Why You Should Spend Time on the Water When Everyone Else is in the Woods

[Glenn]

New article!

https://www.bassresource.com/fishing/fishing-fall-hunting.html

 

[BigAngus752]

Challenge accepted...

[MIbassyaker]

What if the water is...in the woods??

[GreenPig]

I wish the water was a bit less crowded. It was 33 degrees the other morning and there were boats everywhere using the bent pole pattern. 

[Woody B]

Duck hunters were on the water Saturday.  

[BigAngus752]

6 hours ago, GreenPig said:

I wish the water was a bit less crowded. It was 33 degrees the other morning and there were boats everywhere using the bent pole pattern. 

 

50 minutes ago, Woody B said:

Duck hunters were on the water Saturday.  

+1 on both of these.  I fished Thurs and Sat and didn't see another bass fisherman, but the crappie guys and the duck hunters were out in force.  I don't mind sharing the lake with them.  I frequently have to wait for the crappie boats to leave a decent bass location but I've found that I'm MORE likely to catch bass if the crappie guys have been soaking live minnows in a spot for an hour. 

[Functional]

Please Glen....stop tearing me apart more than I already am when I have to decide where my body is going to be on the weekends!

[Swamp Girl]

All good points in the article. If I had a boat that couldn't tip, I might fish into late November. 

[Catt]

Why You Should Spend Time on the Water When Everyone Else is in the Woods.

 

[Dwight Hottle]

👏

[immortl]

So this trout club I belong to, also allows us to deer hunt on the properties.  There are many days trout fishing when you'll see a deer walk across the river.  I have often half seriously joked that one day I'm going to trout fish with a bow or 12ga slung over my shoulder and see what happens. 

[Dan N]

Cuz the bass are feeding and the fishing is great! This is the second year I’m fishing instead of hunting. The fishing is some of the best I’ve experienced. As good as pre spawn. Find a school of feeding fish, and it can be literally every cast .  ( for a bit anyways) !

…And crankbait fishing, which I love! 

[Glenn]

On 11/6/2023 at 3:09 AM, Woody B said:

Duck hunters were on the water Saturday.

No kidding!  It's downright dangerous to be on the water at daybreak! I usually wait until about 10:30 before heading out because that's about the time the last of them are heading back in. LOL

[Woody B]

I figure when the duck hunters are out it's kinda like being near a skeet/trap range.   I might get peppered with shot but they're not close enough for any of the shot to penetrate.   If you're fishing around duck hunters be sure and keep a hat and glasses on so you don't end up with a shotgun pellet in your eye.   

Deer hunters near the lake scare me.   If they're using a large caliber rifle a projectile could travel as far as 5 miles across the water, and still have enough energy to injure or kill a human.   Right now it's just black powder/archery season here.  Hopefully when gun season starts they'll all be using shot guns with buck shot.  The energy from buckshot dissipates quickly and it's a serious threat to anyone more than a few hundred yards away.  

 

Fear of hunters isn't going to keep my from fishing but accidents/mishaps do happen.  

[FishTax]

26 minutes ago, Woody B said:

I figure when the duck hunters are out it's kinda like being near a skeet/trap range.   I might get peppered with shot but they're not close enough for any of the shot to penetrate.   If you're fishing around duck hunters be sure and keep a hat and glasses on so you don't end up with a shotgun pellet in your eye.   

Deer hunters near the lake scare me.   If they're using a large caliber rifle a projectile could travel as far as 5 miles across the water, and still have enough energy to injure or kill a human.   Right now it's just black powder/archery season here.  Hopefully when gun season starts they'll all be using shot guns with buck shot.  The energy from buckshot dissipates quickly and it's a serious threat to anyone more than a few hundred yards away.  

 

Fear of hunters isn't going to keep my from fishing but accidents/mishaps do happen.  

Rifle season starts Saturday here. Just fyi. I was just telling someone yesterday I'm scared to be on the water on opening day because it sounds like I'm in the middle of a gun range on a Saturday on my lake. Maybe I need to find some other lakes with less hunters in the area during this time of year. 

[GRiver]

I try to stay away from Ocala national forest side of the river during the first week or so of hunting season. It can sound like a war zone at time over there. There are plenty of other places to fish here on the St John’s, Lake George. 
@Glenn is right the number of people fishing drops here around mid Nov. So it does relieve some pressure on the areas to fish, places that usually will have 6+ boats, will be zero. 

[Susky River Rat]

@Glenn my neighbor is big on the waterfowl hunting. Our seasons jn PA go I and out at weird times so I always try to ask him what’s going on before I go out. 

[Catt]

Blast-N-Cast 😉

 

Duck/Goose hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon!

[Pat Brown]

The hunting woods aren't the woods surrounding lakes around here for the most part.  Thankfully no bullets whizzing past my head.  I can still hear the reports in the distance but it mostly just makes me smile!  It's a great time to be outdoors in NC.

[Zcoker]

We have shared fishing/hunting areas down here in south Florida. The FWC maps them out and they look well defined. Thing is, they're practically one and the same thing! And it can be like a war zone, literally. Talk about boom boom! The south Florida FRONT! We've even had numerous fishermen killed by stray bullets. Downright scary because a lot of these hunters cross over into the fishing areas. They hide out in the cattails. Never know when rounding a corner whatcha might run into...a shotgun or a rifle, as trigger happy as can be! 

[Bankc]

I just wish they'd put up signs or buoys marking the hunting areas.  On my local lake, they have a lottery for spots where they can set up duck blinds, so there are only a few, specific locations where you could be in the line of fire.  And with my kayak, they won't hear me, so I'm going to have to rely on them seeing me, because I won't be able to see them.  

 

Last weekend, for instance, I accidentally stumbled into the path of some hunters and didn't know it until they came out to retrieve their decoys.  It was about 10:30 a.m., so they were probably about done anyway, but I felt bad for getting in their way.  And since I was there on the lake before sunrise and didn't hear a single shot, I figure it wasn't a good day regardless.  I only saw one duck, a mallard drake at the launch that would not leave me alone because someone had been feeding it.  But I don't want to ruin a hunt, get accidentally shot, or get into a fight with an armed stranger over an honest mistake.  So some kind of warning system would be greatly appreciated.  Especially since this is on a city owned lake that is always heavily populated.  It would benefit both the hunters and the anglers.  

[Bankc]

This got me thinking.  Maybe there's an online map that shows where the blinds are located.  So I look it up, and sure enough, there's one on the official city government's website!  And they update it every year, so I made sure that I was looking at the one for this year.  

And guess what.  The spot those hunters had set up was not on the map.  It was about a mile north of any approved spot for a blind, so it wasn't even close!  Which means they were hunting illegally!  Am I surprised?  Nope.  But I am frightened now.  Had I known that, I would have called the police.  

[Zcoker]

1 hour ago, Bankc said:

This got me thinking.  Maybe there's an online map that shows where the blinds are located.  So I look it up, and sure enough, there's one on the official city government's website!  And they update it every year, so I made sure that I was looking at the one for this year.  

And guess what.  The spot those hunters had set up was not on the map.  It was about a mile north of any approved spot for a blind, so it wasn't even close!  Which means they were hunting illegally!  Am I surprised?  Nope.  But I am frightened now.  Had I known that, I would have called the police.  

 

Exactly what I was talking about in my post. The hunting/fishing areas are clearly mapped out yet the hunters often travel into the fishing area to setup camp. I was fishing one foggy morning in a designated fishing area when out of nowhere a couple of guys in a canoe decked out in camo slid out of nowhere, blasting away! I thought a bomb went off. Talk about wrecking the serenity of the morning! Nothing against hunters, just don't understand why they sometimes break the rules and put others in danger. I wouldn't slip into any fishing area locked and loaded, knowing that there's other guys around fishing. I mean, what gives with that? 

[river-rat]

6 hours ago, Catt said:

Blast-N-Cast 😉

 

Duck/Goose hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon!

 

Same here. I hunt waterfowl in the mornings and then go after bass or sac-a-lait (crappie) later in the day. Doesn't get much better than a limit of ducks or geese and a limit of bass in one day.

 

 

 

[Catt]

@riverat Teal in the oven - filets in the grease.