Crow Busters Forum

greenv66 · Member

Run-and-Gun on a River?

gearly65 · Senior Member

Sounds like a good idea to me. Here in Northern Indiana they fly up and down the river all the time and it holds the highest concentration of crows.

8fishermen · Guru

Island Jumping is what I have heard it called. It is supposed to be a blast and very effective.

shaddart · Guru

i hunt the Mohawk River in upstate NY, & yes, we use both a canoe & our duck boat to jump around & more or less chase the birds, works well sometimes & sometimes nothing helps LOL!

Skip · Guru

green66: I have done what you describe several times and killed crows. Sure gives you access to places you might not be able to reach by land. I have never been in the winter.. as there is insufficient foliage in which to properly hide. Standing beside a tree trunk.. with the river as a backdrop..will get you "spotted" every time! But, by all means give it a try...and putting a mile between each stand...is plenty. Good luck!

skip

Kevin Burroughs · Veteran Member

It is the only way we hunt crows. We can hunt all the rivers out here below the high water mark. It makes scouting a breeze.

We use a owl in our river rig as there are a bunch of owls on the rivers and the crows show them no mercy.

shaddart · Guru

we've pretty much figured out they ignore us when we're on the water, maybe they're used to boats all the rest of the year & figure we don't pose a threat ( lots of days they're right !)

8fishermen · Guru

Check your local regs. In Mississippi you can only hunt waterfowl and squirrel from a boat and the motor must be off (no jump shooting). All other game must be taken from land.

shaddart · Guru

in NY u can't shoot waterfowl while the boat is underway, no retrictions on crows.
can't say that we've ever shot while boat was moving, just kind of hide it like we do when we hunt ducks, just don't put the blind material on it for crows

greenv66 · Member

Kevin Burroughs wrote:

It is the only way we hunt crows. We can hunt all the rivers out here below the high water mark. It makes scouting a breeze.

We use a owl in our river rig as there are a bunch of owls on the rivers and the crows show them no mercy.

Thanks Kevin. We're lucky in that on the Arkansas River the Corps of Engineers has a 100 yard easement from the normal pool mark on all water that is connected to the river.

What does the actual owl do for you? Does it keep them in the area longer or maybe keep the attention off of you? I played an owl/crow fight call on Sunday and they bombed in without paying much attention, but didn't stick around for long.

greenv66 · Member

8fishermen wrote:

Check your local regs. In Mississippi you can only hunt waterfowl and squirrel from a boat and the motor must be off (no jump shooting). All other game must be taken from land.

Not being able to shoot waterfowl from a moving boat is a federal law I believe.

We won't be hunting from the actual boat even though I do have my duck blind still on it. I'm planning on running to a spot, hiding in the trees/weeds, shooting as many as I can as fast I can and then moving on to the next spot. Hopefully no decoys, but we'll probably toss the dead birds out. We also have a few places where we've built temporary blinds up and down a 20 mile stretch of the river for duck hunting. We'll definitely be taking advantage of those as well.

-- Edited by greenv66 on Tuesday 8th of February 2011 12:44:35 AM

Splash One · Senior Member

I was gonna say.. duck boats with a pull up duckblind covered in fastgrass would be an awesome hunting platform...

Kevin Burroughs · Veteran Member

We use a Foxpro owl on top of a jack in the box. The owls head is on a swivel and moves randomly. We strap a Buster II crow to its feet and it looks like the owl has a crow in it's talons.

A few more dekes in the tree and on the ground and it is game on.

It is a deadly rig for us.

----------kevin-----------

jonthepain · Guru

that's a great idea; i'm going to have to try that.

skip you told me about that years ago but i plum forgot