Hunting Public Lands

[FlatsNBay]

Today it dawned on me that hunting on public lands is a lot like fishing in a large tournament. You better plan on somebody being in "your spot" when you get there! Having backup spots as a plan b, c,d,or e is a must! Better yet, I'm bringing a rod next hunting trip and if someone is hunting where I want to go, I'll switch over to fishing some of the ponds and ditches on the property!

You guys have any good public lands stories?

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[Smallie_Stalker]

I haven't hunted since my dad passed in 78. But all our hunting was on public lands.

Having been a Game Warden I have a story that is right up your alley Steve.

My uncle, dad and I were out on a pheasant hunt. We had 2 dogs with us, ours and my uncle's that were both trained specifically as bird dogs.

We were about 15 minutes into the hunt and we came across a Game Warden who asked to check our licenses to which we of course complied.

He told us to be careful that day because he had been searching for a poacher who was not wearing the required blaze orange hat/vest combo. He was camoed and suspected to be hunkering down in the brush.

We went on our way and a short time later both dogs went nose down and started to growl. My uncle gave his dog a command whistle to go in and flush the birds out. What he flushed out was that poacher.

My uncle always carried a camera on our hunting and fishing trips and he was able to get a good picture as the guy stood up to run.

We let the guy run as we didn't want anyone getting shot. After getting his film developed my uncle took the picture to the EP office and they eventually caught the guy.

That was more exciting than the fact that all 3 of us bagged our limit of pheasant that day!

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