Researcher, can you believe it has been almost a decade since the last time I was checked by a Federal agent duck hunting? Got checked by a state one last year. I don't see as many of them today as I use to see. I hear others who have been checked in the area or just a day before. Most of the time I rather suspect they were being watched or they should have been anyways.
I bet you the first 30 years I hunted ducks I got checked 200 times. A slow year was just once or twice. Heck, I have been checked several times, in a single day, while shooting off the Chesapeake Bay. Never got a Federal Citation for anything but it has been close a few times. Did get a State Citation for hunting Red Heads on a point I own, right next to a refuge. The State warden did not know there was still one private piece of land on that side of the river. I pulled my boat blind up into that spot and had about two thirds of a four limits of Red Heads, a couple Cans and a Black duck before they descended on us. Took half an hour to get them to just write me a citation for it. Everyone else got one as well.
Spent three hours finding and copying the land records and tax records that clearly proved I did in fact have land on that spot. Went right to their office and showed them the records. They would not just drop it. They made us go to court and then dropped it. Being a bit of a prissy a-hole I thought so I went down the the local volunteer firehouse and asked if anybody there wanted to hunt ducks. Of course half a dozen responded. Told them of my land and gave them written permission, with a map, to hunt it for the rest of the season. Explained it was only the point, on the Southern tip of the bend of the river, on the refuge side. There was a concrete marker they could tie their boat up to and that would make sure they were at the right spot. They had to be within fifty feet of that marker. I had to return to where I lived and could not hunt it anymore in the late season.
Heard later a few had big days over there and the game wardens were totally pissed because they were not only on private land but had written permission to hunt it. No one has hunted it for years but it is still there and I still pay a few dollars taxes on it. And I bet if I hunted it I'd get another have a nice day citation from either a state or federal game warden or maybe not, this time I'd just have my papers with me and give them a copy. If the wind was out of the NNW or N it was one hell of a spot for Red Heads, Blue Bills and and Cans but the river could be extremely dangerous.
