Stute Slap wrote:
Who used profanity 1st? They did. "WTF are you doing here?. Get the F out of here!" That is when I raised my vioce about them not IDing that they were even there.
Were there any threats? No on either side
Did you offer to hunt with each other? No--why on earth would I want to be near a couple of drunken dolts handling firearms?
Trigger wrote: you tried to set up as close to me as my friends were going too, 100 yards, 200 yards, hell call it 300 yards. It was over 200 yds and I was crosswind to you with over 200yds of open water that would funnel the ducks right up the bay to you with that wind direction. I was going to work on the ducks coming along the refuge line of the other side of the cattails.
I would never pull in that close to a group of strangers.... some might even call it unethical. JHC! This is Swan lake we are talking about on opening weekend with 500+ boats. North landing alone often gets 100+ trailers there alone. Then add the other landings and hundreds of cabins with boats. I've had guys literally throw their decoys within 10' of my decoys before with the sun up for 15 minutes.So 200 yds to the side is very workable in crowded conditions. And on the opener it is basically pass shooting at ducks flying by, not circling a few times like the mallards do in late Oct. And even then it comes down to if another is working a flock, I do not shoot. I and others next to me within 200yds have had greeat hunts on SL years ago while being respectful to each other on flyway paths (where the ducks want to fly). Now that being said--would I hunt that close in a field? No I would not, but that is an entirely different situation than Swan's 3 ringed circus.
And you keep saying they were damn lucky you didn't kill them. Maybe we shouldn't be going full throttle through cattails we cant see through incase theres ohhhhh I don't know...... guys in a boat, sitting in those same cattails? Just saying... Ever have thick cattails and give it gas to get the boat up into the cattails? If I had done that--I'd have ridden right up on top of the skiff. But again - why did did they have the courtesy of having a light on? Why did they not wake up with me motoring and shining a spotlight? Why did they not indicate they were even there for over an hour? When fishing and at anchor on a lake it is a requirement to have a white light on for safety sake--why is it any different for when hunting and waiting for legal set out the decoys time?
BTW Swan lake is a cluster ____ when it comes to the preponderance of idiots. (And why I have not hunted it for years now). Over loaded boats--no lights what so ever, stalled boats in the middle of channels with no illumimation, and those of us obeying the law and doing the right thing ethically with running lights and spot lights are being singled out to "slow down" for the idiots that should drown to cleanse the human gene pool? As Bullet would say - F that.
And a whole side issue to this whole story is this: Why were the 2 dolts in the skiff about to handle guns when they were obviously intoxicated?