Gobsmacked on public land!!!

I am originally from Minnesota. We lived in several different places in central and northern MN. My family and friends always called guys like this Minneapolis fishermen or hunters. I’m not sure if that was fair but it was frustrating at times to have boats pull up right next to us and start fishing. My dad and I had deer stands in a big section of county land. A couple of guys saw the nice bucks we got and the next opener they had stands up right by ours. The guys without common sense or common courtesy give everybody a bad name.
 
BRITTMAN said:
Iowans (that I have met) ... all nice, but they sure seem to keep every damn fish they catch :mad:

Years ago I was in a fish cleaning house. I was cleaning a pair of 15.5 inch walleyes ... guy from Iowa comes in and starts cleaning a dozen 10 - 11 inch walleye all the while complaining about the size of the fish in the lake. Countless stories on potato chip sized sunfish.
Click to expand...

Its because your state taxes everything fun. Costs me almost $50 now just for a license to fish in your state for a week, and i can keep 6 walleyes and 20 sunfish total. My 6 walleyes are coming home with me, hopefully work to find some nice ones otherwise your lake is going to be missing six small walleyes. I refuse to clean small sunnies however.

I had a guy two years ago on opener make a snide comment "kinda small isnt it?" As my buddy put a 14.5" or so walleye in the livewell. I just looked at him and said with a straight face "we just paid $1700 for this cabin for the week, $100 combined in licenses, $200 in food at your grocery store, $4.75/scoop for minnows at the bait shop, and $6.99/gal gas at the only gas pump on the lake. How much are you paying for your limit of fish? He said "a..hole" under his breath and kept fishing. Some people just dont understand in the grand scheme of things. I told the resort owner the story and he said "thats the kind of guy that will be out there every day this week and have 30 walleyes in the freezer".
 
A lot of the MN people earn their reputation at the boat ramps in SD. Its a common saying that you could walk across the river in the spring and not get your feet wet for all the MN boats fishing here while their season isnt even open yet. I appreciate what they do for the economy but there is always a down side that gets more attention. A few 120k boats being A holes to the the locals gets lots of press at the cafes.
 
I was getting out of my truck in a parking lot a few weeks ago when 2 trucks from MN pulled up. 3 guys jumped out with 4 dogs(all loose and none on a leash) and let me know the area was big enough for all of us. I told them I would go to the left and they said they would go to the right.....which of course the didn't do. They climbed over the gate before I could get my dogs out and hunted right where I told them I was going. Great guys.
 
I believe this is a generational thing. I have seen older guys be this rude, but let's examine the typical ages of these guys.
 
Birdman2 said:
I believe this is a generational thing. I have seen older guys be this rude, but let's examine the typical ages of these guys.
Click to expand...
I’m guessing it’s all ages. What some consider rude would be considered normal to others, just depends on how someone was brought up.
 
Birdman2 said:
I believe this is a generational thing. I have seen older guys be this rude, but let's examine the typical ages of these guys.
Click to expand...

When I have seen it, its been 50-60+yo id guess. I think it goes back to the 80s/90s when these guys and the guys who taught them all hunted like this because there was plenty of birds. The culture and unwritten rules have changed to one group per field with how few birds there are anymore. Im not sure i have seen an 18-40ish person do it around here, but there are not many of those hunting birds anymore.. they are all in the marsh.
 
KEOutdoors said:
When I have seen it, its been 50-60+yo id guess. I think it goes back to the 80s/90s when these guys and the guys who taught them all hunted like this because there was plenty of birds. The culture and unwritten rules have changed to one group per field with how few birds there are anymore. Im not sure i have seen an 18-40ish person do it around here, but there are not many of those hunting birds anymore.. they are all in the marsh.
Click to expand...
I agree...
 
KEOutdoors said:
Seems they are around every year and will roll in at 7:30-7:45 when most of the trucks are readied up and waiting in line to head off. Then they cut to the front of the line and take off at 7:55 wearing green/brown with beat up orange hats.
Click to expand...
I understand the meat of this but don't understand the "waiting in line to head off" part. It's the queuing up to hunt that I don't get? Hunt what?
 
TomU said:
I understand the meat of this but don't understand the "waiting in line to head off" part. It's the queuing up to hunt that I don't get? Hunt what?
Click to expand...

Well we cannot shoot until 8, so most places everyone waits in the lot until 8 then heads off to their chosen fields. Its an unwritten rule that you wait for the group ahead of you, and leave the lot in the order you arrived. Exception i guess is places where there isnt cover next to the lots, then we go down the lanes and wait at edge of fields.
 
I do not know of a MN fisherman (city or rural) that releases a 14.5" walleye including the guys on the water everyday. Generally speaking 14"-19" inch fish are the size encouraged to keep.
 
MinnHunter said:
Rude behavior has no geographical boundaries. Case in point, your comment.
Click to expand...

My observation is not rude. As a 30 year resident of MN I can speak of what I have witnessed and heard over time. As a resident of ND prior to that I can speak of what I witnessed. Unfortunately, it only takes a few bad apples to spoil the peck.

... but then look in the mirror. I would say why not provide counterpoints against my position vs. calling the comment rude ?
 
Britt and others, I think the point is all the hunters from MN that follow the general rules of good hunting etiquette don't like to be lumped in with those who disregard any thought of disrupting or ruining others hunts. Essentially being judged by the license plate on the vehicle you drive. Plenty of stories about rude behavior on the SD resident opening weekend, or from hunters in NE, etc etc. For what its worth I've been hunting every chance I get for the last 5 years and this is the only bad experience I've had with another hunter. At least the guy was friendly, I honestly just think he didn't have a damn clue.
 
I'm sorry to hear that, Bob. When I read the title, I thought you'd stumbled into the mother load. Instead, you ran into a different kind of mother.

It blows my mind that someone would do that, especially as it seems this guy assumed that was the way it was done. Sorry you had to experience that. Personally, I'd go to the next available spot and lay the woods to the sorry rooster that got up within range.
 
Bob Peters said:
I hear an old clunker diesel pickup slow rolling down the road. I look, red with a wooden bed and gates all round. It pulls right into the lot and parks, I figured maybe it was a maintenance vehicle pulling in to do some work on the land. Off goes the engine which had been clattering like an old pair of dentures.
Click to expand...
This was funny. Great descriptive terminology.

This is part of the reason I quit hunting public land, for waterfowl, pheasants, and deer in MN. I'd get to a spot I had scouted on a point in the marsh, and half an hour later another boat with a flash light would come by and set up 100 yards away. Or I'd start hunting a WMA for roosters, knowing that it had probably already been pounded to death recently, and another truck would show up to start hunting the same piece. Gets old really quick. Nothing illegal about it either, just unethical (for some).

I work hard and spend a lot of time in my vehicle before the season now scouting private land, knocking on doors, and asking for permission. Every fall for pheasants and every spring for turkeys. It has paid off immensely. Sometimes people say no but sometimes they say yes. You will never know unless you try though. Continuing the status quo and fighting others for game on public land was not an option anymore.

Luckily in the fishing realm, this is the land of 10,000 lakes. So I can usually find another one and avoid others for the most part.
 
My grandpa used to say "a good ass-whippin' is all some people understand, then you'll run into the rare ones that are too stupid to even learn from those."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top