I have seen several posts about very large roosts in other states, most recently the interesting stories from Bob about Ft. Cobb and the Bass Pro shops in IL and NY, where there were thousands of crows reported. In the spirit of passing crow information to Forum members, a couple of days ago I posted the story about the Danville IL roost, released by the Associated Press in Chicago—not a small news organization. My posting, titled by the AP as “Coping With Crows,” has at least one Forum member concerned that such information might have a negative effect on local hunting prospects. For this I apologize.
My crow hunting situation here in SW MI is like many of you I suppose. I own no property outside of the city where I live, so I must network to find many places to rotate my hunting sites, as I have learned from you experienced Forum members.
A large flyway or roosting area would be likely be well known for more than a few miles. In the case of the Danville roost, the ones that Bob speaks of around Ft. Cobb and I imagine many others, these locations have been known for decades. Personally, I only hunt places where I can get to the set-up in 20-30 minutes and have a couple nearby if things are slow, to which I can run and gun a couple of more in one day. I would never reveal the specific location of anyone’s “honey hole” such as the pecan groves or manure spreads we’ve all enjoyed hearing about. But it seems to me that when a roost's location is published by a national news organization, that the location is less than a secret.
I posted the newspaper article because I found it very interesting and in my newfound enthusiasm for crow hunting, wanted to share it. I do not hold a “scarcity” mentality about hunting. I believe there is very likely an abundance of crows (and other critters for that matter) for all of us.
However I may have reduced someone’s opportunities for hunting by posting this article, I regret doing so, will not repeat, and once again, apologize.
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But it seems to me that when a roost's location is published by a national news organization, that the location is less than a secret.
It may not seem logical, but I disagree with the above statement 100%. I say never list hunting locations (or current roosting locations) on the open forum. Period.
Hi OA, I would have thought like you. Newspapers are fairly public.
The regulars will know anyway and out of towners will hardly get permissions. Then again I could understand that somebody is annoyed if he had a really bad experience - in a way...
Since I've hunted the Illinois roosts alot I've made a couple of comments on your other post about it but not in regards to whether or not you should put the info on the web. You are right that the roosts in that area arent exactly secret. However, I agree with BH; telling even more people isnt my idea of a good plan. Some of you may only travel 15-20 miles to hunt. That isn't the case for others; myself included. It is rare for me to hunt the area much anymore but I've still got friends that do and I don't want to ruin their hunts anymore than I want my own ruined.
Whatever positives you may think of regarding this forum it is like everyone other hunting forum for coyotes, waterfowl, etc. There are a handful of the same people that post regularly in open. A number of us post privately to each other. But I can GUARANTEE you that a vast number of people us it for scouting and to see what their competition is doing. Posting information, pictures, videos, etc that include more than what state you are located and/or arent scrubbed so that the background is deleted is plain and simple stupid as far as I'm concerned.
Several years ago I got an email from a guy informing me that I had given him good info on my crow hunting locations so that he and his son could learn how to call in and hunt crows.
All my spots have been ruined ever since. This guy has disappeared from the hunting forums that I frequent, but not the locations that I hunt, and I'd be shocked if he hasn't told all his friends and neighbors about all the fun he has educating and shooting up my favorite spots.
Some of you may remember when I used to post photo reports of my hunting and scouting forays. I never overtly revealed where I was at, but this guy only lives a few miles from me, so he was able to deduce where to go from my posts.
I thought I was being pretty cagey in my reports, but apparently I was being a dope.
I haven't posted a hunting report since. Heck, I don't even take my camera with me anymore.
What really gets me is, he never thanked me, and I've never run into him in the field. But all my spots - and I've got a pile of them around here - have been completely educated. And these are spots close to home, so I always give them a good 6 months between hunts, just to make sure I have lots of green crows to hunt.
But Noooooo.
Oh well, it's not the same without my dog going with, anyway.
In regard to Danville, the numbers of crows there that was stated in the news was is greatly exaggereated, 20 years ago the numbers they mentioned would hold true. Danville in my opinion has perhaps 18 to 20 thousand crows in residence now. Many of the crows moved due to being hazed in the city limits, thats where I have run into Big Honkers in other areas.
During the past 20 years the deer hunters have leased up a lot of ground that I used to be able to get on, not any more! Once uppon a time Danville was a pretty good place to hunt. It has been built up over the years so any birds going south are very tough to get at since it's one town after another. If they go north, west or east then you have a shot at them "if you can work around all the deer leases"
Bob A.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
Bob, did you hunt there much during the late 90's? I was living on the west side of town from something like '96-'99 if i recall correctly. We may have stumbled into each other back then.
Hello Big Black Birds, it's possible, I ran into another crow hunter once up there back in the early 1990's near a hunting club. Back then they did not get the pressure they do now.
Bob A.
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To listen to this radio talk show go to episode 12, Bob Aronsohn
If I know a guy and theres crows in his area I usually P.M. HIM, but try to be discrete with out informing guys that aren't serious "NIMRODS" Just my 2 pennies
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Don't be to hard on yourself OA. Yes these guys on here can be very secretive when it comes to roost locations. I am pretty sure that anybody that wanted to hunt that roost that saw your post already knew it was there or are not going to travel to it. Even though there are a few elitist on this forum that think this is a secret society of giant roosts and 1000 bird days there are a few of us that just enjoy the fun, shoot what we can and try not to educate any of Bobs birds before they get down to him. Besides anybody that can get on this forum is smart enough to find the national data base and see where they all are
that could have been me. before danville i was in champaign urbana from around '90-'92. i always found the birds right there at town to be finicky so i tended to work around that. its funny how hunting has changed over the years---i still consider illinois to have little deer pressure but back then it was non-existent. and now lots of that deer pressure is actually coming from outside of illinois.
