The formal rules and legal restrictions that govern the consumption of our shared natural resources are clear and rarely change, but there are many more unwritten guidelines, established by common consent, that are just as important.
From our earliest days in the woods or on the water, in hunting and boating education classes, at the heels of the mentors so many of us were fortunate to have, we’ve been taught the specifics of what is and isn’t generally allowed by law in the outdoors. Some limits are easily remembered, others we know to check specifically for the place we’ll be fishing or hunting. We’ve learned to ask ourselves if the lake we’ll be on has a limit for crappie, or a slot length in which bass must be immediately released. We know the daily limit on doves is 15 and squirrels, in the fall, is 8. We know specific duck limits are apt to change every year, so we refresh ourselves before we head to the blind, maybe even print out the combinations if we anticipate a mixed bag.
The outdoors belong to all of us, and access to almost every season and game is no more than an over-the-counter license and a little legwork away. How we share our resources with one another leaves a lot of questions up in the air, though. Through practice and common courtesy, some things are passed down through generations and should be taught to each new generation of enthusiasts in turn. Here are a few a survey of friends brought first to mind:
Honoring permission
If you’re fortunate enough to get standing permission to hunt or fish on someone’s property, even though you’re told you don’t have to ask before you go, make a point to call or at least text each time anyway. Someone who is sharing their place with you is trusting you to treat it with respect, and respecting the permission you’ve received by thanking the giver for it every time it’s used goes a long way.
Needless to say, take extra care to leave everything at least as good as you found it. Pick up any trash you find, even if you didn’t drop it. Leave closed gates closes and open gates open and, at least once a season, offer the landowner a share of the fish or game taken from their land, cleaned and ready to be cooked, if not cooked already.
Follow golden rule
Much of the best enjoyment we find in the outdoors comes through shared experiences, both during and after the fact. Taking care to treat these with conscious care can take discipline on our part. If you’ve been taken as a guest to a property by someone, that doesn’t mean you’re welcome to come back on your own, and you’re certainly not welcome to bring a third person as a guest on a property to which you’ve been introduced. The temptation can be strong and the downside relatively minor, but anyone should see how quickly the geometric expansion of guests bringing guests could get out of control.
Similarly, whether on private land to which you’ve been invited, club land you pay to use or public land we all share, when you know a hunting buddy has been after a specific deer or turkey in a given area, take extra care not to crowd him or interfere in what’s going on, especially if he or she has told you about the close calls that have happened or shared trail photos collected through the years. Most of the “I’ve been hunting this one three years” stories seem to end badly, and you don’t want the final tale to leave you with any share of the blame.
Mississippi has 1.6 million ares of publicly-owned land, and most of it is available for hunting. If someone is parked at a gate or trailhead and you don’t know where they are, go somewhere else. There is plenty of land and you don’t need to mess them up. It’s only logical that, if you know they’re in there somewhere and don’t know where they are, chances are much greater you’ll blow both their hunt and your own than that you’ll have a good day without interfering with theirs.
A no-call call
Because of the associated gear, invested effort and time, the limited and moveable nature of the resource and the overall enjoyability of the game, waterfowl hunting can become a high-stakes affair. Mississippi is blessed to have some of the best public water duck hunting found anywhere but, as a result, it is also some of the most hotly-competed hunting territory in the state. Groups of hunters often set up well within earshot of one another, which means they may find themselves calling to the same sets of circling birds. If a group of hunters is working a flight of ducks, don’t call to them or shoot at them as they’re passing near your setup. As long as they are showing interest in that other group of hunters, let them be.
Be ready to roll
Public boat ramps often become the most populated and busiest intersections in the state on spring and summer mornings, especially on the weekends. Especially on tournament mornings, hundreds of boaters may be trying to get their craft into the water during a rush hour that leaves any Atlanta jam in the shade. There are a few things everyone can do to make sure they don’t add to the general frustration. While you’re waiting in line for the ramp or, especially if you arrive to find the ramp momentarily open, pull to the side and get everything into the boat that needs to go. Get the battery and fuel set to go, get the rods and tackle transferred, move the extra clothes and ice chests, make sure the drain plug is secured. In short, do everything that would need to be done to allow the boat to be backed off the trailer into the water and leave all in one motion. Have small children stand on the floating dock or elsewhere out of everyone else’s way.
Your vehicle and trailer should be in and out of the ramp in seconds, not minutes. Furthermore, your passengers shouldn’t be milling around next to the vehicles making the people launching next to you nervous.
Very few people are callous toward others intentionally, but it’s very easy to step on toes at the ramp without meaning to. As with most such matters, thinking ahead can keep it from becoming a problem.
Back, back, back, gone
Backing a boat onto and down a ramp is an acquired skill, but it’s one that can be easily practiced at home. There is no shortage of advice on how to go about it but, whatever method of approach you use, it’s best to have practiced it a bit ahead of time.
The simplest rule of thumb for trailer backing may be the one that says to turn in the driver’s seat and look at the trailer out of the back of the vehicle, put your hand on the bottom of the steering wheel, then move your hand in the direction you want the trailer to go.
With this as a starting point, if you live on a street with plenty of visibility, practice backing your trailer from the street into your own driveway. If not, find a way to simulate backing the trailer through a 90 degree turn. Get a feel for how much and how soon you need to steer to get the trailer to do what you need it to do.
Doing this before you’re trying to accomplish it in the dark on a ramp with a line of others waiting while still more vehicles periodically blind you with their passing high-beams is well worth the effort.
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 39 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
