Last fall in northern BC my buddy and me were moose hunting and camped at the end of a big lake.
There was a rough road that went past our camp and along the lake to a river that drained into the lake. It took about an hour by truck it was so rough.
We went one day and found good grouse hunting along that track. At the end, at the river was the set-up for what looked like an annual camp. schithouse, fire circle, hanging poles, tent site, you've seen it a hundred times.
The river had a little rapids to it then entered a nice calm lagoon type area that we thought might be nice to boat-hunt.
Well, a few days later we pumped up the inflateable and mounted the outboard and powered over to that river, removed the engine, portaged up the rapids and entered the lagoon and rowed along the shore there. Buddy dropped me off to hunt the timber on foot and he carried on to explore the other side.
In the afternoon we met up and on the way back to the lake, sure enough, somebody had come and set up camp at the campsite. We said hello and asked what did they know about the area, and what their plans were and they said that upstream of the lagoon was a wicked rapids and they wouldn't recommend anybody go there, it was tough, it was scary, there were sweepers in the river, they only did it pulling a canoe up the rapids with waders, yada yada yada. They were there to hunt and fish.
We said, oh yeah, well our buddy was arriving soon with a canoe and we'd like to take him exploring up the river later in the week.
"OH. Well. We've got three more guys coming to this camp," they said. So it was pretty obvious they were staking sole proprietary rights to the place.
We didn't go back because we had plenty of other options including our secret trick, which was that we had found access to the river several km above those guys by bucking a trail down to the river from an overgrown logging road and putting the canoe in there and drifting down to the "scary" rapids in the wide calm part of the river.
But the question is: How ethical is it to claim sole hunting rights along a river if anyone else can raft it or canoe it too?
It's kind of like camping right on a road where there is 40 or 50 km more of huntable land on the other side of the camp isn't it?
Just asking. We didn't push it. There was lots of other country. We had an LEH permit and they were there for the bow-hunting season. I had a feeling they made an annual trip of it.
I had to leave for work and after that my buddies got a moose each road hunting there anyway.
There was a rough road that went past our camp and along the lake to a river that drained into the lake. It took about an hour by truck it was so rough.
We went one day and found good grouse hunting along that track. At the end, at the river was the set-up for what looked like an annual camp. schithouse, fire circle, hanging poles, tent site, you've seen it a hundred times.
The river had a little rapids to it then entered a nice calm lagoon type area that we thought might be nice to boat-hunt.
Well, a few days later we pumped up the inflateable and mounted the outboard and powered over to that river, removed the engine, portaged up the rapids and entered the lagoon and rowed along the shore there. Buddy dropped me off to hunt the timber on foot and he carried on to explore the other side.
In the afternoon we met up and on the way back to the lake, sure enough, somebody had come and set up camp at the campsite. We said hello and asked what did they know about the area, and what their plans were and they said that upstream of the lagoon was a wicked rapids and they wouldn't recommend anybody go there, it was tough, it was scary, there were sweepers in the river, they only did it pulling a canoe up the rapids with waders, yada yada yada. They were there to hunt and fish.
We said, oh yeah, well our buddy was arriving soon with a canoe and we'd like to take him exploring up the river later in the week.
"OH. Well. We've got three more guys coming to this camp," they said. So it was pretty obvious they were staking sole proprietary rights to the place.
We didn't go back because we had plenty of other options including our secret trick, which was that we had found access to the river several km above those guys by bucking a trail down to the river from an overgrown logging road and putting the canoe in there and drifting down to the "scary" rapids in the wide calm part of the river.
But the question is: How ethical is it to claim sole hunting rights along a river if anyone else can raft it or canoe it too?
It's kind of like camping right on a road where there is 40 or 50 km more of huntable land on the other side of the camp isn't it?
Just asking. We didn't push it. There was lots of other country. We had an LEH permit and they were there for the bow-hunting season. I had a feeling they made an annual trip of it.
I had to leave for work and after that my buddies got a moose each road hunting there anyway.
These things are usually won by the most stubborn. Both sides know they have no real claim.
