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Post by esshup on Dec 3, 2019 23:17:18 GMT -5
A client has had trespassers fish all the largemouth out of his 1 pond, and also stock channel catfish in that same pond, and stock Hybrid Bluegills in 2 other ponds. One of my customers had that happen to him they took almost every fish out of his pond while he was at work guy had a ton of money in his fish he feed them daily with a auto feeder he had huge bass and bluegill in it. He went out to refill the feeder normally he said fish would swarm it this time they didn’t so he went and got a poll said he couldn’t catch anything they never did catch who ever did it Ditto. We saw footprints one day but didn't put 2 and 2 together until 3 years later when we did an electro shock survey of the pond. He had someone stock a few Largemouth in a pond a number of years back. At the time it only had Redear, Yellow Perch, Golden Shiners, Papershell Crayfish and Fathead Minnows. It was going to be stocked with Smallmouth Bass. I drew that pond down 50% and hit it with Rotenone to push the reset button. The largemouth that were stocked were 13 1/2" in length, and there were only 2....... No way could they have grown up in that pond, we would have seen them chasing baitfish in the shallows. He called both the Sheriff and the Conservation Officer for that county and filled out a piece of paper saying he would prosecute any trespasser that was caught, and also put me on the list of people that could call them for a trespasser and press charges. He's an absentee landowner and I keep an eye on the place when they aren't out. That was a few years ago, so far he hasn't had any more problems, at least none that we know about.
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Post by subzero350 on Dec 4, 2019 13:36:42 GMT -5
My dad bought swamp and woods property 40+ years ago and did nothing with it for 25 years. Then we decided one year we were going to try hunting deer on it. Showed up one day to do some scouting and found one neighbor was burning their leaves on it and another neighbor (related the the leaf burner) admitted to frequently mushroom hunting the property. Dad wasn't too happy and let them know it + kicked them off. Probably not the approach I would have taken, but it wasn't my property. Anyway, we put up stands and the mushroom hunter decided he was going to ride his very loud ATV up and down an adjacent road opening morning of shotgun shortly after legal hunting hours started. Then, later that season, one of our tree stands was stolen. Never found out who did it but we have a pretty good idea. The ATV riding continued most of that season but tapered off as time went on.
Things calmed down after a few years and we discovered the mushroom hunter was arrested for dealing meth. Been hunting the same property since (about 15 years) and haven't had an issue in a long time except with the hunters on the other side (long story - but suffice it to say they weren't happy we set up shop to intercept the deer coming onto their property from ours).
More to the point of this discussion - if you let people walk on you they will do just that. I believe the troubles we had early on, hunting dad's swamp and woods, were an attempt by the neighbors to discourage us from hunting our own property. Once all parties involved figured out we weren't giving up, they left us alone and the trespassing seems to have stopped.
I did make use of some trail cams early on but was fearful they would be stolen. However, I found that if you hung them high in a tree, they may not be noticed - and even if they were, the likelihood they would be stolen was low since it would require a ladder to retrieve them. The only downside to mounting a camera high up in a tree besides the obvious (needing a ladder to check memory cards) is you only get a downward picture angle which doesn't always capture the face of a trespasser.
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Post by tynimiller on Dec 4, 2019 15:12:34 GMT -5
However, I found that if you hung them high in a tree, they may not be noticed - and even if they were, the likelihood they would be stolen was low since it would require a ladder to retrieve them. The only downside to mounting a camera high up in a tree besides the obvious (needing a ladder to check memory cards) is you only get a downward picture angle which doesn't always capture the face of a trespasser. Yeah I've started hanging a couple where if you carry a simple climbing stick section it is well out of reach of a common man and I've also stopped using straps on some cameras and slowly transitioning the screw in types...just remember to unscrew and move a touch so tree can heal and not engulf em.
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