Figured you all would get a kick out of this. It wasn't funny to me while I was going through it, but now I can look back and laugh

Last week I spent some time in South Florida crossing some more ducks off of the bucket list. I have a friend down there and I hunted with him most of the week. The plan was to hunt with him 4 days and then take a guide trip for 3 days. I don't ever do guided hunts because I'm perfectly able of killing ducks on my own, but in this case I was going after a duck that can be near impossible to track down so I needed the knowledge of a guide that kills them daily. The duck is a fulvous whistling duck.

So I hunt 4 days with my friend and we do great. I shoot my first mottled ducks and black belly whistling ducks, two species I had never shot. Also shot a pile of teal. Just really had a great time.

Then comes time for the guide trip. This guide came highly recommended for fulvous and is the only guide around killing them consistently. Many many positive reviews from across the country. I text him Thursday and ask for the address to the lodge (lodging included in cost of the trip). He responds and says just stay in the guest bedroom at his house because we were going to be driving a little bit and I could ride with him to save fuel. Perfect, no problem. I arrive Thursday night and carry my things in, nice place, everything is good. We wake up to hunt Friday morning and drive to a small public lake. The lake has a dike that separates it from a WMA that is draw permit only and hunted 1 day a week. He pulls the boat onto the edge of the dike and we sit there. He claims this is the flight path they take and it could happen at any time. We sit there from day light until dark with no fulvous flying over.

The next day the game plan is the same, except today the WMA next to us is being hunted, so theoretically they should be flying. We sit there until lunch time with no shots fired and no fulvous in range. He says lets pull the boat out and go to another spot. Sounds great to me. Next spot is very similar, but on the other side of this dike there is a no hunting safety area. We get there and see fulvous on the other side of the dike. We sit there for 30 minutes or so and he says okay, lets go shoot one. Yes, he meant off of the no hunting area....I declined and we waited until dark and none flew over. On the ride home I'm told that he and his girlfriend broke up the night before, and she has put all of our things on the back porch. My stuff and his stuff. We get to the house and my bag is out there, but several things were still inside. My phone charger, boots, shower stuff etc. The kicker is all of my ducks from earlier in the week were in the freezer in the house....

The girl is gone and she has locked the place up and thrown out the hide-a-keys. She has blocked him on her phone, so he gives me her number and I text her asking to let me in to get my stuff. She blocks me too.

At this point I ask what the plan is for tomorrow. With a straight face, being completely serious he says we are going to take a suppressed 22 and shoot a fulvous off of the safety no hunting area. But if the game warden comes, he tells me to throw the suppressor in the lake because it is not legal. He says after I shoot I have to run as fast as possible to get the duck, but it is deep so I will have to swim, and then run back to get the boat so we can get out of dodge. After determining he wasn't joking, I told him to cancel the rest of my trip and get my stuff out of the house, I'm going home. I have no interest in shooting a duck off of a no hunting area with a 22. That's like shooting a buck at night with a spotlight. If I can't do it the right way I won't do it at all.

So I leave to go find a hotel room while he is trying to get in touch with her through friends. I go to 4 hotels before I find one with anything open and the only open room is a suite at the Holiday Inn. $254 later I had somewhere to stay the night. This is about 9pm by the time I get in the hotel room.

I call him a couple times an hour until almost 2am when he calls me and says he got my stuff. I got my ducks, slept a few hours, and then drove back home to NC.

The moral of the story is that if you are hiring a guide ask the tough questions before booking. Don't just ask about what they have been killing or what their success rate is. Ask about how they are killing the birds they are killing. If their results are too good to be true, they probably are

Sorry this happened. I think I would of broke into the house and got my stuff...

Money sure can bring out the worst in people, atleast you didn't drown trying to retrieve an illegally shot duck.

It won’t be long before he is caught!! I’m glad you weren’t with him when the shoe falls!!!

He and 5 clients were ticketed last season. Found that out from him, never came up in conversation with any of his previous clients that recommended him

The really amazing thing to me is that a guide would risk his license to poach ducks with somebody he doesn't know. I wonder why he didnt train a dog to go in there and flush the birds to see if one would fly over you? he could do that without the hunter ever being any wiser. maybe his girlfriend was the dog handler?

Because 13 foot long alligators are very common there. A dog would make a nice snack

That sounds like a disaster.
It’s amazing what a man will do for a duck. I know. I’m an addict as well. Not a life lister or whatever, just like to chase them.

Sorry that happened to you!

I quit chasing ducks in 86' when a friend our boat shot and sunk a beaver.

I've been a Beaver addict ever since that day. With Traps.

Lol ... thats great

I've only been on a few guided hunts, but bit sounds like just about every one of them. Most guides speak with forked tongue.

But he wants you to swim out there for a duck???...
It is a funny story if it's not you it happened too. I'm glad u can laugh about it now, I'm not sure I could yet.
I know several locals that have or do guide deer hunters around here and let's just say I can't believe anyone would pay them to take them hunting. I'm sure there are some great guides out there but I've seen plenty that are more interested in getting the $ than providing a good hunt. I'm guessing a lot of out of staters just don't know what a quality hunt is like in an area they have never hunted....???

This a fantastic hunting story! Big shout out

I worked for a guide some when I was young. Elk deer bear and lion. i came away with a different view. Some of the hunters were just that. a lot were just spoiled from childhood on. Really thought they were special. I don't have the personality for it. Things have changed a lot since then. lots of people can afford a guided hunt now. People didnt have as much play money back then.

FWIW guy I worked for was strict about obeying the law. Biggest problem were the guys that wanted you to shoot for them. They just wanted the "trophy" to brag on. My employer said shooting for them caused more loss of business than not. Said no way the guy you shot that elk for ever wanted his buddies to meet you and find out he didnt do the shooting. Then there were the guys that did not hire a guide but would buy a deer. Didnt have to be bragging size. Buddies were with them. They were drinking and - and need a couple deer so their wives wouldn't catch on.

takes all kinds to make a world I guess

I like knowing when I hunt or trap I did it myself. Success or failure.

coondagger2, I suspect your enough of an outdoorsman to watch those ducks when you get a chance, find your own legal strategy

I agree Danny. I hunted with 2 of their other clients on Saturday. It was clear these guys had never been on a hunt in their life that wasn't guided. They were all for shooting one with a 22. The majority of people paying for a guided hunt do not care one bit about how they get the animal they are after. They just want the trophy. I am not one of those people, but it's clear that the majority of his clients must be that way

If I draw a permit I am headed back this weekend. Already have it figured out on how I can legally kill one just need to draw a leftover permit

Sounds like the GF made a good choice dumping his sorry butt.

Not true. I've been guiding hunters for 35 years now, and unethical hunters are rare. They do exist but they are rare. Sorry you got stuck with a bum. Hopefully you went right to the closest fish and game office and reported him.

I've always advised guys looking to book a hunt to forget about references. Its a waste of your time. They can easily be faked.

Did you consider calling the game warden?

I have considered calling the game warden. We were actually checked the first night of hunting. No tickets but the game warden asked lots of questions and even pulled me aside and asked questions to me directly while the guide loaded the boat.

Calling the game warden and telling him this story would not change anything, he would have to catch him in the act to ticket him. With only a couple days left of duck season it is probably a moot point

I was wait on some one to ask this question. I bet the Florida game commission gets quite a few calls because of this post.

Good to read and I’m glad your chuckling about it.
Whole lot better than some who come crying poor me.

Osky

Was the mad girlfriend hot?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Osky

Maybe ya coulda texted the girlfriend that ya had a $254 suite.

Not hot enough to put up with her level of crazy. There is a bar graph somewhere that shows a correlation between hotness and crazy. Her level of hotness did not justify her level of crazy

Besides the fact I am about to be a married man, my number was blocked!

I would have talked to a warden about it. But, to be clear, I'm not criticizing you for how you handled it.

Seems like it would be an easy sting to set up...even if it had to wait until next year.

I just absolutely hate the "guides" behavior and I have no sympathy for people who so recklessly break game laws.

HA! Got ya.
Congrats on the upcoming nuptials!

I know a guy about to go on a guided trip, I’ll ask how theirs went. Never taken a guided duck hunt, but I haven’t heard a good review yet from those that have.
I thought I’d risked it all on my Gould’s trip to Mexico, but that was an awesome trip that I had saved a ton of money for and tipped the guide, cooks, butler, and cleaning lady and sons (the guides wife and kids) all VERY well.
Even in the middle of the Sierra Madres with no electricity other than a generator, it was an awesome hunt and stay. I went expecting to lose weight and gained. The food was plentiful and outstanding.

I Agree

now the story comes out.

So is the Florida game and fish Department have recovery in the tickets they issue ?

You an Bernie have a heck of a time with “guides”
I’m curious how many horror stories their are about guided trips

This is only the second ever guided hunt I have been on, first time I’ve had a problem. Have seen many horror stories though


Are you asking if they take your birds if they write you a ticket? The answer in this case is yes. Those birds are the evidence in court. The 5 clients that got tickets last season all had their birds seized

Are you sure this was FL and not East Texas because this sounds like a Savell guide service lol

... yeah... I thought the guy was going above and to satisfy his customers...probably getting tired of pompous ingrates like Smiley here lol

You call it above and beyond, I call it a felony….Lol

.... how much money you spend on this nonsense Smiley ?.....I might can put you on duck you ain’t shot yet for the right price .. send me a picture of what it looks like lol

That Matrix was very Funny^^^

Sounds like the warden was wise to this guy just needing to catch him in the act. Good thing you declined the pot shot as you probably had an audience.

I do believe you have grounds for full refund and expenses.

Hopefully you get your duck someday! At least for now you have a good story to tell, and it might be a better memory than when you actually kill your duck.
Isn’t there some places in Texas that they target the Fulverous?

I've worked as a guide for years. I learned real quick the hunters you want are the upper working class guys. The union workers, small business owners, cops, etc. The guys who have to work for their money and save up for the trip. They tend to be more focused on the hunt rather than simply taking home the trophy. They are (as a general rule, there are always exceptions) much better to deal with than the entitled rich guys, and they usually tip better also.

It always amazes me the guides/outfitters who will do blatantly illegal stuff with full knowledge of the clients. It is well known that practically every state has either undercover Fish and Game officers book hunts and attempt to get the guide to do or tell them to do something illegal; or offers incentives to private individuals that book hunts to do the same.

Don't hesitate to talk to the warden as these investigations sometimes go on for over a year before they drop the hammer . My cousin has one going on right now with an outfitter trespassing and baiting on him and this is over one year into the matter at hand.

I'm not aware of anywhere in Texas with a huntable population of them, but I could be missing out.

Heck, the place to go would be mexico, but I want to shoot my 41 in the US

Lot of things you can get in Mexico easier..... Savell would be a good guide too

This place says they get them.... occasionally. https://www.getducks.com/ushunts/texas-duck-hunting-gulf-coast-redheads/

So,,the night you showed up,,him and his girlfriend broke up?What did you do to make that happen? LOL

I've hunted the Texas coast around Laguna Madre and Corpus for the last 8 years or so and I haven't ever seen one there. Black bellies yes but never fulvous. Thank you for the help though! I'm sure there are a couple here and there but I'm not sure if there are enough to plan a trip specifically for them. I know exactly where I need to be in Florida but unfortunately I didn't get drawn for a permit in that place this weekend


The next night after I showed up they broke up, I'm not sure what happened

I’ve known guys to harvest them in Texas but it must be mostly accidental, I just checked thru a bunch of Texas birding records and while they breed in Texas and are seen somewhat regularly all summer there are only a handful of winter sightings every year. Those birds must migrate to Mexico.

I'm sure they do. I know they kill them by the truckload in Mexico.

There is definitely a huntable population in Florida, but you will not find them in heavily trafficked/hunted areas. They are smart. I was sent a pin for a spot with hundreds of fulvous on it in an STA. Just couldn't draw a permit for this weekend. I applied and also got my fiance to apply with her account and we both went 0 for 3