VA duck blind laws?
 

I went and got a licence to build a blind on a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay near my home and whileI was out building it a guy came out in a jon boat and told me I had to tear it down because it was in his private oyster grounds.I am a good distance off from his shoreline and and VDGIF issued me the blind licence based on my GPS coordinates. The blind regs make no mention of shellfish grounds just riparian owner's rights.Wouldn't Game and inland fisheries knowif the guy had private shellfish ground? Is there even such a thing? Since this guy(who is the riparian owner) had not staked a blindand VDGIF issued the licence I assumedI could put one in front of his shore.His house is a couple hundredyards down the shore from whereI am building my blind,andI am 100 yards off shore. Does this guyhave a legitimate claim orishe just trying toprevent me from building a blind in the public waters in front of his shoreline which based on the regulations asI read them I have the right to do?

RE: VA duck blind laws?
 

I would contact a local Game Warden and ask him to accompany you to your proposed location to make certain. They are public officers and should help you. If you are legal that other guy is in the begining stages of hunter harrasment.

RE: VA duck blind laws?
 

I didn't have to call the game warden the warden called me. Apparently one of the guy'sneighbors wholives down the shore at least 400 yards had called them complaining about my blind because she doesn't want to listen toanyone shooting ducks out there. The Warden said he knew this woman well because she complains every time someone builds a duck blind in that river. He said she had even filed a lawsuit several years ago to try and get a duck blind that isover a mile from her house removed because shesaid "itblocks her view of the bay."

The warden said he is coming out there to make sureI am legal and said he thoughtI probably was, but suggestedI find another place to hunt because he saidI will have nothing but trouble with them because they don't wantanyone shooting ducks out in front of theirmulti-million dollar waterfront homes.

RE: VA duck blind laws?
 

Well seems like you have some of the same problems I have on my home lake. People think the own the whole dern thing. Now you have to decide wether you want to hunt there and put up with the BS or move... Its terrible it comes to petty things like this.