Minnesota Waterfowl Hunting

Hey Al can you direct me to the language in the regs that stipulate how you may position your blind on a privately-owned shoreline of a body of water?

I will also search on my own but I believe you may answer before I find it.

I'm pretty certain the language and statute is pretty basic in the sense that you need to be attached to natural vegetation (except on the bodies of water where layout hunting is legal or on a river <100yds across?) If the natural vegetation is in the water and you don't have to stand on dry land, you're legal but if you need to go onto dry land then it's up to the landowner/permission.

A person may not take migratory waterfowl, coots, or rails in open water unless
that person is:
a) within a natural growth of vegetation sufficient to partially conceal the person
or boat, or
b) pursuing or shooting wounded birds (while in compliance with watercraft
restrictions), or
c) on a river or stream that is not more than 100 yards in width, or
d) hunting on one of the following water bodies:
1. Mississippi River from the Highway 61 bridge at Hastings to the Iowa border:
hunting is allowed from anchored boats not more than 100 feet from any
shoreline, including islands.
2. Lake Pepin, Lake of the Woods, and Lake Mille Lacs: open-water hunting is
allowed from boats that must be anchored.
3. Lake Superior: open water hunting is allowed on the Minnesota waters
north and east of the Minnesota/Park Point peninsula as long as boats
remain anchored

The way I interpret it is if you're off dry land, in vegetation and the appropriate distance from a dwelling you're okay despite who owns the adjacent land.

That is exactly my understanding. Thanks Maniac.

Be careful of the trespass laws though. As it varies from body of water to body of water as many are not "public water" and then the ordinary high water mark rule is invalid. Mn rules on this are so damned confusing...

You cannot build a permanent blind unless you own the property or have permission. Obviously a make shift blind like pushing brush in to the bog is fine. I was not aware of this when I was a kid. We had an extra dock section and some lumber so we built a blind on a public slough. Got checked by a warden and got a warning.

There are tons of conflicts each year in WI because guys build blinds on public property then they think they own the spot for the year. Of course none of them take them down after the season like they are supposed to. I had a guy pull out and load his gun trying to bully me off "his spot" at 5 am in the morning in WI once. MN has a lot of dumb laws but this is a good one.

h2ofwlr wrote:Be careful of the trespass laws though. As it varies from body of water to body of water as many are not "public water" and then the ordinary high water mark rule is invalid. Mn rules on this are so damned confusing...

See now I though all water in MN was public, just access wasnt guaranteed so if you could legally gain access to the water, the water itself was public and therefore the highwater mark didn't matter between public or "private". You likely know more than I on this issue, my understanding always was though if you could legally access the water (be it private access or public) than the public land laws were one in the same.

You're right about the confusing part though.... I've hunted nearly 20 different states and 2 Canadian provinces with MN being one of (if not THE) worst in terms of legal interpretation....

Take high water mark out of this and it gets less confusing.

Also the whole blind on public thing is if a body of water is fully contained inside a WMA you cannot built a permanent blind. Anything else they can kick rocks if they tell you any different.

Team Power Dump

deet wrote:Hey Al can you direct me to the language in the regs that stipulate how you may position your blind on a privately-owned shoreline of a body of water?

I will also search on my own but I believe you may answer before I find it.

It's not that confusing. You can build any blind you want on dry ground you have permission for. You cannot build a blind in the water unless in sufficient vegetation to avoid "taking in open water" issues, plus cannot be permanent if on a public water body.

I'm not even talking about building a blind, just talking about hunting out of your boat/canoe in the emergent veg. adjacent to private land. Buddy believed you had to be some distance away from their property line even if you're in wet cattails or bulrushes. But that's not the case.

Your buddy is incorrect.
Ron's assessment is correct.
I was thinking you were building a blind on the shoreline below the high water mark... and the land was private and you did not have permission to access dry land.