Dock Owners

[DADAKOTA]

Was fishing a gap between 2 docks Saturday morning when my nephew got his line wrapped in the trolling motor. A guy was cutting his grass and came down to chat while I get the line out of the motor. He wanted to know what I was doing so I explained it as the wind pushed us off the bank away from him. Finally got the line out and the prop back on and motored back to where we were. I cast toward the front corner of his dock and caught an 11 incher. Mower shots off and here he comes. He says I don't mind you trolling past and fishing but DON'T BE SETTING UP SHOP by my dock. Really caught me off guard. I told him that his property rights did not include the water and that I could fish anywhere I chose on the lake. He shot me another glare and went back to mowing. We kept fishing. I don't fish docks where folks are fishing, swimming, etc. and am free to give others information on where they are biting and what the preferred jig is. Have lots of folks come by and fish the brush and PVC buckets around our dock. Just don't understand some folks.

[brianetz1]

sounds to me like he sunk some crappie beds and didn't want you fishing them out. sucks that the guy was being a jerk.

[Old plug]

I have never ever bothered anyone for fishing my dock or even tying to it myself. There are several on the lake think they own it. I remember a guy back in a cove down about the 13 mile marker used to have a sprinkler on the top of his dock. If he caught you down their he would come down and turn the sprinkler on. On time I called the SOB every name in the book and did everything possible to provoke him. There was a time I was even plotting to go over there at night and destroy the darn thing. eventually the MDC paid him a visit. On the other hand my dock seem to be on the crappie trail around this area. Last spring I had a prop busted by someone very close to the stall when he got caight in a wake. His boat went down and bow came up under the prop bending it is what I believe happened. I do not like people geting out and walking on the doaxk however because I cannot tell who is a bice guy and who is a thief.

There is one thing you should know about the property rights. Armens made some determination about docks on the WATER YOU CONTROL. Just what that means I do not know. But I am sure their are different views. Both right and wrong.

[crittermo]

I had a guy one time stop by my dock and give me back my gas can that I had sitting

on the dock. i didn't notice that it was missing. He had come by the day before fishing when

i wasn't there, saw it was sitting there full of gas and decided

that he was low so he poured it into his boat. why he brought it back I don't know, guilt maybe,

but he did give me cash to pay for the gas. so i had to get back in the car and drive back to

the gas station to fill it back up. there are some bizarre people out there

[laker67]

I had a guy this past week steal 8 crappie out of my livewell on the dock. He walked right by very good spinning outfit. I had caught them the day before and was going to clean them the next morning. Crappie have been hard to come by this spring, and I was upset to say the least. Bring my crappie back buddy, I will trade you the spinning rod for them.

[MOsmallies]

What an A-Hole... You have every right to fish around any dock you want to... I had a guy tell me once that we could only fish in front of the docks... we couldn't fish in between the docks or behind the cables... He got a laugh from me as I kept on pitching behind his dock. People like that shouldn't own lake houses. They should have their own little cabin in the woods surrounded by purple painted trees.

That sucks laker67 - The guys I was supposed to fish a crappie tournament with 2 weekends ago had to bow out at the last minute because his prop and 2 rods were stolen the night before... Right off his lift. It sucks that you have to worry about your property like that!

[Old plug]

Laker have you got a latch down lid on that live box.??? I have seen a family of coons take that many out of a box in short order. And I agree i most areas the crappie are kind of scarce. The few I a. getting here still are in spawning dolors and i believe when this lake finally starts to warm up a bit more they are going to go at it. I blame the crappie fishing mostly on Amerans. They just had to drop the lake like they did. At that time water around here was 60 dreeegs at the surface. Yesterday in this area most of the surface was 58 and today it is 57.

[Jerry Rapp]

just think if LOZ was in downtown Baltimore?

[Feathers and Fins]

GPS of this dock?

Everyone needs to visit it frequently and often

[nomolites]

We have an awesome crappie bed I feed under our dock and have never shooed anyone away-keep it up for mom and the nephews and don't fish it myself. Have never had any issues with any thieving, but I don't leave the 'bird on the ram at night or any high dollar rigs on deck to tempt marginally honest folks. Fish? Have lost a many to coons, otters, and even a blue heron in live cages. To save trouble they usually go from the boat livewell to the knife to the freezer. If you must use a cage, sink it deep/have a complicated latch or rocky will get them every time.

Mike