What would you do in this situation

Capin' Dan · 10-12-2003, 09:28 PM

Public Land, Oregon. Arrive at the blind that you want to hunt to find six decoy's in front of it and no people any where to be found?

Do you gather up thier decoy's and hunt the blind?
Does decoy placement mean that the blind it taken?
Do you wait around and give them your opinion?
Or just move on to your back-up blind?

Decisions, Decisions.

By the way if it was an ifisher and you know whom you are you will loose your decoys in the future. They will just float away. Enough said.
[img]graemlins/icon_argue.gif[/img]

rockn'reel · 10-12-2003, 09:43 PM

Dan, I would look around and see if there were any other tale-tale signs of the blind being occupied. If not, I would place out my own decoys and leave them in my spread. This would run the risk of a confrontation if the owner des come back, then I would (in a calm manner) let them know that I don't think leaving the decs were a wise choice. I would then pack up and move or maybe strike a deal to hunt with the other person if there is just one or so in the other party. if no one shows up by the end of the day I would pack up my decs and leave the others that were already there. I don't believe in taking others property and I think even if they were abandoned they are still not on the market for me. Others have different views and I don't disagree with them, but this is just the way I work.

2LEYS · 10-12-2003, 11:50 PM

Quote:

In addition to state and federal laws, the following
are prohibited:
� Leaving decoys set out overnight (10
p.m. - 4 a.m.).

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helv">Page 26 of the regulation book. So if you know the decoys have been there before 4am then he is violating the regs.

chummer · 10-13-2003, 10:21 AM

2Leys, I THINK that might only apply to regulated hunt areas.
Only 6 dekes! maybe he forgot something and had to run back or motor back to his rig?
I've hunted small islands less then 75' long where you had to put a few dekes at one end to prevent some bonehead from setting up on your back door.
I've had a situation one time hunting in the fog when a deke floated into my spread, I picked it up and noticed a 6" tail of line and no weight, shortly another deke appeared and another and another, until I had collected about 10 all identical with the same identical 6" tail of line. No names on the dekes and no one ever came by lookin for them.

steelhead22 · 10-13-2003, 11:41 PM

That's a wierd situation. I might stick around a while to see if the owner came back, then when if it got close to shooting time and nobody was back, I might throw out mine and go for it. Did this guy ever show up? What did you do? I can't believe someone would go out the night before and put out their dekes and think that "locked up" the spot for them. This one would've definitely thrown me for a loop, I've never encountered this and I gotta say, I don't know what I would do. If I had another good spot somewhere close, I might just head over there and not deal with it. But, if this was the only decent spot in the area, as is the case in some of the areas I hunt, I think I'd stick it out.

Capin' Dan · 10-14-2003, 11:10 PM

The guys did show up about 5:30 am. the only part that was a pain was that the blind was a nice sit down and well covered area. The area we moved to actually was a little better but was stand up hunting in the brush and mud. I'm getting too old for that I want the comfort of the blind. I did confront them about it and was told that he had spent the night out and had to go back to pick up the rest of his party. Still he wasn't there at 3:30 and he shows up at 5:30. Still it isn't right I'd bet he put them out the night before. His boat wasn't the type to spend the night in.

Dr Strangelove · 10-14-2003, 11:24 PM

Complete horse manure. Illegal. Options:
1. Report dekes out overnight to Gammies with desription of persons/vehicle.
2. Forfeture of their hunting spot; move your meat, lose your seat. Natural built/permanent blinds at Julia Hansen Refuge must be shared on first come first serve basis.
3. Take the dekes and leave (bad karma probably) or set them free and stay. Thats probably how freely floating dekes w/o weights on the lines got that way.
4. The bad idea is to leave someone else's dekes out after you've collected yours; it will be tough to get a gamie to believe that you are not the offender - last nights or this nights.

[ 10-15-2003, 12:29 AM: Message edited by: Dr Strangelove ]

pdxkevin · 10-15-2003, 06:00 AM

A peta member may have 'liberated' them from a garage sale/store and 'set them free' at the pond.

Are you sure they aren't native decs?

_________________

Seriously though, I think that guy was ear-marking the area so that he wouldn't have to get there as early as everyone else. Probably dropped them the night before and came back after a night home in bed and warm shower in the am.

[ 10-15-2003, 07:03 AM: Message edited by: pdxkevin ]

Fishalot · 10-15-2003, 11:47 PM

The way I look at it is if there is not a person or gear other then decoys there is no claim on the spot. I ran into this one time where a group had a runner that made his way to the spot with a few decoys to hold the spot. We show up and each guy in our group has all the gear needed to hunt. We ask the guy what is up with the decoys only and he tells us that his friends are coming with the other gear.
We told him that would not fly and I guess he did not want to challenge 3 guys with shot guns. We whould not have threatened to use the shot guns, however I am sure he had a lot going through his head just then.

Fishalot