Fishing etiquette?

[Shawn Kellett]

That's nothing, try muskie fishing sometime. Last year I had 2 boats tailing me around the lake!

What I do is I power up and drive 20' in front of them and continue to fish. If they FemaleDog you've got the scenic view of the high road... or the equality of equal footing. Usually they get the hint.

[TODDY]

Craigums hit the nail on the head. You don't need to ruin your day getting upset. Start up the big motor and move in front of them the same distance they gave you. Then just continue as you were. They will get the message.

TODDY

[river rat316]

I got a great story, I was fishing Sugar early in the year for pannies, I was in the south corner of the North bay (for those who know the lake the one with the small landing) I was in my OB jet boat, and was having a great time catching smaller pannies and bass on an ultra lite. Next thing I know a boat comes around the corner from the main lake, sees me catching gills one right after another (my fault there I should have hid em) and comes straight for me, he ends up literally parking right on top of my bobber, this teed me off, but I didn't say nothing, there were 3 people in the boat 2 older guys and a girl in her late teens (I am guessing), one of the older guys had a mouth like a trucker (I can say that cause I am one) and was loud as heck, the girl missed a fish and he chewed her out for a good minute, this really teed me off, we ended up exchanging words (I kept mime mostly clean believe it or not), I packed up my rod, started up the OB jet and spun around while trimming up, aimed the nozzle right at the d-bag in the bow and gave him a little taste of a 115hp water pump, if you have never seen a ob jet trimmed up blasting water, you would not believe the mass of water they move, I sprayed my son once on a beach after he asked for it and it knocked him over when he was expecting it! This guy fell out of his chair, and the other 2 in his boat were laughing so hard they almost fell out of the boat. I was expecting a little war or something after this but I never seen or heard from them again, I stayed on the lake for a couple hours and they never got close to me again!

[Deitz Dittrich]

since we are telling funny stories.. First you must know me.. I am VERY anti confrontational.. So I rarely say anything.. But at the same time I am a bit of a jokester..

I was fishing a very small piece of off shore structure. Now when I say very small, without exag at all, this spot is only 15 feet by 15feet probably smaller. I had been fishing it for over a 1/2 hour its in almost 20 feet of water. so you have to be almost on top of it to fish it right. A boat with 3 guys pull up and start throwing at it. Well, the guy in the front was throwing at it. I could tell the people in the back of the boat were uncomfortable with the situation. One cast the guy in the front of the boat and I even got our lines tangled together. To which I mumbled under my breath " is this really happening?"... to which I got an ear full from this guy... about how I didnt own the lake, which was true.. and he pointed out he was "guiding".. I very nicely pulled up to his boat and told his clients to jump in my boat.. I knew more than one good spot on the lake. The two in the boat laughed, and I putted away.... I had already sore mouthed all the fish there anyway. I was rewarded with a very rude note on my truck... ohh well.

[jwhjr]

I had a "situation" a couple of years back on a metro lake. There was a guy fishing the shore line where we were planning on fishing so we went 3/4 of the way up the shore to start at the other end. We began fishing away from the other guy so we'd come around to the other side of the lake. We weren't moving toward him so I figured all was good. After a few minutes he came flying up the shoreline with his trolling motor on full speed to come up behind us to tell us that it was pretty sh**ty of us to fish the shoreline in front of him. I apologized even though I thought we had given him plenty of room, and swung wide out to the middle of the lake so that we could "fall in line" behind him since he obviously got first crack at the shoreline on this particular day. We ended up pulling a few fish out behind him anyway while it looked like he struck out. I was a bit fired up about the whole situation, but I figured why ruin a good day fishing staying ticked off at one guy who felt he owned the lake that day.

[bassfshin24]

Great story deitz....way to turn a bad situation into a joke. Thats the way to do it. We are out there doing what we love to do...no need to have a day ruined by one guy. Also River-rat that is awesome!! i would have paid to see that!!

[river rat316]

On that same jet boat I used to have a 109lb thrust tm (current in the river is a pain) and it had one of those big aluminum props on it (thanks Wayne) I was fishing a piece of shoreline on a small local lake when a guy pulls up to a dock right in front of me and starts fishing it, no biggie I just went around him to the next dock, well he got all bent out of shape thinking I was doing some line jumping, when really he pulled in front of me. So he tries to jump around me to the next dock and I looked over at him and told him it was a battle he was going to lose, and flipped the tm to high and raced him to the next dock, when I blew by him he said some choice words, the laughed it off and told me my boat had the fastest tm he had ever seen and motored over to the other side of the lake. The boat only did mid 30's on the big motor but with full batteries I would see over 8 on the tm

[Go2fish]

This happens to me on most fishing outings. It frustrates me but what do you do????? Lately my approach, which I might add is not for the timid.

I stand in the front of the boat facing the other boat that comes in to close and I begin to take a leak right at em. Strike up a conversation, ask them hows it going? Tell em there must be a droppoff where I am standing. They want a good look at what I got going on and by god I am gonna give it to em. And then I leave because I am on the water looking for fish, not fisherman.

[Craigums]

lol, that made my day just a little brighter

[jalberg]

Last weekend I was fishing for gills and I was probably only 20-25 feet from shore (less than a full cast). I was facing toward shore, casting toward shore and holding my rod towards shore. On two different occasions I had pontoons drive inbetween me and the shoreline. They were maybe 8 feet from me. I was tempted to cast right at them as they went by but held myself back. The lake was wide open behind me. I just shook my head and moved.

[Nick Kuhn]

I never understood why pontoons insist on driving as close to shore as possible. I've also had a PWC zoom WOT between me and a patch of reeds I was fishing (no more than 30 feet away). There was more than 100 yards of unoccupied open water behind me. Had I been casting at the time he likely would have got a facefull of hooks as I wouldn't have seen him coming in time.

[mattrd]

Had something happen to me yesterday like all of this, but I was fishing from shore on a little river that runs through town. I was casting for smallies and was having some luck, nothing big, but fun none the less. Well there was a family about 200yds away from me and after I had caught a few they all came running over, dad, mom, and all the kids. They proceeded to ask what kind of fish it was that I was releasing, so being nice I told them and the next thing you know they move all of there things right beside me! It was not a real big deal as they were using heavy sinkers and worms, but they left me no room! I mean I couldn't even make a full cast I could only flip my jig a little ways. To make matters worse the dad just sits there and gets mad at the kids for making bad casts! I thought wow what a great example. Then one of the kids casts into my line and the dad is [PoorWordUsage] at him. I told him it was fine and just kept fishing. I proceeded to catch a few and just moved down the shore to another spot until they left. The only thing that made me mad was when I got back to the spot there were pop cans on the ground. I just shook my head and threw them away. I feel bad that those kids don't have any one to teach them to be responsible anglers.

[gritsnham]

Ive had a guy jump in front of me before, I didnt let it bother me, I just started up the outboard went 10 yards infront of him and continued on my way...do that a couple times and they will get the picture

That is a great idea craigums that is my new game plan for people that like to fish that way. I can understand if they have fished the spot or want to but either wait or stay a respectable distance away which I would say is well out of casting distance at least.

Personally pleasure boaters tee me off way more often. When they zoom by really close and act like I care about their boat or what they are doing I want to cast a 2oz jigs right at them but instead just have to take that deep breath.

Its sadly part of fishing now and makes me really glade I will be up north for the summer and out of the metro circus!

[jefflake]

I live on a lake and fish 6-7 days a week once the season opens. I have it happen to me every day...at least 10 times a day. When I say pull in front of me, I mean 15-20 feet in front of me. Way to close when you have an entire lake to fish. I usually blow it off unless someone does it to me more than once....which happens often. I try to keep my mouth shut and just pickup the trolling motor and turn on the big motor and pull back in front of them about 15-20 feet. Usually they get the picture. I occasionally get someone who runs their mouth at me, but I just try and ignore it. Back in the old days I would have been all over them, but now a days I just want to relax.