How Close Is Too Close

[dtrs5kprs]

I guess I am just different on this, if I am on a good hole I will wave in a close boat and tell them I am on them. If they start hitting more then me I will ask what they are throwing. I have made some good friends that way and even got invited to follow them to their next spot. I would rather have another fisherman bumping my boat then a water skier 50 feet away.

If I am having a bad day I will ease up on boat, not casting and ask for advice and most of time they will invite me to fish along side of them for a while sharing a pattern.

I think if you introduce yourself, exchange names and where you are from, then people are more accepting to other people then they are boats. Sort of like cars they make me mad sometimes then I look inside and the older lady reminds me of my Mom or scared young girl reminds me of my daughter or maybe a guy my age reminds me I have senior moments on the road. A howdy neighbor wave and I don't feel upset with that "person" any longer, just have to remember these are my neighbors and friends and country men out there not robots driving cars and humans will make mistakes.

We share so much on this board, why not shake hands and share on the water.....there is more than one fish in that lake and I have as much fun watching you catch one as I do catching it myself.

Nothing wrong with that approach at all if you can make it work.

And even with mapping and GPS I still carry buoys. Don't use them much (maybe less than I should), but they can be helpful for vertical fishing or lining up a long cast at a brush pile. GPS and mapping will only get you "so close" to some things in the lake. Pretty basic to structure fishing.

[Mike Worley]

I am truly sorry that my comments offended. I have deleted my post after reading comments that were generated by it on the forum. You are right, I should lighten up and not say things that might be taken the wrong way. I would never steal anything from anyone. But I do pick up litter on the lakes when I see it floating like plastic bags & cans. I should have put more time in to thinking about what I wanted to say and I do retract my comments.

[Hillbilly Deluxe]

Bill, too close is too close, period in my opinion. BASS, FLW, Major League Fishing is promoting the close thing. No wonder the young bucks could care less. It is the old BENT ROD pattern. I thought maybe the cure all A Rig would spread folks out some.

How are BASS and FLW promoting the close thing?

[Stump bumper]

How are BASS and FLW promoting the close thing?

They always show anglers fighting and complaining about other anglers in "their" spot when they get ahead and boats within casting distance yelling at each other like school children. Stuff like "I had this cove all to my self and now I am in the top 10 there are 3 more boats in here with me." For pros it seems they have never fished public water before.

[arsenal1477]

I guess I am just different on this, if I am on a good hole I will wave in a close boat and tell them I am on them. If they start hitting more then me I will ask what they are throwing. I have made some good friends that way and even got invited to follow them to their next spot. I would rather have another fisherman bumping my boat then a water skier 50 feet away.

If I am having a bad day I will ease up on boat, not casting and ask for advice and most of time they will invite me to fish along side of them for a while sharing a pattern.

I think if you introduce yourself, exchange names and where you are from, then people are more accepting to other people then they are boats. Sort of like cars they make me mad sometimes then I look inside and the older lady reminds me of my Mom or scared young girl reminds me of my daughter or maybe a guy my age reminds me I have senior moments on the road. A howdy neighbor wave and I don't feel upset with that "person" any longer, just have to remember these are my neighbors and friends and country men out there not robots driving cars and humans will make mistakes.

We share so much on this board, why not shake hands and share on the water.....there is more than one fish in that lake and I have as much fun watching you catch one as I do catching it myself.

How right you are Stump. Best answer I have read yet. I wish more people fished like this, yet there are many that are still stuck in "whats mine is mine and whats yours is mine" mode even on a week-end away to catch some fish.

[Quillback]

Last year on the AR river Elite tourney, Denny Brauer got upset that J. Van Dam had moved close to his area, It looked to me VDam was at least 100yds. away, but Brauer was upset. They seem to have an unwritten rule in the Elite series about other anglers getting too close.

[dtrs5kprs]

Last year on the AR river Elite tourney, Denny Brauer got upset that J. Van Dam had moved close to his area, It looked to me VDam was at least 100yds. away, but Brauer was upset. They seem to have an unwritten rule in the Elite series about other anglers getting too close.

Well...that one I can sort of see, especially if Brauer was flipping and trying to pick things apart, with a fast paced Van Dam pushing at him.

You would like to think Elite pros could find some water that did not have to be shared, but in some ways lake selection is partly to blame. Rivers can fish very small compared to a big lake.

[Quillback]

Brauer found an offshore shelf in the river that held fish, as far as I could tell he stayed there all 4 days. I don't have a problem with that or what he did, but that's the first time I've seen an Elite event where one of the guys got upset with someone getting too close. I'm sure it happens quite a bit, but I don't know that there's any hard and fast rules about what is too close.

[bluebasser86]

I had the one of the worst experiences I've had with either uneducated or stupid people on the water this weekend at Table Rock. My wife and I were fishing the end of a bluff near the dam that was holding lots of spots and a few smallies. I had been working hard all day to make sure my wife caught some fish and even though they weren't big ones they were biting almost every casts she made and she was having fun. Then a deck boat comes cruising straight towards us on plane, comes off plane and idles towards us. They were a short casts away when two younger kids jumped out and swam towards the bank. They were both young girls so I thought maybe they needed to use the bathroom so they just ran to the closest shoreline. Now we are right against the bank to stay out of the wind so I can hold the boat and make it so my wife can cast her ned rig right against the bank where they were holding. I see a movement from the top of the bluff maybe 15-20 feet in front of my boat. When I look up I see one of the girls peeking her head over the edge of the bluff. I thought to myself she isn't really going to jump right on top of the spot we're fishing is she? Then the shouts of encouragement from the "adults" in the boat made it painfully obvious she was going to jump, and she did, right on top of the spot we were fishing.

After they both jumped they swam back to the boat and they left. Our fish shut off completely and I never did find another school of fish that size and that willing to bite. It really sucked to have that happen. I felt bad for my wife because after that little flurry she only caught a couple more all weekend. I felt bad for the little kids on the boat being taught that behavior and complete lack of respect for other people on the lake, and I felt bad that there was little kids on the boat so I couldn't tell their parents exactly what I thought of them.

[Champ188]

That's some ridiculous behavior alright, bluebasser86. Kudos to you for (1) taking your wife fishing and getting her on some fish and (2) not coming unglued on those so-called "adults" in front of the girls. Had to be hard to hold back, though.

A little extra light on the Jonathan Van Dam vs. Denny Brauer deal ... Denny is a 30-year veteran of BASS with a Classic win, an AOY title and 17 career wins. He's 60-something years old and has earned the right to have a young buck like JVD give him room, especially given that this incident happened on the last day of a four-day derby when Brauer was leading and had established that particular spot as his water. Just my opinion, but there's little evidence so far that JVD is cut from the same championship cloth as his uncle.