# How close is too close?



## huntducksordietrying (Sep 21, 2007)

Yesterday morning I woke up real early to beat the crowds to at OB. Also my boat isnt very fast so I have to plan for that too. When I got there there was one truck in the parking lot with an empty trailer. As I was getting the boat ready there were three others pulling up. I got my boat in and was on my way. I had one guy pass me on the way out. He went way past where I was headed. The guy that was out there first flashed his light as to inform me where he was set up at. I was planning on going past him quite a ways. I found my land mark and headed for the waters edge. I started to put out my decoys, I had about a dozen of them out, when all the sudden I heard another boat comming in from the other direction. I had all the lights on my boat on, so I know he saw me there. As they pulled up I heard him tell his hunting buddies "I cant believe he's in OUR spot". They turned around like they were going to leave when all the sudden they motor kills and I hear them say "just set up here". They were on the oposite side of this small bay area facing me. I figure they were about 150 yards away. I was really close to pickin up my decoys and moving on down a little farther to make some room. But by now I have almost half of my decoys (about thirty) out. I decided I wasnt gonna budge. I know that in the marsh things look a lot farther away than they are, but they should have know that if they can hear my decoys hittin the water then they were kinda close. My only concern with this was the fact thay they were facing me. I was facing perpendicular to them, in other words I was facing west they were facing south. I was worried I was gonna be ducking BB's all day long. Any way Im rambling here. I felt it was too close. There was only one time when they shot twards me. I saw the duck they were shooting at and as it came between us I figured the shot would come twards me. I was really carefull to not shoot twards them, and I think they passed on a few birds due to my location as well. So what do you fine sportsmen think is too close? And what do you do when you show up to your normal hunting spot and someone is setting up there? Would you ask them to move? Would you be offended if someone asked you to move? Or would you just go find a new spot? I had a great hunt, I got my limit. There were three of them in the boat and I dont think they got more than three or four ducks.


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## Greenhead 2 (Sep 13, 2007)

That's tge joy of hunting public water. No I would not move if I was in someone's "spot", or would I ask someone to leave mine if they were there first. I have been in botg situations, most of the time I have invited orbeen invited to hunt with them. Were they to close??? mabey, but respect comes into play then. Watching where you shoot letting eachother work birds. they leave the birds I started calling first alone, I will do the same for them, if not it becomes a day of pass shooting and I screw in the full choke. 
Start shooting birds circleing there decoys and then explain the deal to them, they generally will be happy to go aong with it.


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

:lol: I'd almost give money to know exactly who that was and where on the bay.... but I might have a decent guess for you. Thats almost sounds like your Cutler experience we talked about. 8) From the sound of your setup, it gives me a pretty good idea.... I'd say they were too close to you.... but to a lot of folks, it doesn't seem to matter... as long as they think they'll get on ducks, they'll park right on top of you if they have to and thats crap. Thats yet another reason I am reluctant to get into the "boat" arena. :? I don't like the whole "competition" thing. Of course, as usual, its not limited to boats either... had some guys set up within forty yards of me hunting over the back of me and my decoys several times on public ground.... so I just made sure I shot first. :lol:


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## dkhntrdstn (Sep 7, 2007)

thats ogden bay for you. I have had a couple guys do the to me this year. but they where facing south and shooting at the ducks that would cir us. I have a feeling with the way the cattail are at ogden bay we are going to have lots of people seting up close to you when the swan get in there thick.


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## UtahWineOh (Sep 10, 2007)

Hey Huntducks.

That was my son and me that passed you in the channel on the way out. We tried to be respectful and go wide as not to cause issues with your boat. As we were leaving I think we saw you again at the entrance to the channel and the boat remp when we got back in. My son, Eric, is very sociable and likes to chat with everyone. I think he spoke with you at the boat ramp.

Anyway, to the issue of your post. We have a few "favorite spots" not to be confused with "our spots" at OB and FB. When we go to OB or FB we always try to be one of the first ones there so we can get to those spots...we always have a couple of fallback positions in case someone else is already in one of our favorite spots (which is frequently since our favorite spots are also several other hunters' favorite spots). Since we don't like to have hunters right on top of us, we provide that same courtesy to other hunters. We won't pull in to anything within 300 or 400 yards of the closest spread. This time of year I think that is pretty realistic. Early season and definitely the opener you expect to have folks pull in close. But this time of year there are fewer hunters and there is no excuse for it.

The only thing that really cheeses me off about OB or FB is that folks will wait until an hour or 30 minutes before shooting hours starts to come out and expect to still get one of the prime spots. I can't believe it's their first time...every time. I've only had someone pull in right next to me once this year and it was at FB. These guys came tooling out about 30 minutes prior to shooting hours and pulled in about 50 or 60 yards around the corner. One of their low shots actually took out some of the cattails about 10 or 20 feet to my east...I couldn't believe it. I had a boat full of kids, these guys pull in right behind us, and then shoot directly at us. Needless to say I had a conversation with them. They apologized and no further shots were taken in our direction. 

I have never been asked to move, nor have I, or would I ever ask someone to move. It's a public marsh and they were there first...simple as that. If I was asked to move I would have issues with that.

Anyway, happy hunting. I think as the year goes on there are fewer and fewer folks out there and these types of issues dwindle. That is until the swans come in.


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## huntducksordietrying (Sep 21, 2007)

UtahWineOh, thanks for the push off. I almost had to kill my motor so I wouldnt chop yours up. Being early is the key for me too. I thought two hours before shooting was early enough, I guess next time Ill try to make it three. Oh and you werent too close to me in the chanel. I know Im slow, so I expect to be passed. Thats good that your son is a social bug. My daughter is the same way. She is only four and loves to go hunting with me, I wasnt able to take her this weekend though. Anyway. I do understand public land hunting, I just wish some would have respect. I would never set up anywhere near anyone else. Like you said at least 3-400 hundred yards. That was only my second time out there though. I need to go learn it better. That moss is hard on my little motor though. Anyway. Im not upset about it, just wondering if I should have reacted to how close they were to me. Im too passive sometimes I guess.


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## blackdog (Sep 11, 2007)

Nice. Spending $5000 on a boat so you can motor out and set up next to someone else with a boat. I like it. :lol:


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## huntducksordietrying (Sep 21, 2007)

Actualy blackdog. I bought my boat for $250 and I build my mud motor for about $300. So I only spent $550 to motor out just to have someone set up by me.


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## blackdog (Sep 11, 2007)

I should of worded it different. I relize you were not the one who set up next to other hunters, they set up next to you. 

It seems every body and their lover has a duck boat these days. Back when I had one I could show up at 7 or 8am, there would be 2 or 3 trucks with boat trailers already there, I would glass for birds, motor out to where they were, set up and have a good shoot. Now of I were to show up at 7 or 8, I couldn't find a spot to park let alone hunt. For me that was the whole idea of having a boat. To get away from everyone. When I started to show up at 7 or 8 and there was 10 to 15 boat trailers already there, I figured it was time to sell, plus I wanted a Drift boat.


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## canvasback57 (Nov 1, 2007)

Hunt Ducks,

I'm pretty sure that was us who set up next to you last saturday. You said that you had all your lights on but all we could see was one little red light and it looked a lot further away than you actually were. In the dark, things look further away that they really are. We were set up an hour before shooting time and when it got light we realized that we might be a little close. After marking with the GPS I found that we were actually 250 yards apart (approx. two football fields). Maybe ideally too close, but realistically far enough away. We have never hunted 'your' spot before but have hunted the spot we were in several times and were amazed at the phrag growing out front. When you said you heard us say "someone is setup in our spot" we actually said "we cannot believe the phrag in our spot". Anyway, it shows that two boats can setup 250 yards from each other and co-exist. Your decoy spread was better than ours that day and we made sure that we did not pass shoot any ducks headed in your direction. My suggestion would be to get a spot light as that keeps other hunters from setting up to close to us. Sorry for the inconvenience.


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## Bigdog (Sep 14, 2007)

i find it pretty amazing how many people that buy a boat, a dog, a mojo, some decoys and a duck call and they become instant water fowlers, i have seen the worst unethical hunters at both Salt Creek and at Ogden bay real bad at Salt Creek, what amazes me is that every one has these sectet spots or honey holes ect what ever you want to call them and if you happen to set up unknowingly in one of these at 3:00 am in the morning then who ever thought it was there secret spot sets up 50 yards from you and says this is the flight path so i am siiting up here and i dont care what anyone says,,,,,,,AMAZING. The conclusion i have come to is that these folks buy duck calls decoys and lots of them and then dont have the common sense to be able to call ducks and geese into there spread so they set up on us folks that get up early to get in the marsh at 2:30 - 3:00 am, to get set up so every thing works and ducks pile into our set ,to have some unable, group of hunters set 50 yards from me, REMEMBER YOU BUY DECOYS AND CALLS TO LURE DUCKS TO WHERE EVER YOU ARE, NOT JUST TO YOUR LITTLE SECRET SPOT WHICH IS ONLY YOURS moral of the storys is " IF YOU CANT FIGURE IT OUT, DONT LOOK OVER MY SHOULDER" AND OH YA MOVE ON!!!!!!


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