Honestly??? I wouldn’t mind at all if fisherman came into my dock and fished in my wells and around my dock. I would want and love for them to catch some good slabs when I’m not around and be happy!!! Only think I would like is for them to be careful, respectful, and not damage anything. Heck, they could just get on thre and chill for a good while while drinking out of their ice cold cooler of beer!!!
Last edited by CrappiePappy; 03-15-2022 at 10:58 AM.
grizwilson LIKED above post
I shoot a lot of docks and pontoons. I only lay a hand on someone's dock to remove a jig and line left by someone else. ( I have long ago switched to braid so I can bend out and pull my jigs free almost every time. ) or to get my boat from being washed into the dock by someone that buzzed me without me knowing it was coming until too late. Fisherman being disrespectful is what gives all dock shooters a bad name.
The love for fishing is one of the best gifts you can pass along
Those fishing braid were one of the problems from people fishing the slips from the lakeside. They would hang their lures in the mooring ropes or boat cover, then rip tears in the ropes or holes in the cover, trying to retrieve their lures. Nothing like finding a six inch tear in a $1000.00 boat cover to sour you on those who shoot docks.
Having said thsi, I am now learning to dock shoot as I have moved to a lake that has little structure and lots of docks. I intend to do something about the lack of structure over the next year, if I can get some of my procrastinating friends moving.
The major difference in my new lake and Joe Pool is most of the docks on this new lake are on legs 2-4 feet above the water, not on floats riding on the water. So it is easy to shoot under the deck and walkway without having to shoot between the side of the boat and the walkway.
But I will definitely respect those whose docks I fish and only shoot under the deck and walkways. I will never shoot between the walkways and the sides of the boat nor around or under a pontoon boat. I will never bounce my lure off the side of a parked boat so it drops down into the water so I can retrieve it between the side of the boat and the walkway. I will never shoot a jig high enough to snag the mooring ropes nor snag the boat cover. Or gas lines and fish finder lines at the back of the boat.
If the wind or the waves do not allow me to accurately control where my jigs go I will not dock shoot that day.
And I will never, ever dock shoot a dock when the owner and his friends are fishing the dock. And if I see somebody on a dock I assume they are fishing it, regardless of what they are actually doing.
And yes, I have had all the above happen from people shooting my dock or fishing my underwater green light when I had it in the water. This is why I thought I would never shoot a dock, given all that has happened to me from those shooting docks.
I ended up turning off my underwater green light after being woke up several times at night by people bumping into my houseboat or pontoon while fishing it late at night. I even had one person rap on my houseboat door at 3 AM, asking if I would jump start his boat as he had ran his battery down while fishing my green light.
That was the final straw for the green light. I turned it off and left it off as I seldom fished it myself.
All I have ever asked is that those who fish my slips treat my property with respect and not steal or cause damage that costs me money to repair. And I still believe that most fishermen are respectable of other people's property. It's the 10% who are not that cause all the headaches for everybody else.
We are all born ignorant but one must work really hard to remain stupid. -Ben Franklin
PROUD MEMBER OF TEAM GEEZER
Any day I'm fishing is a good day, regardless of what I catch.
I will shoot the pontoon boats, only between the floats. Not many fish to be had outside of then. I see no reason to bounce a jig off of the boat at all. It is a pretty wild shot that sends a jig onto a boat cover, or into a boat for that matter. I have spent a lot of time shooting at buckets from distances and angles in order to cleanly put a jig where I want it to go. A jig in a dock line gets pushed through the other side and then the barb cut off so it will slide back out. Fuel or transducer wires hanging down is a no shoot. I have been shooting when 2 fellas showed up and went to bouncing jigs off of everything. I quickly moved on. Didn't want to be associated with all of that.
The love for fishing is one of the best gifts you can pass along