Sequalitchew Lk, Ft. Lewis

Howdy all,

I am writing this letter to express some displeasure at what happened this weekend on Sequalitchew Lake, Ft. Lewis, WA on Sunday. It is an experience I am soon not to forget, so let me relate this little bit...

My girlfriend and I had gotten up at 0400, made coffee, and headed for the lake for a little duck hunting. I met one gentleman on the shore and asked him where he was going to set up. He indicated that he would hunt one end, so I, naturally, set up in a location that I would not crowd him or spook too many of his ducks.

So, finding my position, I set up my dekes and set in for the wait until shooting light (I call it clobbering time). At about 0700, just when it was safe to start shooting, two people in a rowboat towing 3 decoys set out across the lake. Eyeing my decoys, which I am sure they thought were live ducks, they headed my way. I sat helpless watching flock after flock of teal and mallards eye the lake and then the rowboaters and then head for cruising altitude. When they got pretty close, I let loose on the duck call with a series of call-backs that would have split my eardrums, and the boat veered off.

So, they set up, and I am just a little peeved, but no biggie, right? I mean we've all been late only once, right?

So, the morning goes on and finally a decent flock of mallards flies over the lake. First, they eye my dekes and head off. Then, they eye the other gentleman's dekes (the first guy) and veer off toward me again. Well, they get to within 'shooting' distance of the rowboat A-holes and they open up! I mean, from my vantage, I could see that the ducks were a healthy 90-100 yards away, but they must have had 3 1/2 mags. Needless to say, they missed everything and the ducks headed off to Mazatlan.

This went on for the entire morning until I decided to leave.

I hope those two sorry excuses for hunters read this. They ruined a potentially great day of hunting for 1/2 dozen other people. Being on Ft. Lewis, they are subject to other rules and reglations, and if I ever see them again, I will be sure they are banned from hunting pending a formal inquiry. Folks, I hope the majority of you repsect others' hunting areas and experiences and strive not to ruin them. I love hunting with a passion and live to retain the value of the sport.

Brian Watson

I can sympathize with you completely. The opening weekend of goose season I was set up with a few others in a bean field. About 700 yards away there were two other guys in a once worked corn field. The geese were heading south from the north of course but they were west of us. I kept calling in small flock of geese towards us. We had decoys set behind us and had planned on shooting them as they crossed over us to land in the decoys. Well for some reason they kept veering parallel to us wanting to circle before landing. They always crossed over the two guys in the field near us. These guys had no decoys or calls. They were just lying in a field on their backs. We think that they had scouted us positioning the decoys the night before and chose to piggy back on us. Well needless to say they would shoot at everything that flew above them. They must have shot 30 shells at geese no closer than 60 yards. Anyway on each pass they both would empty their guns and drop one goose usually just wounded in a wing. Well what really ended up pissing me off was they took more than their limit. When they had 8 geese and things slowed down they took some to the truck and one guy drove them somewhere and then returned. Even after having that many and knowing that we were doing all the work and bringing them in, they still continued to screw up are chances at geese shooting at flocks a good 100 yards above them that were heading straight to us. Needless to say I have since added the TIP number to my cellular memory and will be calling in anyone that hunts that way again. I was almost ready to confront them but thought that if they were that stupid what would they try with loaded guns? Ed