Chris Rennert wrote:
alwaysfishking wrote:

I was camping these past few days at a State park. Well Saturday
morning comes and I head out to the lake for some early morning fishing.

As I am fishing a particular shoreline and I see this bass boat
coming behind me from the other side of the lake. Two guys pull up
and go right in front of me, maybe 50-75 feet away. I yell over to the
guy that I'm fishing here and that maybe there's somewhere else he
wants to try. He responds with. "Are you fishing a tournament?" "No"
I reply.
He states " Well we are and we won't get in your way, we're just gonna
work our way down" again I voice my displeasure at his inabiltiy to
grasp the concept that I'm fishing there. He ignores me now and
continues to keep fishing. I put down the rod and troll in front of
him about 20 yards ahead to a laydown tree in the water. Cast my
speedworm to the outer limbs and feel a solid thump, I set the hook
and get into a nice fish, I boat a nice 2.5 lb bass, hold it up and
yell this one would be a good tournament fish huh guys?, then release
it and motor away. A few comments I could not make out from the duo
but I didn't care I was happy. The boater seemed a little more than
upset.

Question: Was I right in doing what I did? Or should I have trolled
to a different location considering I wasn't in a Tournament. What
would you have done. One suggestion was to try and see what I could
snag from their deck with my lures. What are the groups thoughts? I
would do it again in a heartbeat.


As you have read from my previous posts, I have been a victim of the
same situation on a few occassions this year already. I think really,
they should have motored up to you and asked if it was ok if they jumped
in front and fished. That is the approach I have used when coming into
an area where someone was anchored. I stopped about 100ft away and
asked if I could fish the area near them, even if I realistically really
wouldn't have bothered them , I would still ask out of respect.

I love fishing tournaments, but would never think my time on the water
is more valuable than the next guys. If I see bank fisherman on a
shoreline I like to fish, I don't fish it. If I see a boat anchored
near an area I am going to fish, I ask if they mind if I sneak past
them. I think a lot of people see these big sparkly boats and right
away have a negative attitude about us for reasons such as Randys. I do
my best to counter those attitudes here on Winnebago. I think more of
us need to stand up and think about others as well, regardless if you
are in a tournament or not. My last tournament on the 28th , I had 3
boats come into my waters (within 10 yards of my boat) that were also in
the tournament I was fishing. They saw we were on the smallies and kept
creeping closer and closer. A 4th boat, saw my marker buoy and would
not come any closer than that (over 100 yards away). We were fishing
back and forth between 2 points. It just goes to show that some people
could care less about anyone else, and some people respect others.

Randy, I think what you did was awesome, and the guys got what they
deserved. It would have been even more funny if you followed them all
day, they would have probably broke down completely though. Oh well, i
just wish there was more respect out there.

Chris
When I mentioned "We" should stand up and think about others I was
referring to the tournament and recreational fisherman as a whole, not
just ROFB or any of its participants . (I re-read it after I posted and
saw how that comment could be misinterpreted).

Chris