I was getting some nice Osprey photos, along with mink, Egret, Heron, ducks and more near dam 13 by lock road. Someone drove down and saw the Teal by the road, so he rounded up some buddies, all local, to go out and kill those ducks.
I saw their trucks mid September first day of Teal season. I noticed a boat messed the weed cut up with their prop, causing large masses of the weed bed to block the channel. I couldn’t get through so I dropped the trolling motor in to go around the weed masses. This was right by the boat ramp. Just as I started going around the weeds when someone fired a shot in my direction and it was super loud. They shot over my head. My dog hid in the back corner of the boat and it took years for him to get over that. It was Teal hunters, he thought he would scare me away from the public boat ramp area.
I couldn’t see them, but later they started shooting a lot. I lost track of how many shots were fired at 100, but I estimate they shot around 300 times. The Osprey were gone, no mink, everything was gone except the teal being shot at all over that were coming to the ramp area for safety, only to get blasted there. I saw them when they quit. There was 5 guys and no dog. They were not hunting from a boat, they were spread out in the shallow reed area. Doing that much shooting without a dog surely leaves a lot of cripples. Steel shot is expensive and has less power, so its most likely, shooting 300 shots, that they were using lead shot instead of steel shot which is required.
Two weeks later, in the same area, they found a Bald eagle with lead poisoning. That was no surprise to me, I expected it because I figured they were using lead shot and not retrieving everything with out a dog or a boat.
A few days later the Osprey was back and I was fishing and then getting photos of the Osprey eating a perch. Some boat came flying up to me and idled around me and went Bass fishing in fast motion. I mentioned the Osprey as he passed me and that I was getting photos and he said I don’t give a fck and spooked the Osprey.
He did a circle and when he saw me fishing my way to a point, he quick tried to cut me off, taking a shortcut through the stumps. I got there first and he casted over my line. He mouthed off to me and so I asked why he doesn’t go find his own spot to fish and he yelled cuss words at me, then got on his phone crying to a game warden or his mommy.
One day I found a a lot of Bass in an opening in the weed beds and was catching fish every cast. I noticed a car parked in the distance with a large lens aimed at me. It was a photographer from Clinton. I stopped fishing to wait for him to leave, but he wouldn’t. Then finally he did leave, only to come back 10 minutes later, but it wasn’t the same guy. It was the same car, but different guy and this time it was a scope and not a camera lens. The photographer must have ran to the bait shop, told his buddy I was catching fish, and let his buddy use his car (because I know this guy and his red truck). He was watching so I quit fishing. I idled around, but 20 minutes later he is still watching me. So I had no choice but to quit. He better hope I don’t run into him or he would hear about ruining my day. When I got to the ramp he tore off so I went back out fishing.
Thirty minutes later here come a big fancy bass boat. It was that guy and his brother. They headed right for me. I sat down and acted like I was going through my tackle box so they wouldn’t see me catch anything. Just when they got close, I jumped up front and he quick turned away. That was close. I am sure they came back when I left, but I didn’t leave them much. And guess what I found when I looked at photos? It was one of the duck hunters who shot at me! And one of the guys who is friends with the guy who spies and he himself has been stalking me for years! They have their own mob that spies and harasses others who come to their river.
These are just a few samples of what happens out on our river. This is not unusual, it happens almost daily. Nice guys turn into raging maniacs when they go out fishing or hunting. It’s all about ego. Then when they are done, they act like nice guys again and brag about how good they did.