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Posts: 686
Location: Tomahawk, Wisconsin | I guess everyone has had it happen where you are working a spot only to have a boat cut in on you and cut you off, sometimes it is blatant and quite obvious, other times no so and you end up going around each other or off to the next spot. We all fish different size waters some with heavy pressure, what is too close, or where do you draw a line as to getting a spot? An area that encompasses multiple structural elements, drifting a flat, doing a conga line down a shoreline, these are all different situations that seem to have different protocols as to how close is too close. What are your opinions???? |
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Posts: 1137
Location: Holly, MI | I can't control the next guy, or even try. If they feel too close I'll give them the evil eye and move off. On a small lake I think we have to be more tolerant of eachother. On a big lake I better not be albe to cast a heavy lure as far as the other boat. It is a chance to lead by example even though that will never effect some people. Enjoy your time on the water, leave the stresses on the shore, relax & enjoy. |
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Posts: 367
Location: Chicago | Dave thats why I like only having one day off on the weekend and two days off during the week. Just fish when you are all alone on the water..  There better be some courtesy shown on the water, but hell if there isnt is it really worth fighting over? Life is too short. I will be up soon.
Ryan |
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Posts: 2427
Location: Ft. Wayne Indiana | When another boat moves into an area that I am fishing I will stay there until we get to close. Once we get to close, I usually say, "Go ahead, I'll pull out." I will pull off the spot, and start the run again. I don't think it is that big of deal. Some people just don't understand. I am hoping by doing what I do, I am teaching them proper lake and boat manners.
I have only been burned once.... One time I let a guy go through the same spot I was fishing, and as soon as I pulled off the spot, BAM, 45 incher!
O well, be polite, I believe it teaches them the better side of fishing and boating. |
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Posts: 2515
Location: Waukesha & Land O Lakes, WI | Lob hits the nail on the head....I used to be a "road rage" angler...launching "f" bombs, casting over his lines, going around and cutting him off...you name it. Then it dawned on me..."I'm losing my own time on the water".
Now I try to use what a bone head does to my advantage....cast in his wake, cast where he just did with something different, try to use him as an attactor.
It sucks to be cut off, but there's nothing you can do, the sport is getting so popular that soon you'll need to take a ticket to fish a spot. |
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Posts: 1023
Location: Lafayette, IN | I also do what Gander does, cast in the wake. Seems to make sense in light of our success drawing fish in the propwash while trolling. It still irritates me when someone cruises by a cast length from the boat and there is no one else in the area they're yielding for. Oh well!  |
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| So Chump Cut me off on Lake Vermillion this weekend.
I had already made 2 passes over the spot. I had just pulled up to start the 3rd. I put out the drift sock and there he was. Their was no way he did not know we were going to work the spot again. Without a word they pulled within 1/2 a cast length and 3 guys started tossing baits right into our drift and toward our boat.
The up side is I was the guy who caught the fish. Our cast overlapped by 6 feet and landed about that far apart. 45" for me Nothing for Him. |
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Posts: 8865
| Man, don't you just wonder? Sometimes I think they do it because they think "Hey, look at that guy -- he looks like he knows what he's doing, let's fish by him and do what he does and maybe we'll catch a fish"
Sorry boys, I know about as much as you do about catching muskies, but I DO know to stay away from other boats!!
Then there's the chasers... Every time you move off a spot they move on it, follow you around all day. Almost as annoying.
Wait what was the question? Oh yeah too close... Too close is "if I can throw a 7.5" phantom and hit your boat"
I mean seriously guys -- you can SEE we're working a drift, if you're gonna camp out on the same spot, do it BEHIND us, ok?
I just let em go and shoot 'em some nasty looks. Not worth getting in a fight over.
I'll admit to wanting to cast onto their boat and see if I can snag a few rods or maybe a tackle box, though.
"Whoops, sorry about that!! Just learning how to use a baitcaster. I hope that wasn't an expensive rod!!" |
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Posts: 1023
Location: Lafayette, IN | I think we've all had that impulse...  |
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| The question about making the third pass on the same structure.
Obviously it depends on the lake. But down here in Madison...if your are on your THIRD time through a small spot and I had been waiting to fishing it patiently from a far....I am coming in. You had your shot at the spot...so don't get pissed like a dog over a bone if I start to work the spot too. I try and slide in behind you or whatever and I am not rude...but don't get pissed if I try and pick it apart. We have guys like that here....and then they get mad when someone else wants to work the spot. I don't "cut them off". A lot of times I start at the other end and work towards them...
Now if I am on Eagle Lake...its a different story...little more leway there...but if they are camped...I mean really camped...I will still start working the spot from a far towards them. If I go and fish three other spots and the boat is still hovered...I gave them a respectable amount of time to fish it in my book. Again...I move in respectively...
This is NOT cutting people off....just to clarify....little different twist....
What are others thoughts on this?
Cory |
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Posts: 8865
| Dammit Cory, I KNEW that was you!
You love the East end of Monona in the morning, don't you?
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Posts: 10
| Your talking about a "noodler" not a "cut-off". The Noodler raises a fish and sits on top of it for the next 12 hours and throws every piece of hardware in his boat but won't move more then 10' from the spot he saw the fish.
I just go around the Noodler. As far as I'm concerned if there is a hot fish there. The Noodler has already bounced 27 lures off her head and she's not going to strike anything anyway.
Noodlers don't bother me much because I don't agree with their approach to muskies. I'd rather leave the fish and come back to her later. The Noodler will waste a whole day working 1 fish and miss the feeding frenzy going on 200yds down the break line.
The worst is the "Cut-off Noodler"! They pull in 30' in front of your boat in the path that your taking and then don't move. Those guys drive me nuts!
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Posts: 8865
| I agree with you on having a fish up -- I give them 10 minutes and then leave 'em alone for an hour or so. If she's there at 2:00, she'll probably be there at 3:30.
This is a fun game for the followers (the kind without fins) Find a dead spot, ANY dead spot. Throw a few casts, then do some serious figure 8's, walk her around the boat, then grab a different bait, throw a few casts, do like 12 figure 8's, go deep, do a cirlcle or two, then yell to your partner "did you see THAT??? Whoa, man it was HUGE! We gotta hit this spot again in a little while!!!" Then promptly move to another spot and watch your new buddy beat the water to a froth looking for the fish you had up...
I know it's mean, but its fun.
When I see somebody who's obviously working a fish, I give 'em some space. It's hard work getting one to go, and if you have one up I don't want to be the guy who comes over 5 minutes after you left and sticks it.
Now, in the boat it's another story!! You bring up a fish when I'm in the boat and I'm casting right back at it! |
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Posts: 1245
Location: Madtown, WI | ahhh....no fish down on the east end...
I have to clarify a little here. In Madison it is getting to be a VERY poplar spot to muskie fish. There are a LOT of unfished spots...but most spots are going to have a boat on them most times...at least somewhere near spots. Its how you move in to fish is important.
One thing I have done only a few times...but if a boat went out around the point and was now working its way down the shore...I may pull right in behind them...but go the other way....sometimes there are that many boats in the area. No I personally don't concider this rude...given the lake is full...different story if I am on the lake at 4:30 am and 2 other boats are on the water. Its a numbers thing.
I think a list of what folks think is acceptable is nice, but I also think that is will vary greatly from person to person and crowd conditions.
Cory
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Location: Contrarian Island | I second what Cory said..there are guys that camp on the same one or 2 spots all the #*^@ time here...it's the same guys everytime...
I never try to cut off or move in a guy but if they are camped I think it's fair game to work in from a distance... |
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Posts: 8865
| When its crowded you pretty much have to squeeze in where you can and try not to get in anyone's way, I agree with you there.
That's why I usually fish it during the week if possible. |
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Posts: 32958
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I work the water much slower than the average muskie angler, so I have boats that start pretty far behind me run past me all the time, and those who haed toward me get confused and think I'm working a single fish. I just let them go on by moving up or out, whichever is better for that area, watching to see where they miss opportunities and hitting those areas carefully as I cover the structure. I'm a jig fisherman by trade, so the careful dissection of the water is hard to kick to the gutter, especially since it works so well for me. Also, I could care less if someone else has worked water in front of me, I just offer the muskies something other than what they were cooking and see if a chnnge in the menu will get one to eat.
A boat under power makes no difference at all to the fish as it goes by , so it makes no difference to me unless it's so close as to be breaking the law. That will get you a glare, but not because I am worried about the fishing. If I pulled up on that spot 1 minute after that boat went by, I would never know it was there. The fish don't care much, that's for sure.
If I see another boat working a smaller spot, I leave it alone until they are off the area. |
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| too close is...
tonight when i put my boat in on a small local lake another guy launches right after me.
we're the only two boats on the lake.
i head over to a nearby corner and start working the area.
he comes right on in to the same spot.
he never got "too" close or within casting range, but when the lake is completely empty, "close" changes.
is this the only spot? i know it's a really small lake, but there's an entire lake out there!
luckily it started pouring rain and that chased him off the lake...but not before i got to watch as he hit the gas and the wind turned his buddy's umbrella inside out.
first off: who brings an umbrella in a boat?
secondly: instant karma!!!
then he goes and whips donuts around the lake (only 50 acres of open water) while his buddy's backing the trailer in...ignoring the fact that it's supposed to be no wake.
sigh. |
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Posts: 1769
Location: Algonquin, ILL | If I can hear you talking in a normal voice your too #*^@ close !
If I can smell your after shave or deodorant your too #*^@ close!
If I can see what your drinking by the label on your Pop / Beer can your too #*^@ close !
There's nothing more fun than when someone cut's you off and then you stick a pig right behind them in the area
they just fished
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