Researcher. nothing takes the joy from hunting as much as people so low they'd steal a boat. Wooden skiffs as yours were common as trees on our shore, usually 12- and 14-footers made from spruce. They got pretty heavy. Fishermen used them for going to and from their moorings, flat-fishing, tending smelt nets after the "big boats" were hailed up for the winter, and gunning I never heard of one being stolen.

Now, everything's aluminum and there's a different crowd around. Generally speaking, I stay clear of them because of their sky-busting, failure to attempt or have means of retrieving, or consideration of others. Last fall, when I retrieved a bag of decoys where I usually cache them near a blind from one season to the next, they had been used for target practise. Those of us who live on the shore give the galoots a wide berth. They're easy to spot.

I brought our brethern's wrath on my head when I joined the board five-some years ago by saying that my peers and their fathers who I grew up with in a fishing village on the Eastern Shore were sportsmen compared to today's crowd although their subsistence living included discreet poaching for a week or two at the beginning and end of the hunting seasons. They were safe and prudent about their shots, scrupulous about retrieving, considerate of other gunners' space and needs.

Nothing has changed my mind. Musing on this the other day, I added another dimension to their notion of ethical living. Why do we obey? Our villagers knew the seasons. They had never seen a conservation officer or warden. (Nor have I in nearly 70 years of gunning.) Being "caught" was not an issue. Birds were a staple of winter diet. They were discreet, they didn't flaunt the law, the seas were wide expanses. What they took out of season was miniscule compared to the indiscrimiate losses and unretrived cripples I see within the season now.

The oldtimers made very small incursions on game law to supplement their diet when there was no law enforcement. There was no encroachment on mating or nesting. Compared to what I see so much of now, in terms of sportsmanship and need and respect for the birds, Charlie, Doug, Warren, Don, Percy, Monnie (Morris), Luther, Seldon, Isaac, Judson, Uncle John and the others were an example and a blessing. How I miss them!

Regards, King

Last edited by King Brown; 01/05/08 11:59 AM.