Free: Contests & Raffles.
I believe in a live and let live approach. I do not own land but I can't blame people who do for trying to improve their property to attract ducks. If I had land I would want ducks on it. I know lots of people on this discussion feel differently but in my opinion, if those guys shell out the money and time to buy land and keep it in good shape for ducks it's okay with me. I think this season was bad for a lot of reasons - weather didn't help us much. If lots of ducks were hanging out in these corn ponds then it seems like there should be a bumper crop of birds next year and they should spill out all over the place. I just think some years are up and some are down. Can't fault someone for wanting to make a sweet duck hunting pond on their land - that seems okay to me.
Flooded corn for me. I want to bait too! Let's open it up. Remember this? If ole Huey decided to flood his imaginary corn fields he'd probably attract wayyyy more birds, but because they're "feeders" it's much more serious and you can't hunt next to it. LOLhttps://missoulian.com/news/local/huey-lewis-others-bait-ducks-to-end-hunting-along-bitterroot/article_032a9d84-d97e-11de-a5a9-001cc4c002e0.html
Quote from: EagleEye on January 18, 2019, 09:03:59 AMI believe in a live and let live approach. I do not own land but I can't blame people who do for trying to improve their property to attract ducks. If I had land I would want ducks on it. I know lots of people on this discussion feel differently but in my opinion, if those guys shell out the money and time to buy land and keep it in good shape for ducks it's okay with me. I think this season was bad for a lot of reasons - weather didn't help us much. If lots of ducks were hanging out in these corn ponds then it seems like there should be a bumper crop of birds next year and they should spill out all over the place. I just think some years are up and some are down. Can't fault someone for wanting to make a sweet duck hunting pond on their land - that seems okay to me. Please read the rest of the thread This is about big operations making big profits on a public resourse leasing thousands of acres and planting corn with water added. Locking up 90% of the ducks to an elite few. Regardless of the weather the ducks will stay in these corn stations.I wish it was only about the guy planting an acre or two on his land so him and his buddies could have a successful season.
Quote from: Shannon on January 16, 2019, 08:32:16 AMHere is my take on this. I don't own flooded ponds but have paid to hunt on Eagle Ranch once. I'm all for equal opportunity but I'm also against people taking rights away from someone else who is legally doing what they do. How would you like it if you saved up a ton of money to buy your own property to plant corn and then flood it to hunt over privately-then sportsman get something passed where you can't do it? Most guys complaining on here would love to have their own set up of a flooded corn field and would do it if given the chance. Why would you take that right from someone else just because you can't afford to do it yourself? Life sucks but there is all kinds of things I'd like to do but can't afford. I'm not asking for anyone else not to do it because I can't. Flame away but that is my two cents. I know most people on here are complaining about the huge complexes but once government starts to screw things up it will be a small pond surrounded by an acre of corn on a local farmers 20 acres that they ban. Its how it works usually. I'm just tired of losing my rights and I'm not going to ask someone else to lose theirs because I can't do it myself.Creating a your own little honey hole is one thing but building a huge complex that changes entire flight patterns of a PUBLIC resource is what I don't care for. I don't blame the owners at all but I blame wdfw and whoever else oversees the regulations for not changing the language of the laws regarding corn and baiting. As for the money argument, that means zero to me because I could personally afford to hunt it a few times per year if I wanted but I enjoy more the challenge of having to locate and work for birds then have them spoon fed to me at the buffet line.
Here is my take on this. I don't own flooded ponds but have paid to hunt on Eagle Ranch once. I'm all for equal opportunity but I'm also against people taking rights away from someone else who is legally doing what they do. How would you like it if you saved up a ton of money to buy your own property to plant corn and then flood it to hunt over privately-then sportsman get something passed where you can't do it? Most guys complaining on here would love to have their own set up of a flooded corn field and would do it if given the chance. Why would you take that right from someone else just because you can't afford to do it yourself? Life sucks but there is all kinds of things I'd like to do but can't afford. I'm not asking for anyone else not to do it because I can't. Flame away but that is my two cents. I know most people on here are complaining about the huge complexes but once government starts to screw things up it will be a small pond surrounded by an acre of corn on a local farmers 20 acres that they ban. Its how it works usually. I'm just tired of losing my rights and I'm not going to ask someone else to lose theirs because I can't do it myself.
"loophole" - (noun), a method of obtaining a result not consistent with the speaker's point of view.
Sorry if this was brought up already, but I wasn't able to read the whole thread because it's reeally long.I do water rights for a large farm in Oregon. At least down here, it's illegal to retain water without water rights that specifically allow it. If there's a particular operation that you're concerned with and that operation is flooding fields using a gate that closes or some sort of built up berm, then you can look up their water rights and see if it's legal. I would be shocked if these guys are operating legally. I just don't see them getting this much water in a dry region, in a time when there's a lot of concern for river and groundwater levels.If you care about this: Look it up, find the violations, and put pressure on the water master.