Marker Bouys, Common Sense & Courtesy

[Mike Worley]

On the Table Rock forum there is a thread about how close is too close which morfted into a discussion about the use of marker bouys that I think needs to be noted on all the area lakes since we are nearing Memorial Day and the offical start of the tourist season. After reading the comments I posted this response that I think are views of many of the anglers who use the area lakes.

I would like to comment on the use of marker bouys for anything other than fishing stucture close to your boat while you are fishing it. Placing several bouys out on different spots to "reserve" the location IMHO shows a lack of respect for other anglers. As for the law asking about the marker bouy and doing a dounut, how far away were you from the bouy? if you were more than 50 yards from the bouy thats too far away unless you are landing a fish.. I also realize that not everybody has GPS but if you are trolling DON'T put out a marker bouy to mark the end of a point. If you are a troller buy the equipment to do the job (GPS) because you are going to be way too far away from the bouy to be considerate to other anglers.

[Feathers and Fins]

Mike, With all do respect, I have to completely and strongly disagree with you on the buoys. I still use them to mark out a point or parameter of points and humps and then after marking the area out completely I will then mark it out on my GPS Unit and Map so I have not only the map/graph but can see it in my head as well.

If I caught someone STEELING my Buoys I can promise you I would call out the sheriff, Warden, Ranger whoever had the jurisdiction and I WOULD push for prosecution, If it does not belong to you and you take it you are a thief and I will never tolerate that.

What do you do to people running Jug Lines? Do you pick them up and throw them away? If you do then you are looking at multiple charges now! You may not like how one person does something but if it is legal then you must respect the law.

No marking spots to try and (RESERVE) it is wrong and if you are not around it I may fish it. It’s the publics lake not someone’s Private spot! Respect and courtesy should be the rule. But to infer that marking an area is wrong or you will take the markers is a very good way to have a serious incident happen. I have seen more than one fight break out from people touching jug-line sets. You may want to re-think your position on interfering with other people property.

[fishinwrench]

I know that most people that still use marker bouys are not tournament anglers as tournament anglers would use GPS to fish a spot

WTF? LOL

[Mike Worley]

Mike, With all do respect, I have to completely and strongly disagree with you on the buoys. I still use them to mark out a point or parameter of points and humps and then after marking the area out completely I will then mark it out on my GPS Unit and Map so I have not only the map/graph but can see it in my head as well.

If I caught someone STEELING my Buoys I can promise you I would call out the sheriff, Warden, Ranger whoever had the jurisdiction and I WOULD push for prosecution, If it does not belong to you and you take it you are a thief and I will never tolerate that.

What do you do to people running Jug Lines? Do you pick them up and throw them away? If you do then you are looking at multiple charges now! You may not like how one person does something but if it is legal then you must respect the law.

No marking spots to try and (RESERVE) it is wrong and if you are not around it I may fish it. It’s the publics lake not someone’s Private spot! Respect and courtesy should be the rule. But to infer that marking an area is wrong or you will take the markers is a very good way to have a serious incident happen. I have seen more than one fight break out from people touching jug-line sets. You may want to re-think your position on interfering with other people property.

Dear Fins & feathers, I'm sorry you took offense at my post.. I did not say I'm aganist using marker bouys to map out a fishing spot, I'm sure that you would be with your bouys while doing this. I did not say anything about jug fishing, I would not pick up a jug or a bouy my comment was a retortical statement about leaving marker bouys spread out at different spots to reserve them for a later time. After rereading my post and considering your comments I have edited my post to not offend anyone with my post.

[Feathers and Fins]

Mike Good edit... I was just upset to see someone with your reputation basicaly telling others to pick up peoples gear. I dont think its what you meant but man if someone saw it and did it the result could be very bad....

FYI though on bouys. I have put out up to 15 at a time marking an area I plan to troll on a very specific contour line. GPS are great but NOTHING beats exact markers for precision control and angling. I run 2 HDS units on my boat but still beleive in the Markers.

[kwall]

Mike, I had never encounterd what you were talking about till yesterday -- I was fishing a ridge line that streached a 1/4 mile and this boat shows up and started at one end and run the ridge throwing out markers the whole length of it . I thought to myself - thanks bud , hope ya' ok with me running this line too seeing' how I was here first , lol --

[Sam]

Naaah, I think we can get along and use markers to help each other out better than that. Marking something doesn't mean you're claiming exclusive rights to fish it - unless you stay right by your marker. I had one good crappie trip this April where about five boats cooperated, using markers, to get a bunch of limits of crappie.

In that first big cove below Bridgeport on TR, the pattern was that crappie were staging out in the middle of the cove, on submerged stick-ups, in 35 feet of water. It was windy and the bite wasn't fast enough to try and stay on one stick-up. About the only way to fish it was to slow-troll swimming minnows, with the wind, right down the middle of the cove and drag past as many stick-ups as you could find, none of which could be seen. Miss the brush as you went by, even by a few feet, and you'd miss the fish.

I carry three orange markers and while trolling this way I soon had three big stick-ups marked. That gave me about a 200 yard long line to keep going down, but there were other "undiscovered" stick-ups out there. As we passed other boats that were fishing the same way, I told them what I was doing and asked them to mark any other brush if they could. Before long there were about five boats working the same line down the middle of the cove, and about nine markers out! We were all motoring upwind then drifting and trolling downwind, using all those markers as guides and pulling crappie out of the brush!

We all had a good time using each others markers and helping each other out. No problems.

[rangerman]

Markin a ridge or some other structure is alright however, when your run a string a couple of hundred yards long don't expect everyone to stay away. I wouldn't and I am not saying I would fish on top of them either. I don't know kind of a gray area for me feeling wise.