Years ago when I was stationed at HQMC, an acquaintance invited me on a fishing trip. I was pretty lost up there in that big city, and looked forward to a day afield. We had about an hour drive to the farm of a deployed Marine General. We visited briefly with the family then hiked into the woods to a small, secluded pond, deep in the woods. Bluegill heaven. Absolutely the nicest, biggest Bluegills that I have ever caught. A great time! On the way back to the car, I noticed a nice little pasture field on the farm, with a few doves moving around. We discussed that with the family and returned the following weekend for a dove shoot. Not many birds were moving, so we walked around the farm checking on other areas to try. When we came to the far end of the property, I could see a huge marsh ahead of us. I asked my friend about that property and he said it didn't belong to the General, but possibly to one of his neighbors.
After we finished up with the dove shooting and went to say goodbye to the family, I asked about that marsh that I had seen. One of the children seemed to know more than anybody else and was pretty sure it was a public hunting area. She said there was always a lot of shooting back there.
Over the next couple of weeks, I researched the marsh and never could get an answer on how much of it was public and how much was privately owned. Apparently, if you entered by vehicle, on the far end of the marsh, there were signs indicating what was private property and what was public hunting. I didn't have a boat, decoys, or retriever up there in DC with me, so I figured that the public hunting area was too far from where I had seen the marsh originally, for me to walk/wade in. Opening day of duck season, I made arrangements with the General's wife to park at their farm and walk in through their property. I packed in my waders, on the long walk through the woods, but made it to the marsh by shooting time.
The marsh was full of hunters and the shooting was pretty intense for the first 20 minutes. Nothing moved at all on the end of the marsh where I was hunting. I was about to call it quits when a little bunch of Teal sailed right into marsh in front of me. I killed a couple, used a wading stick I had cut, and made my way out to the fallen birds. I jammed the stick in the mud to get a mark and then waded around and found my birds. About the time that I went back to get my wading stick, a pair of Wood Ducks came over. I was able to knock them both down and retrieved them without too much effort. The shooting was over with on the marsh, but I was very happy with the morning. Waded back to the bank and started taking off my waders for the walk back to my Jeep. Dancing around on one leg at a time, trying to get the waders off, I heard the distinct quack of a Mallard hen. I stopped, hunkered down and looked out on the marsh. I saw the hen along with 3 drakes. From where I was they were already in shooting range, slowly swimming towards me. One boot on, one wader foot still on, I stood and smacked down a drake when they jumped. That was a full limit, so I couldn't have been happier.
When I got back to the farm house, I thought maybe I'd offer some ducks to the family. I went up to the back porch and the wife and two kids met me at the door. They were quite happy to take some ducks, all the ducks in fact. But I figured it was a good investment in future hunts. After I had cleaned the birds and had them soaking, the eldest daughter asked me where I had hunted. I told her that I had gone to the edge of the marsh, directly behind their property. She told me that she had asked her Dad about that land and was told it was owned by a hunting club and that nobody was allowed to even walk around back there, much less hunt. She said her Dad had told her that a lot of people got arrested back there every year for trespassing.
Oh, well...
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