This post reminded me of a time on Patoka Lake when the Crappie USA guys were having a crappie fishing tournament. I was fishing with a friend who showed me an excellent crappie fishing spot for spring, summer, fall and winter crappie. Evidently the crappie guide on Patoka Lake knows this spot well. During the tournament that morning another boat came into our cove and it was a young man and his young son in the boat. They didn't barge in and they asked if they could fish near us as this is a well know spot to the local guide and he must have learned about this good spot from someone. My friend said he didn't care at all and we actually moved across the bay to give the guy and his son more room to fish. We got along fine and we talked and had a good time. The fish were only caught when you went over a certain brush pile in this cove. There are a lot of brush piles in this cove but you must be right over one to catch the fish. They were fishing the tournament so they didn't stick around very long as they didn't catch many fish in the 30 to 45 minutes they fished with us. We ended up catching two limits of 9" to 10" crappie. We were not fishing the Crappie USA tournament. We were fishing for fun and food.
Now another time we were fishing this same area when one of the local guides comes roaring into this same cove and throws a big wave that almost threw both of us out of the boat. We were fishing in a 20 ft long Crestliner with a 150 Merc on the back. This boat is nice an wide and very stable so to rock this boat it takes a good wave or two. The guide came speeding into this small cover and made a lot of waves as he cut the throttle not very far from where we were fishing. We didn't move this time. I think you would have done the same. He didn't show much respect to us and thus we kept on fishing. He eyeballed us for a few minutes and then took off almost as fast as he came into the cove.
Man when you enter a cove where people are fishing on Patoka Lake and you get within 50 yard of them at high speed and then shut the motor down suddenly you are going to throw some waves. That to me is DIS-RESPECTFUL! If you were to come into the cove at idle speed from a 100 yard or more that would be different. But you don't roar into another boats immediate area and then decide to stop just a few yards from them. That's not right. I don't care who you are or if you have money on the line. That's not right and it irresponsible to do that on public waters IMHO.
Now Patoka can be very crowded on the weekend and I remember when the lake first opened back in 1978. I fished the lake then and remember a boat or two in every cove I went by at times, especially on Saturday or Sunday.
The lake I fish now is very crowded on the weekends so I fish it during the week. Even then on a weeknight you will find people fishing this lake. And even after dark there are more fishermen. The last few days the same people have been fishing the launch ramp until well after dark. It's like they have camped out there or something! LOL I would almost feel guilty making them move the lawn chairs off the launch ramp to let someone launch a boat. Well almost feel guilty.
Originally Posted by apb
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