Disappointing end to season

[duckmen1]

We did manage some birds this weekend but what I saw from people these last two days amazed me.
Day 1 Saturday the 24th. Went to a lake and set up. First boat there. Everything looking good. Lots of birds coming into decoys and on lake before legal light. A little foggy. 15 or so minute before light I hear a truck pull in to parking lot. Figure no biggie. Few minutes before light we hear birds leaving. Then sounds like more leaving from closer. Then we see a boat headed straight for us. Spooking all the birds out of decoys and around the area. They circle down by some houses acting like they were gonna set up there. I couldn't believe they were thinking of setting up that close to houses. Then they came toward us. I kept flashing and they got closer. They got right in front of decoys and started doing circles. And we're not leaving. So I chose to say a few things like do you mind and other choice stuff later as they decided to pull up and park there boat withing 60 yards. We dropped 3 ducks and that was it. Because the way these guys did things. One duck we missed was about 40 yards from us then swung out toward middle of lake. About 100 yards from them they try to shoot. We finally packed it up and headed for sportsmans show.

Day two last day of season
We headed out to sound. Again first group in area. Usually don't see many other people out there. Again right before legal light a boat headed up our way spooking hundreds of mallards right over us. Just before legal. As things settled down after legal light another showed spooking the new birds in our area away from where we set up. Little while later things started picking back up and birds were coming into area when a third boat showed up. He was full throttle on motor as he was shooting into flocks of birds up and down the area. Non stop. Boat number one then started shooting at birds under power. Between the 3 boats there was a minimum of 500 shots. Literally around 11 o clock we started counting. In 20 minutes we counted a 109 from one group alone. There were probably 800to900 shots total in all reality. It sounded like a war zone. Unreal. So they totally screwed the puddle duck hunting. We got 10 birds total. 2 puddle ducks and 8 divers. But seriously who chases buffleheads under full throttle on there gas engine shooting them. And someone hunted the spot I hunt the day before leaving the whole blind full of spent hulls. So I cleaned up after those pigs.

Sorry for the rant but I can honestly say after hunting the month of January I have seen more stupidity then ever before. And glad the season is over. And for all you guys doing these stunts learn how to hunt. To others doing things corectly hope you had a great season.

[Widgeondeke]

Sorry some tools ruined your hunts. 

I would have called LE shooting while boat is moving from power is illegal.

[duckmen1]

Ya I know. I will be having the dept keep a close eye on that area next season. That's 5 trips in a row I hunted there while a boat was doing that. Little hard access to get the warden to on short notice but with a heads up should be no problem for next season. So keep that in mind folks. I see ya shooting under power on boat I will make it my priority to get you ticketed next season.

[tyrant27]

Ahh, that's unfortunate. Sorry to hear that.

[95powersmoker]

Sounds about right. I didn't even go out on Sunday after Saturday's experience. Guy sets up close to me bout 30 minutes before shooting light. Starts blasting 20 til legal time. Sends all the birds in my decoys outta there. 5 minutes later another group is shooting still 15 before legal. Then the first guy starts calling at every thing within sight. I finally packed it up and took my decoys to storage. Started cleaning up the boat for fishing.

[sakoshooter]

I'm sorry to hear about your bad experiences but I gotta ask: Did ya call the cops??? Crime in progress - 911

[duckmen1]

A lot of the time I don't get service so no I didn't call anyone. I will make it clear to the game department and local warden to keep an eye on this area next year and if I do see it I will stop hunting and make it my goal to put an end to these clowns. It was just hard this time because we took float tubes battling current for an hour and a half to get where we wanted. We work our butts off to hunt our areas and I am done dealing with this.

[gun-dog]

My buddies and I have determined that there are a lot of new people to the sport of waterfowl hunting.  These past two seasons we have watched 4 people chasing ducks by the power of their motors, I have been shot twice (once at 40 yards), and we have been busted by people showing up 10 minutes before shooting light on more occasions than I have dared to count.  I'm glad that there are so many new people getting into the sport but I think they should be required to take a class on hunting ethics!

[singleshot12]

Sorry to hear. There was a lot of that same stuff going on in Snohomish county too this season. Really erks a guy off that's trying his best to do things right. They need to be weeded out before they ruin it for everyone.