Fishing during rifle seasons

[jifigz]

Was he actively hunting at the time or just going about his business in another activity?

He was hunting, but he wasn't a kid that really loved hunting, either. So yes, he had orange on and a rifle in his hands. His family has a camp near Greenwood Furnace State Park. It was actually his neighbor, whose family also belongs to the camp and went hunting there, that shot him. They figure the neighbor was about 150 yards away or so and never knew my friend was there. The bullet just didn't hit anything until it hit my buddy in the arm.

Talk about bad luck.

 

[Tigereye]

For those who don't fish during rifle deer season. THANK YOU. Attached is graph of PA hunting accidents. I'm sure it's out there some where but a cursory look for self inflicted vs mistaken for game wasn't found. This chart appear to combine them. Of note is that the inception of hunter ed and mandatory fluorescent orange (ca 1979-80) marks a precipitous drop in accidents.

 

[BradFromPotter]

Asking this as someone who has never hunted. How do you approach fishing in areas shared with hunters especially during bear and deer rifle seasons. Do you avoid totally? Proceed with caution wearing proper amount of blaze orange?

For those of you that hunt is seeing others in the woods such as hikers or fisherman common or do you wonder why in the heck are they out there?

Not talking about on game lands or private property but other public areas like state parks, state forests, national forest etc

I’ve never trout fished much until after rifle season so wasn’t sure of the proper etiquette.

I think you should start hunting!

 

[PennKev]

I don’t fish during rifle season usually. Those guys only get two weeks a year to hunt, and I get 52 to fish. Don’t want to be messing up their hunt in any way.

If I do fish, it’s in an area where hunting isn’t allowed. I probably haven’t fished during rifle season in many years though. Catch up on projects around the house, watch football, whatever.

Edit: I start wearing blaze orange when archery opens up in Sept, and wear it all the way through the late season closing in the following calendar year. I just have an orange ball cap, and beanie, and switch between the two depending on the weather.

My thoughts exactly.

I try to steer clear of areas that are probably being hunted in archery season also. I bow hunt, and let me tell you, if you've ever had someone disturb the water you are fishing or let their dog swim in front of you, the feeling is much worse when someone ruins you hunt. Even if you are fishing a Sunday, your presence could be screwing up someone's hunt in the coming week.

Deer seasons, both rifle and archery, are not the time to be taking deep dives in the brush to fish some **** trickle. There are often discussions on this board about pissing off landowners and losing access to posting. Keep this in mind when you walk up to a guy in his tree stand when you are out chasing your 4" gemmies.

 

[moodyblues]

Asking this as someone who has never hunted. How do you approach fishing in areas shared with hunters especially during bear and deer rifle seasons. Do you avoid totally? Proceed with caution wearing proper amount of blaze orange?

For those of you that hunt is seeing others in the woods such as hikers or fisherman common or do you wonder why in the heck are they out there?

Not talking about on game lands or private property but other public areas like state parks, state forests, national forest etc

I’ve never trout fished much until after rifle season so wasn’t sure of the proper etiquette.

As a hunter, as well as a fisherman, hiker, and bike rider, I have never let hunting season curtail any other activities during hunting season. I would certainly give anyone wearing orange a wide berth as a courtesy. There's a reason they post areas with signs that say: HUNTERS WEAR ORANGE, SO SHOULD YOU! That being said, a little discretion, courtesy, and commonsense go a long way, I've had bad experiences with all of the above while hunting and fishing. I usually worry more about the fools on the road that I encounter getting to and from said activities, than I do hunters.

 

[wgmiller]

For those who don't fish during rifle deer season. THANK YOU. Attached is graph of PA hunting accidents. I'm sure it's out there some where but a cursory look for self inflicted vs mistaken for game wasn't found. This chart appear to combine them. Of note is that the inception of hunter ed and mandatory fluorescent orange (ca 1979-80) marks a precipitous drop in accidents.

Pretty impressive statistics right there!

 

[jifigz]

I think you should start hunting!

I agree. Hunting is freaking cool.

 

[DomR]

He was hunting, but he wasn't a kid that really loved hunting, either. So yes, he had orange on and a rifle in his hands. His family has a camp near Greenwood Furnace State Park. It was actually his neighbor, whose family also belongs to the camp and went hunting there, that shot him. They figure the neighbor was about 150 yards away or so and never knew my friend was there. The bullet just didn't hit anything until it hit my buddy in the arm.

Talk about bad luck.

Or good luck that it only winged him.

Worse out here in NJ, that's why when my dad lost access to the property that him and my uncle used to hunt he basically quit. He was afraid to hunt public land. Also why I never learned to deer hunt, that does bum me out.

 

[Swattie87]

To clarify, I don’t fish during rifle season not because of a fear of safety, but because I want to respect rifle hunters who only get to do what they love in the woods for two weeks. Don’t want to get in their way and potentially screw something up for them.

I look at archery season a little differently. First, it’s a much longer season, two seasons actually. Second, there are far, far less archery hunters out there than rifle hunters. You’re much less likely to run into an archery hunter in the woods during archery season than a rifle hunter in rifle season. Therefore, it’s much less likely you’re gonna mess up an archery hunter’s hunt, simply because you’re less likely to run into one at all. I still fish as normal during archery, just wearing my blaze orange as noted above.

FWIW also, I’ve run into archery hunters exactly twice fishing. Once was in a SGL parking lot. Two guys arrived right as I was locking my vehicle and was ready to start hiking. We chatted a bit and it turned out they planned to walk the trail as far as I was to where I was gonna start fishing, and then hike up a hollow they planned to hunt. We walked together and chatted along the way. Me asking archery questions and them asking fishing questions.

The second, and only time while actually actively fishing, was in late archery, when there’s even less hunters in the woods. It was in a large state park. I had parked at a lot within the park (only vehicle in the lot), and walked about 3/4 mile down a gated road to where the stream I wanted to fish, crossed that gated road. About 3/4 mile upstream from there is the eastern park boundary, which happens to be an interstate highway. My plan was to fish to that boundary, then hike back the way I came. Anyway, I got to within about 100 yards of the highway and could see that there was a big culvert pool there that looked good. Right about then I got that feeling I wasn’t alone. Looked up, and the archery hunter in a tree stand right above me said “hi, how ya doin.” I felt horrible, and immediately apologized and said if I knew you were in, I would have never fished up through. I asked if he parked on the highway by chance and came in that way. He confirmed he did, and was super nice, and said there was no way for you to know I was in here from the way you came in. It’s public land, we gotta share it. Super nice guy. I wished him well and hiked out, and came back after the season was over in February and fished that culvert pool. It had an 11” male Brookie in it.