Nilgai Poaching Operation Busted

[ACbob]

It's almost like the TP&W commission is made up of big landowners or something!

[S-3 Ranch]

It's almost like the TP&W commission is made up of big landowners or something!

Yes ! Most undoubtedly total CADS ,
I have a map of the grey area / flood zone, from a old lease contract, worth its weight in gold when dealing with a dispute
+ there’s USGS bench marks to identify the boundaries

[kyle1974]

for THAT part of the world and who the landowners are there... and what they think they own, versus what they actually own. I'm very curious to see how this all shakes out.

there have been some absolutely horrible decisions made regarding public hunting rights down there over the years, with 2 of those ranches in particular getting deals that no one else would ever get.

[GarGuy]

for THAT part of the world and who the landowners are there... and what they think they own, versus what they actually own. I'm very curious to see how this all shakes out.

there have been some absolutely horrible decisions made regarding public hunting rights down there over the years, with 2 of those ranches in particular getting deals that no one else would ever get.

You are absolutely right. Whle have no direct info on the merits of this case, I do know a couple of guides have operated down there for quite a while and the ranchers have had the red azz about it even though it was legal.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess tpwd decided to set a precedent.

[powderburner]

I have a house with a pier out into the bay. I have to pay a "tax" to the county to "lease" the air space over the pier since I am impeding the publics access to the water. If the water flows there you can not inhibit the publics access to the water. Now when the tide goes out its dry land. But I do not own the land under the water. That is the publics. I was warned years ago because I was dumping rocks at my bulk head to keep the erosion down that I could be cited for illegal dumping in the bay because I was putting trash illegally in the public water way.

This sounds like someone ****** off the wrong person one to many times and well they got legal involved. That never ends with happy people and more access to anything.

[Hardware]

It's the "Golden Rule" and just part of life.

I've know a few that use airboats and take 4 wheelers and i would never take them up on offer to hunt. Yes they kill animals in the tidal salt flats but they also abuse the rules and push onto private land and kill. A few bad apples ruin the opportunity for the rest of us because they cant control themselves and obey the laws.

[RiverRat1]

There's really no grey area. If it's tidal flats, it's public. The landowners and their cronys at TPWD just don't like it.

Just make it illegal to hunt tidal flats. Easy. Don't allow hunting of riverbanks either. Not sure what the big deal is as it's not like you can just hunt any public land anyway.

[S-3 Ranch]

for THAT part of the world and who the landowners are there... and what they think they own, versus what they actually own. I'm very curious to see how this all shakes out.

there have been some absolutely horrible decisions made regarding public hunting rights down there over the years, with 2 of those ranches in particular getting deals that no one else would ever get.

That’s going to be a tough nut to crack, because they own the district court, Jp court , commissioner courts,sheriff’s department,and have 3-4 game wardens that live on those two ranches, and basically everyone else works for them who live there

[Slew]

Just make it illegal to hunt tidal flats. Easy. Don't allow hunting of riverbanks either. Not sure what the big deal is as it's not like you can just hunt any public land anyway.

you pretty much can’t hunt riverbanks anymore anyhow. Had a guy on the boat last week that has a fat ticket and a court date for hunting in the red river. Said the Oklahoma GW lit em up cause the landowners were tired of Texas folks hunting around there. He said they were in the water or sandbars the whole time but the GW told them it belongs to the landowner to the middle of the river. Big folks with big money screwed up duck hunting everywhere else for normal folks. Guess that ones done too. I remember landowners fencing off public lakes out west and claiming you were trespassing being in a public lake bed. How they never make them pull the fences blows my mind but I bet they’re still there!

[kyle1974]

That’s going to be a tough nut to crack, because they own the district court, Jp court , commissioner courts,sheriff’s department,and have 3-4 game wardens that live on those two ranches, and basically everyone else works for them who live there

yep. you're absolutely right, and I have a friend that found out the hard way about that court ownership. the ranch tells the judge "they trespassed and that's our property:" and that's basically the end of it.

[kyle1974]

Just make it illegal to hunt tidal flats. Easy. Don't allow hunting of riverbanks either. Not sure what the big deal is as it's not like you can just hunt any public land anyway.

that's the only public hunting down here for the most part and that's the only opportunity a lot of people have. People have been duck hunting and deer hunting spoil islands for decades. it's public. we need to protect that.

Maybe what should happen is a bureaucrat with a set tells those 2-3 ranches, "this is public land", and that's the end of it. instead of giving them even more sweet heart, giving away what little public land we actually have.

if people break the law, nail them. but this is a rare place of the world where a landowner is getting to determine what happens on public land that's in their area, that they don't own.

when you see kids riding bicycles with a bag of decoys slung over their shoulder.. it makes you sentimental about having this public hunting resource down here.



right now, my oldest son dealt with some BS near port aransas because people that live in an area THINK because they live close to some spoil islands, they should have the right to determine what people do there. They call the game wardens consistently. the game wardens come out, and have told my son and his buddies, "this is legal to hunt, but I'd appreciate it if you stopped hunting here because I don't like getting the calls"

sorry buddy. the right answer is to explain to karen and bob from Massachusetts that this is texas, and we do things differently.

[S-3 Ranch]

yep. you're absolutely right, and I have a friend that found out the hard way about that court ownership. the ranch tells the judge "they trespassed and that's our property:" and that's basically the end of it.

Yep both a Bench trial or a tainted jury pool trial is pretty much a lost cause .
and the foundations , trust and church have a direct connection to Austin and Washington DC

[Muddy Bud]

Thought Texas had an advocacy group for public land hunters. I may be wrong and thinking about another state since public land here, especially in South Texas is extremely rare. I don’t necessarily hunt public anymore other than ducks. I feel if they keep over stepping and no one is standing in their way, duck hunting eventually will be stripped from us as well. Before you know it they’ll impose a 100 yard buffer from any land mass while fishing in a boat.

[kyle1974]

Thought Texas had an advocacy group for public land hunters. I may be wrong and thinking about another state since public land here, especially in South Texas is extremely rare. I don’t necessarily hunt public anymore other than ducks. I feel if they keep over stepping and no one is standing in their way, duck hunting eventually will be stripped from us as well. Before you know it they’ll impose a 100 yard buffer from any land mass while fishing in a boat.

a few years ago, the island POA tried to implement something like a 1 mile distance from any structure that would prohibit hunting within that zone. I did the math (google earth) and it would have stripped about 30,000 acres of public hunting land from people. fortunately it didn't go anywhere, but the sentiments remain, I'm sure.

[bloodtrailer28]

Just make it illegal to hunt tidal flats. Easy. Don't allow hunting of riverbanks either. Not sure what the big deal is as it's not like you can just hunt any public land anyway.

Yea let's just take away more hunting rights from us that's the answer . It's a big deal to alot of people and alot of texas residents.