December 21, 2015 at 11:52pm
Bummer about the ticket. I got hit for the same at Big Branch, despite having been told in years past by one of the game wardens who ticketed me that waiting at the boat launch was acceptable. There are a couple things (beyond the dent in my finances) that bug me about this approach. One, they'll likely enforce it only once or twice a year. Thus, the boat launch staging likely won't change for most hunters. For those who were cited and consequently choose to follow the law, their chances of ever getting a decent hole out there are even more unlikely than they already were. Two, where the hell are we supposed to stage? Public hunting only works well when there is a merit system ('first come, first serve') in place. We need a place, presumably off the refuge, to get in line. Until they find one and make it official, the gws are opening the door to all sorts of shenanigans, many of them likely dangerous (imagine the racing to the launch). It's not enough to destroy the old system. They need to replace it.