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Say it isn't so?

C

Capt Jeff

Well-known member
Copied from the Florida Duck Hunting Forum:

I got one to discuss...

Airboat operators are under huge pressure. We all know that. However, it seems to me that airboaters are airboaters worst enemies! I hunted with a buddy in the Upper St. Johns WMA last weekend and heard this actual conversation while standing amongst a dozen or so airboat operators...

"You know, these Go-Devilers are going to ruin airboating around here. It ain't but a matter of time before one of them gets run over and kilt 'cause their boat's too slow. These guys are going to ruin our heritage!"

Let me reiterate- GO DEVILERS ARE TRYING TO STEAL OUR HERITAGE! WTF

Amazingly, the other men in the group agreed!

Now, don't get me wrong, airboats are incredible tools. The ability to run dry ground as well as cover 40 or 50+ miles of wetlands in a day is very cool.

However, these guys seem to form such an exclusive little club that they feel as if the marsh belongs to them due to HERITAGE! I'm sorry, did your great-grandfather run an airboat before the civil war? What about the guys that can't use a Pirogue anymore because they stand a good chance of being run over? What about THAT heritage? I've heard the heritage argument before and I almost agreed with it. After all, it seems like most of the anti-airboat people are the same ones that can't stand the sound of a shotgun and feel like all wetlands should be shut down period. In a way, heritage is an issue, but give me a freaking break! Have other people heard this as well? What's the deal?
 
Capt. Jeff, I hear you loud and clear.

Like Cntry said on another thread, driving a car is not a right. Voting is not a right. Operating an airboat is not a right. All of the above are a God Given priviledges. This attitude may be the single thing that will be the toughest bump in the road to the recognition that airboats deserve.

Heritage? You wanna talk heritage? Our founding Fathers put their lives, their fortunes, and their futures on the line for what we have today. Unspoken, but understood among all of them was that Personal Responsibility was one of the character traits required that would allow you into that very select group of men.

BF
 
Some people have a problem with anything that someone else has, if it's not the same thing they've got. Ford Chevy Dodge.

Personally, When I see a go-devil in the marsh, we usually admire them. It's the only thing out there that even comes close to an airboat, but they have to turn around when they get to the dry mudpatches.

I think go-devils are cool, so long as there made in the USA.

They should run flags though, cause I have run up close to them before, when they suprised me running a grass trail.
 
I use dto wade fish in okeechobbee and I had to have a rag to hook on my cane pole to wave up so I didnt get run over by airboats. They should put a flag up for everyones safety BUT they have just as much right to shred the wetlands as we do to gracefully glide across them doing no harm as we go. UNless we run over one of them or a bass boat that decides to run an airboat trail without a flag. HAPPY BOUNCIN BOYS the waterways are getting crowded these days it is that time of year. Oh yeah be careful ... those go-devils come equipped with gun racks LOL I only have a frog gig and cane pole holder.
 
CNTRY,

Speaking of bass boats on airboat trails...my buddy told be a story the other day about how he watched 2 bass boats fly down Dead River from Hatchineha to Cypress. The lead boat had 2 women and the other two guys. Without even coming off plane those girls trimmed the motor up to get over the little road there at Cypress and kept on. The guys must have been scared cause they slowed way down to do the same. That can be a BAD place to run into a slow moving airboat, let alone a planing bass boat.

Adam
 
Are we our own worst enemy?
The following appeared in a Wisconsin newspaper and it was written by another sportsman NOT an anti-hunter, according to the author anyway.

http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles ... ters14.txt

December 14, 2005
Letters to the editor

Support refuge conservation plan

Like many, I am concerned that modern Americans are losing the vision of why our predecessors reserved much of the upper Mississippi River for conservation purposes.

I have become increasingly saddened by the growing intrusion of mechanized America into remote areas of the Mississippi refuge. Paddlers have been replaced first by increasingly powerful outboards with shearless pins, then by Go-Devils and Jet skis, and now by airboats.

Last summer, while canoeing with friends, we watched in horror as an airboat plowed through a Sandhill crane nesting area, scattering the adults and doing unknown damage to the young.

Equally disruptive events happened this November. While duck hunting in the Black River bottoms, I had paddled only 30 minutes before an airboat buzzed an enormous expanse of marsh and hazed several flocks of mallards and green-winged teal.

This happened multiple times in several areas during the day, leaving the impression that the backwaters now sound more like the La Crosse Municipal Airport than the wildlife refuge that it was legislated to be. Airboats are extremely noisy; their presence in backwaters is very disruptive.

It is apparent that if the current trend continues, rather than a refuge set aside for its beauty and productivity, we will have a mechanized American speedway. If we do not restrict machinery from ecologically sensitive areas of the upper Mississippi, the refuge will no longer be a peaceful, natural place. The loss will not only be to wildlife, but also to ourselves.

WILLIAM A. AGGAR | La Crosse, WI


WaterLizard 8)
 
Lizard - I would hope that the driver didn't realize that he was running through a nesting area. Ignorance is bad enough but if they were doing it for fun, then I am for de-nutting them like a young boar. Using a dull knife as well.

As for the ducks, if the airboat was just running through, then that is ok and typically ducks will come back.

However, once again, there are jerks that think that type behavior is fun and joke about it. That one STUPID act can make everyone that sees or hear about it, turn against airboaters. IF WE DON'T POLICE OUR OWN RANKS, then all public lands will be closed. So guys if you have done it in the past, don't talk about it even to other airboaters and don't do it again.

As a duck hunter, I really get steamed when guys chase flocks of ducks around. If hunting is slow and then some jerks fire up and try to stir things up. This then turns ducks hunters against airboats in the area. And everytime we are at a launch with duck hunters that have had this happen, then WE are the sorry SOB that does it. AND IT focuses game wardens to take a hard look at us. And we don't need that type attention.

They can take a person's pilot license and airplanes if they harrass waterfowl from the air. I wouldn't be surprised if they can do it with airboats.
 
shame shame shame on them that is stupid. everybody better wake up peole are watchin and making lists. real hard to get much support when this kind of action happens an dgets reported. If we get ducks unlimited going against us you can stick a fork in it, it's done.
 
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