Be careful where you paddle!

I  and another NCKA were yelled at this year while kayaking on the lower Salinas river by duck hunters in sticks and reeds  piled duck blind...told to get off the river cause "they" were trying to hunt...told us we were on a closed river-had not been closed yet- and then later we got some radio traffic from another two NCKA members that were coming behind us down the same stretch and got some stray shotgun pellets bounced off one of their kayaks...I think they called them in to dfg and when dfg arrived the hunters had ran away.... pretty mean sounding idiot type that yelled at us..I was unarmed and he was armed and not 50 feet away yelling at us and ready to start trouble....bullshit

Can confirm I was the one shot at. Wasn't too fun and it really pissed me off. Short story time...

Basically I was trolling through the area on my way to meet up with a few NCKA guys I knew were closer to the mouth of the river. So I'm paddling along maybe 50 yds in front of my brother, on the opposite shore of the hunters, and I hook up. Ok all is going well except the asshole shooting literally right by me as I could hear the shot in the air. I fight the fish and land it, a 20"ish striper and after about 10 or so minutes I'm on my way to the mouth of the lagoon to make the meet up. For whatever reason I look back to the hunter across the lagoon, maybe 75 yds away, and I see a huge plume of water right in front of his decoy set. I knew what was coming and I remember thinking "oh shit look down" and I could hear the shot landing all around me and hitting the yak. It didn't have the force to penetrate anything but was clearly done intentionally as no ducks were flying. I exchanged a few choice words with the guy and paddled out 50 yds and called the DFW immediately. They arrived quickly but the guy bugged out and they never got him. Lost a few hours of fishing time but my brother stayed in the area and managed 4 fish and I landed 2 when I made it back to the spot. 

First mistake was bringing a rod to a gun fight . Second was not leaving the area when the guy that shot at me was shooting so close to me. I was hooked up though so... lesson learned.

As a lifelong hunter it really pissed me off that the guy had done that as it was obviously not an accident. I was in a red T160 in a half red dry suit so there's no way he didn't see me. The DFW took the complaint very seriously and were there in 20 min and that impressed me. In the end I will just stay west of the bridges during duck season and avoid the situation all together. No winners when someone gets shot. Was also going to post to NCKA but decided to cool off for a day an literally the next day the river was closed due to the drought.       

ok, so.... question.

for those who choose to conceal and carry, would you have shot back? cause to me, i would of just gotten the hell away ASAP.

//ed

ok, so.... question.

for those who choose to conceal and carry, would you have shot back? cause to me, i would of just gotten the hell away ASAP.

//ed

I would not have thought this would ever be a shoot situation.  It would have pissed me off also, but I am not going to escalate in this situation.

We all know the jackass was probably trying to scare him or intemidate him.  There was probably a good distance between the blind and the kayak and the blind was camouflaged.   The jackass could have accidentally shot a round and you have no idea who else is with him.   

I think calling police would be best option rather than escalating situation.

Now if shots kept coming and you thought you had to return fire to get out of there or protect your life then things could have switched easily.   

I also carry a cell phone, GPS emergency beacon, and other items in a waterproof bag just in case. And now may carry some type of bandages in case of something in first post happens and help is way off. 

Id pistol whip him.

that river is not very wideat the spot that guy was shooting by kayaks...close enough to do harm or worse for sure...and fwiw after the guy yelled I looked around(my first time there)and saw a bunch of haystack shaped piles of sticks and reeds with little camo faces...every 200 feet or so there was another stand...and the ducks or mud hen things that I had not paid attention too before that turned out to be decoys over along that bank in group per hunter station...next time I will know more and recognize my surroundings,,, kind of startled me when the bushes yelled at me the firs time 

On a funnier note;
later when myself and another kayak had made it down closer to the wider ocean end of the river there were a couple of guys in a tiny aluminum boat camo color and tiny motor that showed up...two guys filled the boat like a bathtub...they were zipping around out by and near and around us kayaks and then BOOM...they would zip over the direction they shot....flock of low flying little dark colored ducks would whizz down the river a foot off the water and off this tiny boat would zoom following them BOOM BOOM BOOM not toward us but in the same football field size area...not the relaxing kayak otw day you picture when planning a day out

I have only had one experience with duck hunters on the water and it was good.  This thread at least got me thinking about what to look for and when I may just go elsewhere for the sole reason I would not want my day screwed with.

I have been fishing when a speed boat blew by and that will irritate me. Not willing to shoot at them, so it just goes to show that others don't always do the right thing.  This is just another version of road rage.  Water rage.....who would have thought. 

Hey I almost forgot about that interaction w/the duck hunters... I am familiar with the area they set up, so I always try to transit through that area as quickly & respectfully as possible. But I stopped paddling momentarily (after assessing the situation and determining it w/b ok since there weren't any birds within sight) and that's when they started shouting at us. Normally I would wave and continue paddling but they were being jerks about it---and they were flat-out wrong. So I didn't feel bad telling them they were wrong. But I did/do feel bad afterward...knowing that they potentially took out their aggression on the next kayak to paddle by...who happened to be one of my good friends! After hearing what happened and knowing the warden was on his way, I paddled back towards the area..to see if the jerk was still there--and to see which warden was dispatched. The guy was gone, but he'll be back. Probably in the exact same spot next season. And we'll be back too. Because I'm not gonna let 1 dumbass ruin it for the rest of us smartasses

But those kids in the 8ft alum were sketchy for sure. I don't know much about the ethics of duck hunting...but I believe they were in violation...by running up on the floating ducks, which scared them & forced them into the air...at which point they'd shoot em before they were 3ft off the water. At one point, I jokingly told them "I'm herding the ducks towards you guys." But his reply "Good idea Thanks!" made me think he didn't get the joke. 

As to the topic at hand, I'm not sure we would've been safer had we been packing heat. Kayaks are sitting ducks (pun!) and I wouldn't want to engage in a firefight with someone on shore, while sitting on my kayak.

These are the guys you need to watch out for when your fishing the Salas river!

Those dude's look hella sketchy

I was laughing (to myself that is) when Pat was telling those guys they were wrong...I was thinking this guy is gonna get those hill billy dudes all fired up...first time fishing with Pat and he is telling some guys with guns to get stuffed-in a polite way- left an impression on me....meanwhile I was like okay thanks guys...have a great day-thinking-get em the F%^k  outta here...after that all bushes along the river got a close inspection from me

Hey I almost forgot about that interaction w/the duck hunters... I am familiar with the area they set up, so I always try to transit through that area as quickly & respectfully as possible. But I stopped paddling momentarily (after assessing the situation and determining it w/b ok since there weren't any birds within sight) and that's when they started shouting at us. Normally I would wave and continue paddling but they were being jerks about it---and they were flat-out wrong. So I didn't feel bad telling them they were wrong. But I did/do feel bad afterward...knowing that they potentially took out their aggression on the next kayak to paddle by...who happened to be one of my good friends! After hearing what happened and knowing the warden was on his way, I paddled back towards the area..to see if the jerk was still there--and to see which warden was dispatched. The guy was gone, but he'll be back. Probably in the exact same spot next season. And we'll be back too. Because I'm not gonna let 1 dumbass ruin it for the rest of us smartasses

But those kids in the 8ft alum were sketchy for sure. I don't know much about the ethics of duck hunting...but I believe they were in violation...by running up on the floating ducks, which scared them & forced them into the air...at which point they'd shoot em before they were 3ft off the water. At one point, I jokingly told them "I'm herding the ducks towards you guys." But his reply "Good idea Thanks!" made me think he didn't get the joke. 

As to the topic at hand, I'm not sure we would've been safer had we been packing heat. Kayaks are sitting ducks (pun!) and I wouldn't want to engage in a firefight with someone on shore, while sitting on my kayak.

Most definitely would not have done anything different with CCW. The guy was just being a dick and I never felt threatened to the point of bodily injury. Also the odds were greatly in his favor weapon and cover wise.

ok, so.... question.

for those who choose to conceal and carry, would you have shot back? cause to me, i would of just gotten the hell away ASAP.

//ed

Nope.  You only shot when your life is in danger.  I've been peppered out at Davis Lake by hunters.  Never knew if it was on purpose or not.  Sadly in life there are a few that make the rest look like idiots.

maybe it's just me but just because those idiots were being,idiots...there was no reason-it never even entered my mind that me being an idiot back at them was the answer

I have never felt like I "needed" a gun in my hand to be safe and I have been in some pretty rough deals over the years....but that is just me...to me....does not matter who has the gun...good guy or bad guy for most normal encounters...either party having one makes it 10x more squirrlly for everybody......

It had never crossed my mind that kayak fishing would need to be a carry a gun deal...and to me I dont want to be around anyone who has a gun ever

and to me I dont want to be around anyone who has a gun ever

You would be surprised how many guns are around you all the time.  That is why it is called "concealed" carry.

I think I could use the butt on a desert eagle 45 to knock out lingcod...maybe this will work