Marking flags on WMAs...not smart

[gadwall2]

To all you guys who use marking tape to find your hunting hole while its dark---stop. All you are doing is scouting for somebody else, not to mention that you can't leave tape on the trees anyway.(I think I'm right on this)

If you go out and scout your butt off and find a great hole to shoot and mark it for easy relocation with flags or tape, don't be surprised if someone gets there before you. There are a lot of guys who don't put in the leg work and just can't wait to leach off of you.

I have been to several WMAs the past month and have seen these big "highways" to some pretty good looking holes. Everyone else who scouted those areas saw the same thing. I bet you there will be some good arguments over those holes opening morning.

The best thing to do is scout the area 3-5 times before you hunt it and learn the area. That way you don't need artificial reminders. Just use natural landmarks. Make sure you go in opening morning with back-up plans for hunting spots. I have 4 different spots to hunt on the place I am hunting, and if none of those work then I will set up in a bend in the bayou and see what happens.

[Meeka]

Besides, if you flag the way to a hole somebody else is accustomed to hunting . . . . well, you might get lost if you have to rely on the flags and stumble around in the dark trying to follow the flags with a flashlight. I have even heard about deer eating flagging!

My suggestion- do more scouting; develop better woodsmanship skills; and especially figure out how to navigate in the dark with a COMPASS!

Flagging is such an eyesore AND is prohibited in the public areas, I believe.

[MSDuckmen]

I would like to add that if you go to some of the places I go and you walk for 45 minutes through woods, marsh, thickets you will get lost without some type of marker. I hate flagging and yes it is illegal on WMA's. How ever I will start marking a trail after I have gone about a hundred yards into a swamp with bright eyes. I will stop the trail about a hundred yards short of the hunting spot.
Without a trail even the best woodsman will get turned around and spend double the time looking for the hole and will most likely walk into an area that someone else is already hunting or in circles screwing up everyones hunt that is in the general area.
I have hunted the same area for many years and have no need for markers now but I have gotten turned around even after 20 years. Fog, mist, rain high water and a number of other things make the surroundings change. Mark a trail that is not obvious and at least one marker every 100 yards to give you direction when your deep into the woods or cutover.

JMO

[Meeka]

Fog, mist, rain, high water and a number of other things do make the surroundings change, and things flat out look dif from year to year. I missed a hole a couple weeks ago by not taking the right ROAD! But that compass does not lie . . . unless you hold it next to your gun!

[MSDuckmen]

But that compass does not lie . . . unless you hold it next to your gun!

Yeah neither does a GPS but marking a trail is the ticket. Cause your going to be one pissed off hunter when you get to the starting point and figured out that you left your direction tool sitting on the bumper of your truck.
Experience talking.

[Wildfowler]

I've heard of people moving "bright eyes" and flagging tape so that they lead to a different location away from the "secret" hole. You have best know exactly where you are going.

I hate seeing that stuff out there, too.

[MSDuckmen]

I've heard of people moving "bright eyes" and flagging tape so that they lead to a different location away from the "secret" hole.

hehehe I'm one of those.

But you will not be able to follow my bright eyes cause all my markers tell me to do is when to turn and when not too. hehehe. Flagging bad! Bright eyes not so bad. Can't see them in the daylight anyway.

[Hambone]

Wildfowler, the heck with all this talk of secrecy. Why don't you tell the group where you have been and what you have been doing this week?

[Wildfowler]

What's a deer???

[Hambone]

A deer is something that doesn't quack, honk or fly. Ordinarily, people do not shoot them with shotguns, either. They are not hunted by groups of 6 hunters and except in some areas of the hill country of Mississippi, the daily bag for the group is normally somewhat less than 30 or 40. I don't think that it was deer that took you so far from home!

[judge jb]

i use to love to carry a roll of marking tape and a POSTED sign with me in the woods to pick muskidines in Sept.... lead em deep and end the trail with THE sign...... it is a hoot every time......

judge jb


i know how to make the wine, even tho i don't know how to spell it....haha

[russell]

Spend a little money and get a GPS.

[BR549]

You know I ought not say this, but any sucker that goes stomping around in the woods at 4 in the morning & does not know exactly where he's going with or without compass or g.p.s. gets exactly what he deserves. I'm one of the ones who will have to go in there and find your lost *** about 15 hours later. And I will talk bad about you after I see you are alright. Good luck to all and don't get lost in Delta National.

[laduck]

You boys got it made! If you come down here and hunt the river, it would be different. Let that good old fog roll in and it will disorientate anybody. I don't care how many times you have made the trip or if you have a GPS or not. You may find your way with a GPS, but that doesn't mean some other fool out there has one or cares if you are out there are not. Woods, thickets, and swamps are ok, stay out of the fog. Anyway, ducks don't fly in the fog. They want to see where they are going too. Jack

PS. The only good hunting in the fog is for those snows and blues. When the fog is thick, it is no longer hunting geese-it is killing geese!

[BR549]

Thank you, but I didn't say anything about being in a boat. Been there, done that. In fog best place to be is on DRY GROUND NOT THE MS.RIVER.