The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1959-01-16
WlLDFOWL HUNTING
SEASON CALLED BY
MANY. WORST ONE
Old Geese Considered Too Wise
TO Get Shot; Business
Spread Out Thin

dDouC the poor WlldfOWl season
which ended Thursday, January
18th in North Carolina, and which
ended earlier this week in Vir-
GINA, where the season is reported
as among the poorest.
The seq son started off in great
style, and with large attendance
on opening day, and in the vicin-
ity of Lake Mattamuskeet where
is largest concentration of hunt
ers there was hardly room to ac-
commodate all sportsmen who
wanted to shoot.
The season started off too, with
arrests of upwards of 100 persons
charged with shooting over baited
areas. Many guides in Hyde Coun-
ty today will tell you the adver-
Using from the arrests, frightened
away many sportsmen and cost
the hunting industry many thous-
ands of dollars in business.
The game enforcement officers
said the arrests were made on or
. ders from high up because of a
situation that had grown out of
hand, due to allegations of wide
spread disregard for laws against
batting.
In some instances, game war
dens declared that farmers had
gone and broadcast additional
grain about their blinds after
fowl had exhausted before the sea-
sons opening what had been left
from the crop harvest. Apparent
ly, following the arrests, there
was little REVIVAL of feed on for
'mer baited areas, and this too is
considered to have operated in
favor of some other hunting areas
where there is no available feed
from agricultural crop residue.
The unusual amount of birds on
Hatteras and Ocracoke islands is
believed to have resulted from
Tack of the usual feed on the Hyde
mainland causing wildfowl to for
age afar from their accustomed
haunts. No less an authority than
Federal Game Warden Bob Hal
stead of Washington believes there
is some weight in this theory.
At any rate, on Hatteras Island,
there has been reported the best
:, season in some time, and w. D.
Lewark at Mirlo Lodge near Ro-
danthe, says hunting has been ex-
ira good. This location adjoins
the Pea Island bird refuge, which
offers some advantages, for bird
population has been heavy on the
refuge this year, perhaps result
ing in heavier flights across adj
joining areas on the usual blustery
days considered best for hunting
purposes in this section.
Despite reports of poor sea-
son by many persons catering to
wildfowl hunting on the Hyde
mainland in the Mattamuskeet
area, there are on the other hand,
many guides and lodges which
have had more business than they
could handle all through the sea-
son. Some of these have been in
business several years and have
established top regulations. Those
hunting preserves which have been
well-managed, where over-shootlng
has not been allowed, and where
adequate lay-periods are observed,
are already known far and wide
to a long established clientele OF
the most profitable kind. They en-
joy good business booked up
months ahead of the opening Of
the season.
Many good reports have come
from Ocracoke Island, and the
Hatteras area, but in both areas,
there are fewer persons each year
who cater to the wildfowl hunting
business. This is due to the short
seasons, and in that many of the
persons best qualified at this work
have become engaged in other per-
manent occupations and are loath
to abandon their usual tasks to
assume the expensive hunting bus
mess for mere two-months sea-
son which has, of course, the
strong element of risk.
Some sections of Currituck
County report good hunting, but
in most places reports are of an
unsatisfactory season.
When guides and hunters be-
come frustrated because of failure
to get good sport; their bag linz
it's or better, many devices and
excuses are employed to explain
away this poor luck. According to
q principal argument used these
days, all geese now remaining
alive are old wise and wary birds
who know better than to get with
in gunshot. Hunters can't hit the
birds, and say they are old and
wise, and keep just far enough
away. OF course some of the dis
appointed ones are poor shots.
If the argument is sound, it
then appears there has been too
I careless slaughter of all the young
birds; being that all. Of them are
"about killed Off" One important