Message from the Cap’n: Saga of a Burned Duck Blind
Photo by Jack Russell. Not the duck blind described in story below …
Message from the Cap’n is a compilation of fishing advice, waterman and weather insights, Chesapeake lore, and ordinary malarkey from the folks who keep their feet wet in the Potomac and St. Mary’s rivers.
The Cap’n
Robert Lynch was a big-time waterfowl hunter in the St. Mary’s River.
He built a duck blind at Thompson’s Creek. Its location was about halfway between Carthagena Creek and Windmill Point. It was 16 feet wide by 32 feet long and was put down with pilings. It really was a nice operation. It was almost like a restaurant. If they did kill any ducks any given day they could certainly eat well. They even put the 24-foot skiff that they used to retrieve the ducks they shot underneath the blind. It was a nice setup.
They hunted there for years and years.
Cap’n Lynch had a lock on the door but that didn’t keep people out, and a certain group of the local young fellows would bring the girlfriends out there and have a good time. It just so happened, during one of those good times the duck blind ended up getting burned down.
Fuzzy Knott (now deceased) was working down at St. Mary’s College, and he heard these fellows who were working down there also bragging about burning this duck blind down after all the good times they had. Fuzzy told Robert Lynch who the culprits were and Robert went to the sheriff and reported it.He said that he would prosecute if they did not build it back.
Southern Maryland duck blind
The sheriff found the fellows and told them if they didn’t put it back, they were going to be put in jail.
One of the culprits said he wasn’t gonna pay for no duck blind. So the sheriff put his butt in jail on a Friday. By Sunday, he was singing like a canary, “I will pay, I’ll pay, just let me out and I’ll pay.”
And Robert Lynch’s duck blind got a $5,100 re-build.
Case closed!
Till next time, remember “It’s Our Bay, Let’s Pass It On.”
Cap’n Jack
To learn about tours and trips into the Chesapeake, keep in touch with Fins + Claws on Facebook. Catch up on Messages from the Cap’n Member Page. Please visit Cap’n Jack’s lore and share with your social media sites. Or reach him here: [email protected]; 240-434-1385.
I was just looking at pictures of Captain Bruce and his duck blind a few hours ago. Definitely serious stuff in these parts of the river. Nice article.