Public Lakes and blinds

[SoggyRedNeck]

Alright, first off let me say that I am unexperienced with public lakes, WMA's, and anything other than leases and having my hand held, so help me understand this one.

I have a thread about some land we inherited a few years back that came with a blind that is extremely old. I went friday afternoon and did some work to it and got it ready to roll for this morning. It hasn't been hunted by my distant family for over a year or two, the shape of the blind made that evident. I get up this morning with my buddy from school and my little cousin and head out there only to find someone sitting in the blind. I simply asked who they got permission from the hunt it and they give me some names, none of whom are relatives or friends of relatives (that we know of after calling around). I simply tell him that its my grandfather's blind, I worked on it yesterday, We're land owners, the whole spill. He simply mentions how its a public lake, how someone has been hunting it all season long (less than 2 weeks) and how he'll leave but as soon as he does he's going to find a game warden because I was in the wrong. Against my better judgment and my pride I let him hunt bc Id rather just deal with it now than have it burnt to the ground as well as make me look like a *****. He also had some small kids with him and I'd rather let someone like that hunt any day of the week.

I know the blind has not been touched in a very long time. I know that showing up less than an hour before day light is a no no even on private property. I know that game warden's have no jurisdiction on blinds or anything similar ( I called an old family friend who is a captain on the WDLF force in north LA) things like this are deemed "HONOR SYSTEM". I know that only land owners are allowed to have a blind.

TELL ME WHAT I DONT KNOW and WHAT I SHOULD HAVE DONE or IF I DID THE RIGHT THING.

My plan of attack after today is to 1.) Get there GOD awful early from now on. 2.) do some major renovations to the blind to make it obvious it isn't abandoned. This is the only thing I can think of to get people from hunting this blind with out a major confrontation.