Some anglers cross the line when it comes to on-the-water fishing etiquette
"I hate rude behavior in a man. I won't tolerate it." -- Capt. Woodrow Call, Lonesome Dove, 1989
When it comes to fishing and fishermen, some things just chafe my line.
I hate to hear about a pot licker who purposely shadows a fishing guide with the intention of learning his sweet spots, so he can milk them when the guide is not around.
Or the fish thief who helps himself to the goodies on another man's trotline or jug line while the owner is back on the bank tending to other business.
Or the loser who hedges in on another angler's fishing spot the second he sees someone catch a fish. In bass fishing arenas, we call this running the "bent-pole pattern."
Equally disturbing is a tournament angler who constantly looks for ways to bend the rules, or the guy who is always snooping around for loop holes to exploit voids in the system. While some might call it fishing smart, experience has taught me that once an angler goes down that trail there is a good chance a rocky ending is in store. Eventually, he or she may push the envelope so far that they are labeled a cheater. Fishermen have memories like elephants. Once a cheater, always a cheater.
True, not everyone may see things the same as me. But that's alright. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and fishermen can be among the most opinionated souls in the crowd.
What follows are a few more fishing scenarios that are sure to stoke some fires on both sides of the fence.
Hey, that's my spot!
This one is sure to strike some chords, for it happens all the time.
Let's say a crappie fishing guide spends hours cutting brush, hauling it to the lake and securing it to bottom at a strategic location for the sole purpose of creating a personal honey hole. The guide takes a group of clients to the spot one morning, only to discover another boat camped on top of it. The occupants in the boat are reeling in one fish after another.
Rage sets in. The guide approaches the boat and scolds the anglers for fishing "his" spot without permission.
While it is easy to understand the guide's grief, he has no right to aggressively defend the spot as his own. Truth is, doing so could be interpreted as angler harassment in the eyes of the law. This could result in a fine and/or jail time if the other party decides to press charges.
Here's the deal: Once a brush top leaves a boat deck and goes into public water, it automatically becomes community property. It is sort of like building a permanent duck blind in a Texas saltwater bay. Exclusivity does not exist. Anyone can use it.
Such confrontations among anglers have become commonplace on lakes Sam Rayburn and Toledo Bend over the last few years, largely due to the advent of precision sonar technology.
Bottomline: If there are any secrets out there, they probably won't remain that way for long.
Now ask yourself these two questions.
If you accidentally stumbled across a brush pile that you didn't construct, would you drop a bait down there to see if anybody is home? I know very few anglers who could resist the temptation. Personally, I wouldn't think twice about it.
Now comes the tricky question.
What would your reaction be if you were approached by an angler who claims he did the dirty work, then asked you to leave? So long as the guy was nice about it, I would probably pull up stakes and look elsewhere. If he got nasty, I would jot down the TX number on his boat and let a game warden deal with it.
Catch-and-take trophies
It is spring and a group of bass anglers pay a visit to a public reservoir where they experience what turns out to be a magical day. Together they hook and land nearly a dozen trophy-class fish. Among them are several bass weighing upwards of 8 pounds.
While most of the fish are released, the anglers elect to retain nearly a half dozen of the biggest bass, so they can be stocked into a private pond. While no laws were broken in the process, most fisheries scientists will agree that such exploitation could take a serious toll on a fragile trophy fishery, especially if repeated multiple times.
Common sense tells me their theory is right on target.
Dirty pool
A weekend bass angler hires a fishing guide/tournament pro for a day trip on his home water. As he should, the guide does his best to put the client on fish. In the process, the guide introduces the customer to some of his very best fishing spots -- stuff it took years for him to learn.
Unbeknownst to the fishing guide, the client is packing a handheld GPS. He secretly marks each location, so he can return later on.
A year later, the client and guide are entered in the same bass tournament. The client gets the earliest boat draw of the two, beats the pro to his very best hole and eventually wins the tournament there.
Dirty pool or not? While no official tournament rules were broken, this has to be one the most brazen violations of fishing ethics around.
Matt Williams' e-mail address is mattwilliams@netdot.com.
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