TippinWingz
Member
Well Devils Lake had the rodeo in town one weekend and then the next weekend the circus showed up and boy let me tell you the blue plates were really shinning. There isn't a weekend of the year I hate more than non-res opener. The amount of duck boats and idiots clogging up gravel roads for farmers and locals is out of hand. Initial I was going to do a big rant post about how much of a pain in the ass these out of staters can be, but I think I will just give some friendly info for hunting ducks in ND.
First of all... leave them damn boats at home. The only reason to bring a boat to DL is to go catch some walleyes! YOU DO NOT NEED to hunt water to kill ducks. This is different from your "hunting" back home. This big water stuff has got to stop, unless you're shooting blue bills on the big lake. I'm not sure if its because people don't realize what they are doing when they hunt big water or if they just don't care that they screwed up the weekend/week for another group of hunters. I had one guy tell me (after I told him he busted a roost and messed up the hunt for other people) that he didn't care, hes only here for 3 days. People just need to put some work in to actually hunt the birds the right way around here so it isn't one morning of chasing and blasting ducks around the roost. If you leave the birds alone on the water where they are comfy, you can shoot them for many days in the surrounding fields. If water hunting is the only thing you know, the only gear you have, and the way you want to hunt, thats fine! Just stay off the big water roosts. Look at a map, find these big water roost, and get in a transition slough between them and I promise you will get some quality shooting.
Put on some miles and talk to landowners. Come a few days earlier than you usually do and put in some work. A lot of guys around here just want to know who is out there. Please don't use the excuse "everything is posted" or "all the guides have everything leased" because that just isn't true. Go to the county office and for $40 you can buy a map that shows who owns every field, their farmstead, phone numbers... all the info you need to ask for permission. This does mean getting more than 15 miles away from DL, Cando, Lakota... Drive and put in the work.
I am not going to sit here and tell you that every person from out of state is a POS, because I also know that that is far from the truth, but its the 80% of the idiots that don't care, don't follow all the laws, and do shady things that make every non-res lumped into one category and that's a tough hole to dig out of, but I promise you that if you are respectful and nice to landowners they will typically show it in return (wouldnt hurt your case to show up with some beer, cheese curds or jerky/sausage). Heck, who knows... maybe you and this landowner hit it off. Maybe you treated his land with respect and didn't do the stupid stuff that they see every other non-res do. And just MAYBE he would be ok with you coming the same week every year and hunting his stuff because he knows who you are and knows you will treat his land and property with respect.
This is just a message from a local guy that is just getting tired of the boat parade coming to town every weekend. Tired of watching my roost get busted at shooting time and listen to them take 6 shots all morning and mess up our hunt. Tired of having to talk to farmers about how frustrated they are with these people.
If you don't care what I have to say, that is what it is. If you do take anything out of this post (you know who you are) please read and listen to this. GET OFF THE ROAD! The shoulder of a road or just pulling off IS NOT a good spot to leave a truck and boat trailer. This is harvest time! GET OUT OF THE WAY! Combines with 40 ft headers take up a lot of space on the road and over the edge of roads. They can't just turn around or go around you. Find a field crossing of a harvested field and park there. Just please get out of the way. A lot of my friends are farmers and they dont have time to sit there and wait for you to come strolling out of the reeds to come move your truck and watch you struggle to back it down a road until you find somewhere to pull off.
-TippinWingz
First of all... leave them damn boats at home. The only reason to bring a boat to DL is to go catch some walleyes! YOU DO NOT NEED to hunt water to kill ducks. This is different from your "hunting" back home. This big water stuff has got to stop, unless you're shooting blue bills on the big lake. I'm not sure if its because people don't realize what they are doing when they hunt big water or if they just don't care that they screwed up the weekend/week for another group of hunters. I had one guy tell me (after I told him he busted a roost and messed up the hunt for other people) that he didn't care, hes only here for 3 days. People just need to put some work in to actually hunt the birds the right way around here so it isn't one morning of chasing and blasting ducks around the roost. If you leave the birds alone on the water where they are comfy, you can shoot them for many days in the surrounding fields. If water hunting is the only thing you know, the only gear you have, and the way you want to hunt, thats fine! Just stay off the big water roosts. Look at a map, find these big water roost, and get in a transition slough between them and I promise you will get some quality shooting.
Put on some miles and talk to landowners. Come a few days earlier than you usually do and put in some work. A lot of guys around here just want to know who is out there. Please don't use the excuse "everything is posted" or "all the guides have everything leased" because that just isn't true. Go to the county office and for $40 you can buy a map that shows who owns every field, their farmstead, phone numbers... all the info you need to ask for permission. This does mean getting more than 15 miles away from DL, Cando, Lakota... Drive and put in the work.
I am not going to sit here and tell you that every person from out of state is a POS, because I also know that that is far from the truth, but its the 80% of the idiots that don't care, don't follow all the laws, and do shady things that make every non-res lumped into one category and that's a tough hole to dig out of, but I promise you that if you are respectful and nice to landowners they will typically show it in return (wouldnt hurt your case to show up with some beer, cheese curds or jerky/sausage). Heck, who knows... maybe you and this landowner hit it off. Maybe you treated his land with respect and didn't do the stupid stuff that they see every other non-res do. And just MAYBE he would be ok with you coming the same week every year and hunting his stuff because he knows who you are and knows you will treat his land and property with respect.
This is just a message from a local guy that is just getting tired of the boat parade coming to town every weekend. Tired of watching my roost get busted at shooting time and listen to them take 6 shots all morning and mess up our hunt. Tired of having to talk to farmers about how frustrated they are with these people.
If you don't care what I have to say, that is what it is. If you do take anything out of this post (you know who you are) please read and listen to this. GET OFF THE ROAD! The shoulder of a road or just pulling off IS NOT a good spot to leave a truck and boat trailer. This is harvest time! GET OUT OF THE WAY! Combines with 40 ft headers take up a lot of space on the road and over the edge of roads. They can't just turn around or go around you. Find a field crossing of a harvested field and park there. Just please get out of the way. A lot of my friends are farmers and they dont have time to sit there and wait for you to come strolling out of the reeds to come move your truck and watch you struggle to back it down a road until you find somewhere to pull off.
-TippinWingz
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