? - How would you handle Situation!!!!!!!!!

[Don G]

I had the perfect solution back when I had an outboard jet. If someone pulled in on me I would turn the stern to them, tilt the jet up, crank the motor & watch the fun. About like a fire hose and real good stream for 50+ feet. Just sit there with the motor running. I could stay longer than the poacher. I even had one fisherman leave, come idling by a few minutes later smiling and said "neat". I think we both got a kick out of it and he was a cool person that got the message.

[unknown 5]

I catch a few fish and some of the locals know about it and follow me around to find my spots. I live on the lake, I really don't mind getting up early, and I often fish from 4 AM to about 8 AM when the local yocals start showing up. I then go and fish some spot I never catch any fish out of and show them my full basket as they go by. I get a kick out of watching them wasting their time on spots I would never fish if I wanted to catch something. I learned a long time ago never to show folks your honeyhole.

I don't think I will be carrying a weapon or getting naked but some folks do think I am a little crazy.

[tarfu]

howdy; well, i guess we've all got our stories, here's mine. i was living in virginia beach, been out of the navy over a year, been driving dumptruck for over a year 6 days a week. couldn't work on sundays(blue law) so the only other days off were for bad weather. well, i'd told the driver's forman that i was going to take the next good weather saturday off to do some fishing. he told me i couldn't i said i would. well, i did. was out on the pier fishing and a mackelel blitz started up. all you had to do was flip a mackeral spoon in and haul it up put fish in cooler. well johnney jetboater decides its time to have fun raceing around the pier. after several passes i think that 3 or 4 of us got the same idea at about the same time. any way there were 3 or 4 3to 5 oz. pirimid sinkers being shot at him from some 9 to 12 foot surf rods. i think he had 2 go through the motor cowling and one of those kinda put a hole in his motor. by the time he got done "rescueing" his jet ski from the surf and pier and got it drug up on the beach he were one tired feller. don't think he bothered any more fishermen again :D have a good day tarfu

[VietVet68]

Years ago some friends and I use to go Smallie fishing every Spring at Dale Hollows, Horse Creek Marina. This is back in the days when the legendary Billy Westmoreland(sp) owned the Marina. Here is a story he told us one evening, and then showed us the newspaper clippings of the incident. I'll give you the abbreviated version as I remember it.

" There use to be an old man that Catfished from the bank 6-7 days a week. There was also two fellows in a "Run-About" that found a great deal of humor in cutting the old man's lines. When it finally got to be an almost daily occurence, the old man did some investigating until he found which ramp the boat was launching from. The next time they cut his lines he packed up and went to meet them at the ramp. Witness's say that he never said a word, he just pulled out a pistol and killed them both before they ever got out of the boat. Upon investigation it was determined that the old man was in the late stages of terminal Cancer."

[abarkley]

I had an encounter yesterday evening while fishing that really tee'd me off. I was fishing about a 30 ft stretch of bank and had caught 4 nice slabs and a fellow in other boat just motored right up in front of me and tied off on a log. He was no more than 25 ft. from me. I didn't say anything at the time. I fished around and moved over about 40 yards and started fishing in other spot and he untied and went to the area I had been in. After about fifteen minutes or so I headed back to where I had started and went around the other boat. This fellow had the nerve to tell me I was a rude person for cutting him off. Boy, did that hit the wrong nerve with me. I told him that he should have thought about what he dad done before he opened his big mouth. I told him if he was a real person he wouldn't have moved in on me to begin with. There was 2700 acres out there and he didn't have to fish on top of me. I also told him he need to go and find his own fish like a real fisherman and not rely on other people to do it for him. That just made him more mad. I then told him he was like a coyote. Let someone else do his work for him. Question is what would ya'll do in this situation and how to better handle it?

you did the right thing! do it again next time it happens too.
here's my story. a couple of years ago i had just started crappie fishing and was still learning a lot each time i went out. it was the first time i had really found some fish. i was trolling a bank near a spawning bay for staging fish in about 3ft of water. i had two markers out. they were about 100 yds apart. i had just caught a couple off one of my markers and was making a pull toward the other when this jackleg pulls up to the marker i just left. he caught one fish, lost another and then preceded to drag his metal stringer across the gunwale of the boat while banging his floating metal minnow bucket about three times into the side of the boat. he asked me how it was going and i told him it was a lot better til you got here! he ruined that stretch for me at that point. i vowed it would never happen again. i wont hesitate to tell somebody if i have a problem with them butting in.

[bugman]

I was putting stake beds out the other day when i went by one i put out last year and there were three boats sitting around it and when they seen the stakes they started following me around to see where i was gonna put this one,the bad part about it is i know all of them and to my knowledge they have never put any beds out.I dont mind people fishing my beds if they put out a few i can fish.

[jfraley]

I was fishing just this weekend and found a hot spot trolling. I was doing the old figure 8. Catching fish in the same area every time. This man and his wife watched for about 15 minutes and waited until I came thru the spot and they trolled over, anchored and put out about 8 floats with minnow under them. I had to adjust a little to keep from hitting them but I troll straight beside their boat. They had to real their lines in, but still didn't get the picture. The followed us around most of the morning. the were there the next day too. When they pulled up, they ask the usual. "Are you wear'em out?" I tolk them that we had been catching them way back in the creek in real shallow water and I even trolled back their once for fun. It took them about 20 minutes and they were back there. I never said a rude word at all.

Weiss lake has more A$$holes than any where I have ever fished. Many times a lot of boats fish the same area and you just manuver around and everyone is ok. That is until a bass boat blast thru the middle of about 15 boats. One guy bounced his jigs off the guys boat. I got a kick out of that. I wonder how funny it would have been if one of those jigs found meat?

[GABoy]

It is crazy how dis-respectful and dis-courteous people get as the spawn approaches....but, I really don't believe most of them know any better.....that is what amazes me even more....

[fishpro67]

I have a couple stories about common courtesy or the lack there of. I've reposted them from another board for your reading enjoyment.

First, middle of February, Cold!! I got out to the lake to help a buddy with some problems with his boat, planning to head into town for dinner with my wife; I am wearing a nice shirt and pants.
While I'm holding the bow of my buddy’s boat and he's trying to crank it, (pull start, tiller steer) a guy idles into the ramp area to load out. His buddy backs the truck in and the boat driver idles up to the trailer. THEN!!! He tilts his motor up till the prop is half out of the water and guns it.

Well, you know what happens next!! I take a freaking bath with my clothes on!! I'm yelling at him, and he's still gunning it till he hits the bow stop. Needless to say I'm soaking wet, only on one side, my wife says, "I look like and '80's "Hair" band guitar player", cause my hair is sticking straight up on one side from the prop wash, I'm totally pissed and it's butt-ass cold.

The guy was very apologetic and even offered me his coat to dry off. I just told him to just go away. Everybody got a good laugh and it was funny as hell, when you look back at it! I'm laughing as I type!!

Second one was an issue of pure boat ramp in-considerate-cy, if that's a word. I'm sitting at the entrance to the ramp area waiting to load out. It's like a small cul-de-sac with the ramps branching off at the 9 o'clock position. You have to pull around in a tight circle and then back down to load/unload.

Both ramps are full. One guy is having a hard time loading and there is a woman trying to back her husband’s truck down on the other. The ramp is kind of steep and once the empty trailer drops over the crest it’s hard for her to see. Anyway, she's having a hard time. I walk down and offer to help out. She graciously accepts, I get in, back down, and pull her hubby out.

While I'm pulling their rig out, some little A$$hole in a small P/U, with a POS tri-hull, drives around my truck and trailer and lines up on the now empty ramp. Then he starts to tie on all assortments of jigs and such, apparently waiting for his fishing partner to get there. I'm trying to remain civil since my 16 year old daughter is with me.

Once his partner arrives, they proceed to back down on the actual ramp, get out again, and start doing more superfluous B.S., ice in the cooler, more jig tying, transom straps, etc.

By this time I'm pretty aggravated, no "thank you", from the guy with the non-backing wife. She did though. The other ramp is still having problems loading and I'm ready to go home. Anyway, the problem ramp finally empties and I get my turn. I back the trailer in, load up, no problems. Daughter and I drive up and out of the ramp area, like you supposed to do!!!!, to tie down and store our gear.

As it turns out the two A$$hole's truck is now parked right next to where I'm tying down. Guess what? He left the window down!! Guess what else?? We had been crappie fishing all day and had a couple dozen minnows left over.

See where this is going???
I tell my daughter to go give the few fish we caught to the couple on the dock who politely pulled their lines in when we came up. "No fishing" on the docks at this lake, no body listens though. While she's gone I grab the minnow bucket and empty the minnows into a small cup I keep in the boat.

It's a little past dusk so nobody can see. I pour the minnows inside the truck BEHIND the seat!! Not on the floor or seat. Now keep in mind, they probably fished all night, were tired as hell when they came in after a full day of work, then an all-niter fishing trip. I doubt they noticed.

I bet they noticed Saturday morning when the drug their sorry asses out of bed about 12 o'clock!! It was in the latter part of April when this took place and I know the next day it was nice and sunny. If he rolled up the windows that next morning after getting home, I'm sure several hours of baking in the sun gave that P/U a nice smell!! Hell, you probably couldn't find the truck for all the cats!!!

I still laugh about it to this day!!!

[lovetofish]

I have a couple stories about common courtesy or the lack there of. I've reposted them from another board for your reading enjoyment.

First, middle of February, Cold!! I got out to the lake to help a buddy with some problems with his boat, planning to head into town for dinner with my wife; I am wearing a nice shirt and pants.
While I'm holding the bow of my buddy’s boat and he's trying to crank it, (pull start, tiller steer) a guy idles into the ramp area to load out. His buddy backs the truck in and the boat driver idles up to the trailer. THEN!!! He tilts his motor up till the prop is half out of the water and guns it.

Well, you know what happens next!! I take a freaking bath with my clothes on!! I'm yelling at him, and he's still gunning it till he hits the bow stop. Needless to say I'm soaking wet, only on one side, my wife says, "I look like and '80's "Hair" band guitar player", cause my hair is sticking straight up on one side from the prop wash, I'm totally pissed and it's butt-ass cold.

The guy was very apologetic and even offered me his coat to dry off. I just told him to just go away. Everybody got a good laugh and it was funny as hell, when you look back at it! I'm laughing as I type!!

Second one was an issue of pure boat ramp in-considerate-cy, if that's a word. I'm sitting at the entrance to the ramp area waiting to load out. It's like a small cul-de-sac with the ramps branching off at the 9 o'clock position. You have to pull around in a tight circle and then back down to load/unload.

Both ramps are full. One guy is having a hard time loading and there is a woman trying to back her husband’s truck down on the other. The ramp is kind of steep and once the empty trailer drops over the crest it’s hard for her to see. Anyway, she's having a hard time. I walk down and offer to help out. She graciously accepts, I get in, back down, and pull her hubby out.

While I'm pulling their rig out, some little A$$hole in a small P/U, with a POS tri-hull, drives around my truck and trailer and lines up on the now empty ramp. Then he starts to tie on all assortments of jigs and such, apparently waiting for his fishing partner to get there. I'm trying to remain civil since my 16 year old daughter is with me.

Once his partner arrives, they proceed to back down on the actual ramp, get out again, and start doing more superfluous B.S., ice in the cooler, more jig tying, transom straps, etc.

By this time I'm pretty aggravated, no "thank you", from the guy with the non-backing wife. She did though. The other ramp is still having problems loading and I'm ready to go home. Anyway, the problem ramp finally empties and I get my turn. I back the trailer in, load up, no problems. Daughter and I drive up and out of the ramp area, like you supposed to do!!!!, to tie down and store our gear.

As it turns out the two A$$hole's truck is now parked right next to where I'm tying down. Guess what? He left the window down!! Guess what else?? We had been crappie fishing all day and had a couple dozen minnows left over.

See where this is going???
I tell my daughter to go give the few fish we caught to the couple on the dock who politely pulled their lines in when we came up. "No fishing" on the docks at this lake, no body listens though. While she's gone I grab the minnow bucket and empty the minnows into a small cup I keep in the boat.

It's a little past dusk so nobody can see. I pour the minnows inside the truck BEHIND the seat!! Not on the floor or seat. Now keep in mind, they probably fished all night, were tired as hell when they came in after a full day of work, then an all-niter fishing trip. I doubt they noticed.

I bet they noticed Saturday morning when the drug their sorry asses out of bed about 12 o'clock!! It was in the latter part of April when this took place and I know the next day it was nice and sunny. If he rolled up the windows that next morning after getting home, I'm sure several hours of baking in the sun gave that P/U a nice smell!! Hell, you probably couldn't find the truck for all the cats!!!

I still laugh about it to this day!!!

Fishpro, that's a good one. I'll have to remember that one to try. I know exactly what you mean in the story. I think alot of us have been in your situation. I have heard of one better than that the other day. I wasn't there but would have paid a hundred dollars to watch. A friend of mine (not Close) was having about the same kind of problem you were having that day. He was fishing one of the Ms.River lakes and had waited for over 30 minutes for a couple of two or three to get the h*** out of the way. Well, they kept on making little remarks about what they were and were not going to do. Well, needlesss to say the friend kept his mouth shut and went ahead and loaded out. While putting his gear up one of the uptight and rude fellows pulled their truck up beside him and got out and left it. That was the wrong thing to do. It to was parked on a hill with about a 30 degree grade and the truck left with keys in it and unlocked. Somehow that old truck just started rolling down the hill with no driver. They said there was some kind of ruckus going on down at the bottom of that hill. The other guys were giving the fellow that left the truck on the hill every explicit words in the English language. Needless to say they couldn't figure out what had happened. Sounded like some real geniuses to me. Well, good luck fishing to ya!!!!!!