Disgruntled Lakefront property owners...

[McCarter]

I seen something that i dont usually bring up to others.  But since I read Blakes story, I figure what the heck.

It was a warm early spring day on Kent Lake.  I was heading to the north side of the lake across from the East boat launch to a lrge point.  As i came idleing up to the point, i seen a very, very large woman lying on the point in the grass.  the closer we got, i noticed something wasnt right.  In fact, it was just wrong.  The woman had no shirt on.  She must have been sunning 'the puppies' and fallen asleep.  I couldnt help what happened next.  I immediatly broke out into laughter.  Uncontrolable laughter.  Almost potty pants laughter.  It woke her up and she pounced to her feet, grabbed her shirt from the picnic table, and stampeded out of sight.

As much as i have tried, i will never forget that.  I still have nightmares.

PoorBoy himself

[fishon1219]

Poorboy,
I think that was me on kent lake that day. I still have bad dreams about that leaprecon laugh. To this day I dont take my shirt off.

[McCarter]

It all makes sense now.  I knew you looked familiar that first day i met you.  I just couldnt figure out where i had seen you before.  But in the future, stay off my point and keep the 'puppies' in there cage.  Big girl

PoorBoy himself

[cameraguy]

Okay Dan, it's time for you to bust out those stories.  I know you have a couple of doozies.

I have a lame story...I was fishing a dock at Lake Charlevoix (go figure) and my pinpoint casting landed my tube jig on top of a boat cover.  It wasn't actually stuck in the material but hanging in a seam.  I didn't want to tug on it too hard and really get it stuck so I moved right to the back of the boat, reached up and took the jig off of the cover.  A guy on a dock about thirty yards away started yelling at me.  He wanted to know if I was going to pay for his neighbor's boat cover.  I told him that nothing happened to it.  He refused to believe me and kept yelling.  So I shot him, with a flare gun.  Right into his wide open yap.    Just kidding...about shooting him.  The rest is true.  And I hit a bolt on the dock and put a gouge in my boat.  I guess I should have just cut the line.  I just don't like leaving objects with sharp hooks on docks or boats.

Interesting thread.  Should start one about strange on-the-water incidents.  I've got several of those, but I don't have time right now to write them up.

[Revtro]

I've had a number of run ins with property owners, and I've learned one thing.  If a jig or hook gets caught on anything around a dock, except for the dock itself, let it go.  I would rather cut the line than have some psycho landowner come out and read me the riot act for doing damage I didn't do.  A 2 dollar jig isn't worth the hassle. 

One experience I had was when I was fishing in the S. Channel and a landowner threatened to come kick our buts just for fishing in front of his house.  We didn't catch his dock or anything.  He just figured he owned the water and decided to make threats.  We asked him politely to go and call the Sherrif and we'd deal with it that way.  I said to my partner, "does he plan on swimming over here to jump on the boat?"  We both just ended up deciding to move on and let it go even though we were pretty angry about it.  It's just not worth it.  There are just way to many psychos out there who will do who knows what...  Just ask Gary Klien.  He got shot at at the Classic a few years ago. 

[cameraguy]

Run-ins with property owners is not a common occurance, for me anyway.  It's not a matter of cost when deciding whether or not to cut the line when hung up around a dock.  It's safety.  If I was a property owner I would be pretty angry if I was pulling a dock line and got a hook in my hand.  I would also be pretty mad if one of my kids got poked with a hook that somebody broke/cut off around my dock. 

[djkimmel]

I try to use the least snaggy lure around other people's stuff. I just don't do it enough anymore to be real smooth and if I decide to do it, I want to have the odds in my favor that I get the hook back.

[Revtro]

Not meaning to sound like a smart $*%, but perhaps the best way to avoid problems is to practice casting.  It's funny because I have one buddy that I call the "Grassmaster".  He has a dark gift for being able to make the perfect cast up into someone's backyard or boat dock.  So when he's with me, I tend to stay away from the shoreline.  In a typical morning, I'll have to idle up to a dock or seawall to get him unhooked at least a half dozen times.  It drives me nuts.  I think all of last year I only got snagged on a dock line one time and since there wasn't a property owner out, I just went in and retrieved it, no problem. 

The best weapon against snagging on docks IMO is learning to skip baits under them.  It's tough to practice this in your yard, but when your out on the water, practice, practice, practice.  Since I learned to skp effectively, I hardly ever get snagged up anymore.  Plus, choose weedless presentations.  Rather than fish a Senko wacky style around a dock, fish it weedless.  Fish a tube Texas style, etc.  Just some things that have helped me.

[djkimmel]

I do the Texas-rigged tube a lot around docks and pontoons. Skips real good. Not too snaggy. Not noisy if you do bump something with no weight or internal weight. And... bass seem to like to eat 'em.

[Revtro]

Another good technique is to rig the weedless tube with an internal weight.  That way if you do hit the dock or heaven forbid, the boat at the dock, it doesn't make a loud noise and draw attention to you.  Also, it won't scratch a boat if you do accidentally hit one.

My favorite technique around docks is skipping a Senko rigged weightless and weedless around docks.  They skip better than most people think and don't make much noise if they hit a dock or boat either. 

[Savage]

I have to agree that the senkos do skip really nice, but the best is a fat tube with an internal jighead.  A little practice will get you all the way to dry land under the dock....

[Revtro]

Did you see the size of the tube that Ish Monroe was using at the tourney he won?  Yikes!  Now that was a fat tube.  Didn't know they even made 'em that big.

[djkimmel]

I didn't see the show, but some Western company has made a tube up to 10" long for giant Californian Florida bass for a while now. I think it is called the Tora tube. I've seen them in Michigan a few times like at the old Gaylans and maybe Dick's Sporting Goods.

[canvsbk]

Our harassment law is a joke. It's completely toothless unfortunatley. If you ask any CO they'll tell you they are instructed not to write the harassment ticket because there's never been one that stuck any where in the state.
I'm sure everyone has been exposed to uncomfortable situations on the water, the best you can hope for is to just move on.

[fiker]

I use the Yum dinger on a 3/0 hook weightless around docks. 
I don't skip it much, just put it where i want it.

If I'm where I want to skip docks.... I'll also use a tube hooked weedless. 

I'm really conscious about other peoples property. 
Yeah, they can't own the water, but they don't deserve holes in their canvas, nor to have people bouncing heavy hard objects off of their boats.

I do practice casting alot.  Two of the guys I fish with don't.  We spend a lot of time retrieving their hooks and such. 

If you can't go fishing, practice fishing.
If you can't practice fishing, read about or watch fishing on TV.
If you can't do that, go out and buy something for fishing.

When's that swap meet again......

[bosshawg]

tubes, senkos, plastic worms - skip them all up under docks. just got to be a little careful w/others property. if a home owner comes out and wants to start something, i just move along. tain't worth the hassel to get in a argument. fished a tournament on whitmore last year and had the guy come out of his house & took pictures of us and all. no idea what he planned to do w/them, but never the less we just moved on.....we can all get along 

[djkimmel]

Maybe he just thought one of you were cute?!?

[bosshawg]

 well don't know abt the cute stuff (i mean chk out my pic!!!)
but haven't seen my mug shot or boat posted in the post office.......

[djkimmel]

You don't appear to be missing either...?

[thedude]

coming from Indiana - anyone who as ever fished in Kosciouku (sp?) county knows what i'm talking about
wawasee, maxinkuckee, tippy, james etc.....

> had guy come out and tell me to not fish by his back yard  because his kids swim out there and he doesn't want them to get a hook in their foot - he alos points out there is no fish around there anyeway. All this while i can see bass cruising the 3' crystal clear sand flat and his kids are swimming in the fancy inground pool next to his 500k$ house.

>i  cast by a pier and a guy on a jet ski who was pulling into asked if it was in my way and if he wanted me to move it. Wasn't in a tourney and had two of my larger friends w/ me so i told the pr!ckto go right ahead and to try not to hurt his.... "lady parts" in the process

> old lady  came out and started screaming obsentities at me for casting near her dock. Said she was calling the cops... i told i would wait right where i was until they got there... and proceeded to catch a nice 18" toad while we were waiting. .... she never called.

one old guy asked me once if i would like it if he threw a bait and hit my boat because i tossed a sinko by his boat. I said "what? hit my boat with a weightles soft-plastic worm? go right ahead.. got anything in watermelon?"


Typically - if there is an owner on their dock or yard and i'm planning on fishing it, i ask them if they mind...i've never had anyone say no - never hurts to be courteous.