Etiquette Question

[Trolling For Walleye]

OK - this weekend this Shriner's tourney is going to be going on.. 125 boats allegedly (and MASSIVE wind - i'm a bit nervous about that)

anyway.. if I'm doing my thing trolling along and these dudes are casting their baits towards the banks, etc.

How close is considered rude to troll past them?

20 ft? 100 ft?

I know no one "owns" the water and I can drive where I please as long as I'm not going to cause any wrecks or anything... but i'm just curious what the "nice" thing to do is.

Also... if you are doing cast fishing... what's the deal on "dibs" on spots and how close you'd anchor up and cast to another boat?

Just curious.... normally i keep a nice distance, but the last time i was down in the fall of '08 i remember cruising past one guy - probably gave him about 30-40 ft.. and he gave just a bit of a look and left after i cruised by.. hence the question.

[KCRIVERRAT]

Well, in a big cove, if I'm fishing his side and want to pass him. I'll reel it up, pass him up with a congenial howdy, and leave him PLENTY of water to fish before I start again. If we're fishing or trolling the same speed, I won't speed up to go in front of him of course. I'll just fish after him. If I get into a cove, there's a boat on one bank already and I start on the opposite, once we start to meet up he's got the right-a-way. Ditto the other way around. I do my best to not hit small coves somebody's already in... there's plenty of those on the lakes.

[motoman]

I try to keep at least 2 cast lengths away from another boat. That way there's no way I'm 'disturbing' any water another angler may want to fish. As I have a few spots myself that are in deeper water, near shore, and I cast a 360 ring around the boat for fish.

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And yup, also pull 'em out of deeper water, too.

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When I was down last saturday, there was the BFL, or Stren Series or some big tournament going on. And a spot I wanted to hit was about 3-4 casting lengths away from some guys fishing a point. I watched them from a distance and they were slowly working back and forth around the outer edge of this point. My spot was 3-4 cast lengths from their closest spot. (They were casting to shore, fishing a bluff end, I was going for some sunken timber offshore a bit) As I got close, (with trolling motor only) I made sure one of them was looking, and I spoke in a loud enough whisper (little to no wind) attempting not to disturb anything they had going on, and asked if I was getting too close to water they were fishing, they said I was not, and they wished me luck.

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The same day, we had a nice spot we were holding, fishing a tournament. Another angler was working the bank coming by, and talked to us, but he got close enough for me to toss him a can of soda if I wanted. And he was actually casting right next to our boat several times as he passed. And I mean, RIGHT NEXT TO OUR BOAT, as he passed. He was friendly enough as he passed, and we made small talk; but I was not happy with how close he was. As I would never have gotten that close. Maybe it's just me erring on the side of caution.

[CollegeFish86]

OK - this weekend this Shriner's tourney is going to be going on.. 125 boats allegedly (and MASSIVE wind - i'm a bit nervous about that)

anyway.. if I'm doing my thing trolling along and these dudes are casting their baits towards the banks, etc.

How close is considered rude to troll past them?

20 ft? 100 ft?

I know no one "owns" the water and I can drive where I please as long as I'm not going to cause any wrecks or anything... but i'm just curious what the "nice" thing to do is.

Also... if you are doing cast fishing... what's the deal on "dibs" on spots and how close you'd anchor up and cast to another boat?

Just curious.... normally i keep a nice distance, but the last time i was down in the fall of '08 i remember cruising past one guy - probably gave him about 30-40 ft.. and he gave just a bit of a look and left after i cruised by.. hence the question.

Like the theory I use when bow hunting and someone makes a marginal shot. When in doubt back out, or in this case when in doubt it doesnt hurt to give someone even more extra room than you think. Its a safe bet that if you can land your lure in his boat you are WAY TOO close, so if in doubt give the guy plenty of room. Besides there is alot of water on Table Rock

[ryan]

If I drill you in the dome with a spook you will know that you got too close, hahah just kidding.

[Jon]

I've kind of ran into this problem up here on Blue Springs lake. Understand this lake is not all that big and only has like two good coves with timber. Guess where alot of boats head right off? Yep right to those coves.

I got there early one Saturday morning, and was fishing one side of this cove and another guy was fishing the otherside. We had just started at the mouth and was trolling inwards when the Tourniment let loose. I bet 5 or 6 boats came straight over to this cove. Instead of starting behind us and just trolling in following, they all headed straight down the middle of the cove, every one of them. It reminded me of being in a Wal-Mart parking lot, boats pull right in front of both of us that were there first. This example is what I see as rude and non cortious to others. If I pull into a cove, and some ones there, I give them plenty of space, sometimes I'll just go by and come back later. These guys just did'nt care, they just came on in and pulled right in front of us, then trolled around us fo a half hour and then buzzed out of there. Keep in mind this cove is like only 100 yrds. long and about 50 yrds wide with about 8 boats in it with tons of stumps and more you can't see til you hit'm. I was'nt nervous, I just kept fishing like they were'nt there, I did'nt give up my trolling path the whole time. The other guy gave up and left the cove.

I have nothing against tourniment fishing. I like watching it and posibly will fish a few this year. I just think that the participents should give alittle more respect to the non tourniment guys. They are just out trying to relax and catch a few fish. These tourniment guys acted like you were trespassing and catching thier fish. Every fish you pull out of the water seems like taking money out of thier wallet. To bad so sad.

The next weekend I cut a couple of tourniment guys off on a bank on the main lake and pulled out a 4 or 5 pound LM and a 3.5 to 4 pound Kentucky right in front of them. I say I cut them off but I pulled in 50 yrds. down from them, but they were trolling that way. They seen me pull those two out and another one flipped off, got kinda pissed and took off to the other side of the lake.

Am I proud of doing this or is it hipoctitical? Yeh and yeh. Considering what happened to me the previous weekend, yeh on both. But I don't commonly practice cutting off people fishing. I try to respect thier "Zone".

[Don]

Based on a true story....when you are casting to the bank and a jet ski rips up lake between you and the bank, they are fair game at that point.