Fishing etiquette question

[Kevind62]

To start, please forgive me for the length of this post.

Ok, I'm out in my boat fishing the other day in a creek that feeds in to the lake. As I come in to the mouth of the creek there is a guy in a somewhat hybrid looking kayak with a trolling motor. He's stopped at a brush pile and stump baiting his lines and setting them out. I'm towards the opposite bank, shutdown my motor and drop my trolling motor and proceed to a brush pile on the opposite bank. A very popular brush pile that is unoccupied at the time. Anyway, as I am about 5' from stopping with rod in hand and ready to drop my jig I hear a voice behind me. It's the guy in the kayak. He asks, "Hey, are you going in that hole to fish?". Slightly bumfuzzled, I answer politely "yes". He mozees off to another brush pile close by. After about 20 minutes of fishing this spot I hear his trolling motor cavitating loudly. He appears to by hung up a bit in that brush pile. No big deal. Not bothering my fishing. I've pulled about 8 fish out of this hole so far but no legal keepers. Just hoping to land one or two keepers then move on. (a little background here) I've come by this spot ever day for the past 8 days. Each time prior to this day there was someone in a nice, big, fancy bass boat loaded with all the latest and greatest electronics (not the same boat everyday and remember this point. ). Again, no big deal. It's a public lake and they got there first. I fished nearby watching them pull several fish out of it. A few really nice fish. I patiently waited for a few hours each day fishing nearby brush piles then just moved up the creek checking other brush piles. Never complained, still caught fish and just patiently waited for my opportunity. Numerous people passed by every day doing the same. Finally, the evening before the encounter with the kayaker, I get the chance late in the day (this is end of day 7 of waiting by the way.) I land several short fish, just under the size limit and one very nice keeper just before the sun sets and I head back to the dock.
(Back to the encounter. Again, my apologies for the length and jumping around a bit.)
So, I notice after the kayaker gets out of the brush pile he begins to head my way. Again, I hear a voice. "I just wanted to come tell you I thought that was pretty rude of you and an a****** move to come jump in this spot when you could clearly see I was getting ready to come fish it. I can't fish just anywhere with this kayak in this wind and current and that's a pretty a****** move to jump in probably the only place you know I can fish." Then he proceeds to verbally bash me for having a boat with an outboard and a fish finder. Not sure how he came up with his synopsis of my boat and equipment but he looks at my new fish finder and accuses me of having live scope and SpotLoc (you can clearly see my trolling motor is a stern mount tiller steer that I made a mount for on my bow with no autopilot motor connected to it). Asking why I needed to fish the only place he could possibly fish in the entire creek when I had all the latest and greatest electronics to fish the open lake with??? He seemed to feel I was somehow responsible for his economic situation. I did let him know I had seen kayakers fishing all through the creek all week long with no problems. He says he had to drive 4 hours to get here. I told him I had to drive 6 & 1/2 hours. And I politely let him know I was fishing and didn't have time to listen to his crying and complaining.

I'm scratching my head at this point trying to figure out why he assumes I'm somehow related to Miss Cleo (you know, the famous psychic on the late night commercials back in early 2000's?) and I can read his mind to know this was his next stop????? I politely explained to him that when I first came up on him he was on the brush pile on the other side of the creek baiting and setting his lines. Anyone with at least one functioning brain cell would assume a person setting lines in a brush pile was fishing that brush pile. I'm trying to figure out how I'm supposed to assume he was simply getting ready to cross the creek and fish the spot I was in. ????? So, if I arrive at a point in a creek and start fishing, should everyone who comes in behind me have to wait for me to weave my way from one side of the creek to the other checking every brush pile on the way and fish behind me???? Was I wrong to assume this spot was open????? Did I hole jump this guy???

[6poundtest]

From my angle, you handled it perfectly; the guy was a jerk.

[DockShootinJack]

No boat on the brush pile. It is open and up for grabs. Only exception is someone is moving obviously toward the brushpile in question. Seems y'all were fairly even in watercraft. You were in a boat with a trolling motor. He was also in a boat with a trolling motor. Fella was probably having a bad day. We all have them. We have all been cut off on the way to a spot to fish.

[Snakebit]

Don't fish the hole if and only if a boat is on it or within casting distance.
Other than that, you snooze you lose.

[BuckeyeCrappie]

You did right in my book. I would have fish the same but might not have been as patient although I would have let him have his rant. I have found no matter what one says or does you can’t reason with folks like this.

[yobuck]

Id be finding a new spot with less traffic and A holes.
There are thousands of lakes in Florida, some are very lightly fished.

[Curlytail]

You handled better than I would have !!! Good job guy was definitely a jerk.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

[tenncrappie]

First come first serve. You done a good job. The world is full of jerks!!

[chaunc]

I don’t think I’d have been as nice as you were. I can’t stand jerks like that and have no patience with them. I’d have dropped some F bombs on him right away.

[Timbertodd]

Sounds to me like you were just fine. Like Jack said maybe he was having a bad day. But that's no excuse for insulting your boat!