didn't go out in the morning, didn't stay until close so honestly, I've not really got any complaints.

Mere suggestion though... duck calls and lucky ducks will never convince a duck to land on the dike, especially when it is painfully obvious even to my ten year old daughter that it sounds nothing like a duck. 8) Might ought to leave the "lucky duck" at home too if you're not setting out any other dekes and plan on hunting the dike. Just a thought..... carry on.


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## hoghunter011583 (Jul 21, 2008)

shotgunwill said:


> I stand up when they are 30 yds out, and they stop dead in their tracks. My blind was that good, I was pleased.


I would not have said it was my spot, it is a public marsh and it is first come first serve. You can't let them get all the way to you and then stand up, I'd be ticked, I hate when guys do that. I paddle my butt off and head straight for a spot only to find another hunter with no light on and he just lets me get close enough to see his decoys IN THE DARK!!! AHAHAH that is one of my complaints, I mean it is dark so the fact that they didn't see your blind doesn't mean it was good, I mean you could sit on a bucket with no blind and they wouldn't see you!!
Have a light ready and if someone is comeing in your direction turn on your light so they can make another choice of where to hunt from way off!!


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## hoghunter011583 (Jul 21, 2008)

My complaint is that people put hunting above common courtesy!! I paddle 2 miles to a spot that I wanted, I get there at 2:00 am and see dekes!! I'm like wow this guy is a die hard!! Then I get ticked because he let me get all the way to his blind without turning a light on. So I yell hey you hunting here, I get no response, I get closer and see a mud boat beached into the weeds. I yell again and nothing. I think maybe he is in there sleeping. I beat my paddle on my boat and still nothing. I paddle to his boat and it is empty, no one is around!! This dipstick must have gotten his buddy to go out with him and after he set his spread up Friday he caught a ride back to the launch. I watched as he later had his friend drop him off at his blind at about 7 am!!! Since I feel like what goes around comes around and I don't feel like being the one doing to crime I just went to another spot. But if this would have been 5 years ago and being younger and dumber I would have sacrificed my hunt and went home, with all this guys decoys, blind and all the crap in his boat, and shoved mud in his motor's gas tank!!!

I don't mind getting beat to a spot fare and square. I mean I didn't sleep Friday so I could beat other guys to a spot and if someone wants to get there at 7pm on Friday night and camp out that is his choice. But leaving decoys at a blind to reserve a spot is against the law and the game warden will confiscate your stuff if you leave it, so I was really ticked about it!!!!!!
I told the warden about it and asked what can I do next time this happens. He said to get proof of what he did, and his boat numbers and he will be prosecuted. I asked how do I get proof and he said well you'd have to video his boat sitting there empty and you calling to him so there is no doubt that he is around, then you'd have to video him getting to the blind later on. Cool, my camera takes 90 mins. of video and I'll be doing this next time some jackass decides to be clever!!!

Turned out my spot was better than they did so screw them!!
Just some advice to those who do that kind of stuff, I knew a guy that used to do this same thing. He'd go out the day before the opener and set up his stuff and leave his boat with his spread and then catch a ride with a friend back to his boat right before shooting time. 
Well, I get a call one evening and he is outraged!! Someone shot 2 holes in the floor of his pretty little bass boat and sunk it then put one through his outboard! I didn't saying anything because I didn't need to; the guy who did it said enough!!
I didn't feel bad for him though, all these years he felt slick cause he was outsmarting all those guys who "didn't have a plan" as he used to say. Well, he had a plan before, but now he doesn't have a boat!!


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## shotgunwill (May 16, 2008)

It wasn't dark at 0715 when they came, that was the point. But, whatever.



utahgolf said:


> why did you wait until they were 30 yards out??? I make tons of noise when I hear anyone getting within a 100+ yards of me..


Next time, I will have to try this. I can see that may have been a better way to handle it.


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## Chaser (Sep 28, 2007)

My complaint is about boats that perform only when they want to, and not when you need them to. Please see "Chaser and *Bax's Opener" thread for further clarification. 

Other than that, it was a decent day. Nobody really tried to cop our steez, so that was good.


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## dkhntrdstn (Sep 7, 2007)

It funny how you guys say to let them know you are there by shinning your flash light at them.That does not all was work.I have shined my spot light at them and they keeped coming and almost ran over my decoys.Some people don't care.But I do agree you need to let them know you a there there more then 10 yards from you. Do what ever it take to let them know.


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## Bret (Sep 7, 2007)

Don't really have a complaint. We did have a situation but it worked out.
We had a couple of young guys come in and set up about 70 yards away from us. Right where we would have been shooting actually. They would have been spray with pellets had we stuck to our guns and hunted there. I didn't see or hear them walk up we had a bright light on but I guess they didn't see it. I walked over and talked with them politely they said they were sorry, and that they didn't mean to get that close and asked if I wanted them to move. We didn't have that many decoys so I said we would move. At that time there were only us and them in that area. 

We moved a ways away and all was well. We had a great hunt the birds worked to the call well all day. I saw they were still shooting a few when we left. So I guess it all worked out and no one had to be a dick or get upset or anything.
And if the young guy I talked to is reading this I want to thank him for his rational, and considerate behavior in a less than perfect situation.
He was a complete gentlemen. The world could use a few more.

Bret


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## JD_ (Oct 2, 2008)

I have to admit that I got a little bothered this year. I've always had and still do have an attitude that you just have to expect it to be a zoo on the opener. It's always crowded where I go and I usually get rained on a few times with shot (so far never peppered or hit directly) and people are going to do things you wish they wouldn't do, but we usually end up having a good expeience. It's fun to just watch the pandamonium that erupts for the first 15 minutes of shooting with birds flying everywhere. It's not the ultimate hunting experience, but it's a fun experience.
Well, this year we actually got to our spot a little later than planned, but no one was in the immediate area we wanted to hunt. We launched the boat at 4 a.m. and were set up by 5. As I always do, I set up 3 lights around my blind so that I'm visible for a very long distance and it was a great set up. Then a couple of late comers jet up and all of a sudden this little island we are set up on is surrounded with hunters within 70-80 yards on 3 sides. Becasue the guys on our right actually set up slightly in front of us, we're suddenly left with less than a 90 degree shooting lane. They guys that set up behind us run right past my decoys shut their boat off about 100 or so yards behind me and I'm thinking, "well OK I can live with that," but then they get out and start wading/dragging their boat back toward me until they are about 70 yards away. Nice. Anyway, they seemed like nice guys and I'm not a hot head, so I didn't say anything. Then, most of these guys were skybusting everything and flaring every duck in the area. We were left with very little shooting while these guys unloaded on everthying that came over.

Well, it is what is is, but I just wish people would stop and think of how inconsiderate it is to show up in the marsh barely an hour before shooting time, and then set up right on top of people who have gone without any sleep at all so they can get a fair spot in acrowded marsh without having to crowd anyone else.

One more complaint is why people can't wait to shoot until actual shooting time. It's awfully hard to tell my kids they can't shoot even though everyone else is unleashing even 10 minutes early. We definitely passed up a bunch of opporunities in that first 10 minutes before 8 a.m.

But, the season is finally here, and it every outing is a good one, even if there are a few frustrations from time to time.


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## stuckduck (Jan 31, 2008)

Aren't you all glad the season is *107 days long* the opener is allways a mess I have just leared to deal with it.... you got to love the crazies :twisted:


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## Dekashika (Oct 23, 2007)

my complaint is about all the **** complainers.


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## JD_ (Oct 2, 2008)

stuckduck said:


> Aren't you all glad the season is *107 days long* the opener is allways a mess I have just leared to deal with it.... you got to love the crazies :twisted:


Amen to that! One of the many great things about waterfowl hunting is the length of the season. Like I said it is a zoo on the opener and I enjoy most things about it. I can honestly say this is the first year in the 20 or so I've hunted the opener that I got a little bothered, but no big deal. I'll be out two more times by Saturday.


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

shotgunwill said:


> It wasn't dark at 0715 when they came, that was the point. But, whatever.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


The thing that kills me about your situation is that the dudes got on you about being in their spot. Um... are they friggin serious? You're on public land asshat.... and you didn't get out of bed early enough to get YOUR spot.... deal with it and move on to another location. Who cares if you didn't shine a light at them.... they have a light too and should be able to locate your spread from quite a ways away. Dustin is right.... just shining a light isn't enough to keep dudes out of your spread... some people are just idiots about that even though it takes just a few minutes to walk another 200 yards or so and set up in another place...you did nothing other than inconvenience some guy who thinks he owns a bit of public land for himself so I say good on you for beating a guy like that to his spot. If it was a good spot, I'd do it over again too, just so he gets the point that on public land, if you're not there first, you're not there at all. :wink:


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## stablebuck (Nov 22, 2007)

this is why my personal duck hunting opener just happens to fall on the rifle deer opener...much more enjoyable experience...


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## ogdenbayduckslayer (Oct 8, 2009)

We had a similar cituation in our crew too we got to our spot around 5 am after a long hike packing decoys and 3 boxes of shells and gun of coarse through toolies and ogden bay mud only to sit and wait till 7:30 for guys to set up right across the pond from us after shining lights and sharing a few words but it happens every year it wasnt to bad till bb's started flying past our heads then the words really started to come out ha but thats opening day for ya on public land


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