Courtesy please

[kygorski]

3 yrs ago on pickwick, we launched an hour before daybreak, needed to wend our way around idling bass boats waiting for the "blast off". We got to our spot and were fishing. sure nuff here comes the basswholes. Most shot by us,buit two started to fish the same area,if they would have been there first I'd have went else where, so instead I anchored, we dramk some coffee, had a smoke or two, and just watched the frustration.No one won!That was the last time I ever willingly fished on a saturday, my sons day off.Finally hjeaded to the dam, and drifted jigs and spinner baits, caught a ton of fish, drum, sauger, catfish, and even a few bass.

[offdtop]

I've had my share and probably caused a few but I always try to be courteous, one thing I know is that some guys come to a lake that don't regularly fish it and find some fish and when they show up the next morning for their tournament there's a boat sitting there and they have nothing to back it up so they impose, I myself play the waiting game I will nicely ask if they are working in which direction and ask if I could go behind them going in the opposite - more times than not they say "sure, no problem". So courtesy works in both ways - open a line of communication and both parties can get what they want.

[hartmacw]

First off, you are all right, we all need to be more conscious of other fisherman and respect their rights to fish the same places we do.

Just be careful before going off on somebody and if they cut you off consider first that they *might* have done it completely unintentionally. Seeing somebody a half mile away vs. coming around a point or a creek and finding someone there are two very different things. I will almost always in that case apologize for running up on them and tell them I didn't know they were there or coming my direction. Most often that's all it takes and strikes up a friendly dialog.

The only reason I say this is that I was fishing Dale a few years ago and got completely chewed out by two guys in a boat as I fished down a stretch I like to fish. They basically told me where to go - that they had been fishing there all day and I had no business running in on them. I quit fishing and apologized and trolled out around them, but then I got mad and stopped. I said the following: A. You are in submerged willow trees and I started fishing a 1/2 mile back. At what point was I to know you were there. B. I am pretty sure I paid as much for a fishing license as you did C. I haven't caught a blasted thing the whole way down thru here, what makes this spot so dang special They spewed a little more profanity, but I was happy then and left

...BillH

[RoadToad]

Lately most of my fishing has been from the bank, and you see the same thing there. You just can't fix stupid. And yes, stupid includes going off on someone over some unintentional gaffe that probably didn't make much of a difference to your fishing anyway.