So waterfowl live near ....water. There is this beautiful river called the Potomac, by the way no chance old george threw anything across it, forget driver, sand wedge i'm not sure i would get across with a 30-06. Anyway its literally full of ducks, there is this duck they call a canvas back.
I had never seen on of these in Illinois, either they don't fly there or by the time they do I'm out deer hunting. Anyway these ducks are big, meaty and tasty. They are truly the best bang for the buck.
Now I have a friend, lets call him Achmed. This is not his real name but is used to protect his identity much like slug, buffalo and tater. Anyway he's a normal looking guy, perhaps even good looking but I'm a guy so how would I know. He does share his snacks in the blind so he's ok in my book, although he has a sweet browning that I have yet to shoot. Anyway he can grow this massive beard. He literally looks like a terrorist or maybe Castro but by the time hunting season ends a family of squirrels could live in it and you couldn't tell.
Im talking about something like this
Anyway Achmed, is a Virginia local and is plugged into the hunting scene. He seems to know everyone. He gets me into a friends blind. Believe it or not is can get really cold here. Not like Wisconsin but still nasty, so we go out one morning in his friends boat. Sweet boat, nice and big and we are breaking ice in the channel. We go downriver about 30min drive and come on a very sweet blind. Much better than a pimple on the butt of pistake lake we used to hunt out of in Illinois. I mean this thing has heaters and seats. His boat has a remote trolling motor and he is using it to lay out his decoys. These Virginia hunters do it right.
We get set in the blind, protected from the cold and with this awesome heater and I'm thinking that this is WAAAAY better than our Illinois hunting, boy would buffalo and tater be jealous. We sit for a long time, we get a few shots at some passers but nothing really.
Then Achmed shows me something kinda white looking across the river, I use his binos and its thousands of canvasbacks. I'm not kidding, perhaps more. They are about that 30-06 distance away I was referring to earlier. (and don't think that didn't cross my mind) So I ask the obvious question
Why aren't we shooting those ducks, there is plenty of shoreline, I don't see a single hunter over there and enough duck to satisfy my wildest fantasies.
Achmed tells me how he wants to get scuba equipment and swim under them and grab one. You see it turns out that the Potomac river is MARYLAND water, the whole thing, not down the middle like any normal river but all the way to the Virginia shore.
Absolutely, no reciprocity.
Virginia hunters are confined to the shoreline and to the rivers that feed the Potomac. That is why I'm sitting in the nicest blind watching 1000 ducks just sitting on the water. Every once in awhile they get up and fly around but nothing comes close. I think these ducks can read a map.
So no go but I have a plan, Lets get a Maryland out of state hunting license and a boat blind and go kill those ducks. The other side is basically rural and forest, no hunting competition there. So I get home and look up the rules. Guess what, you can get that license, and a boat blind but
YOU HAVE TO HAVE A MARYLAND RESIDENT IN THE BOAT AT ALL TIMES.
Now I'm on the hunt for a friend from Maryland
