Let’s say your fishing in a bay and catching one fish after another, a boat comes speeding up, shuts down and the two guys on that boat start slinging for Muskie. Their wake bonces your boat up and down and breaks your anchor loose. Then one is throwing a white Bull Dawg and the other a Black Crusader w/ red dots. Yes, they are so close you can see the lures. Then this boat comes close to circling your boat and moves on to fish the rest of that bay. Or your fishing shallow weeds 30 yards out, in front of an island, when a boat appears from the other side of the island and is casting towards the shoreline. While still casting for BASS this boat passes between your boat and the island. Did I mention we were 30 yards from the Island? Oh, yes, I did. THEN, you have been looking for that one fishing hot spot all day and you finally found a great location and you start catching the fish. A boat passes slowly, OR you see people looking through binoculars and they see you’re catching fish, the boat that passed by turns around, comes back and anchors. The people that have been watching you moves in also. These anglers are now close enough to your boat that you can hear their whispering conversation. YEP, ALL OF THESE THINGS HAVE HAPPENED TO ME.

There are unwritten rules every angler should know and If anglers don’t know these rules, how about common sense. 1^st, To the MUSKIE GUYS, and don’t get me wrong, I have fished for Muskies, but if you see people catching panfish, that will tell me a Muskie is NOT in the area, because the fish will leave, and that area will shut down. 2^nd To the BASS HEADS, (I FISH FOR BASS TOO) you DON’T go between a boat and an island if your boat has to come within 20 feet of another person’s boat to do so. 3^rd to the BALLSY PEOPLE that can’t find fish on their own. If you do not know the people in the other boat or the other anglers do not invite you to fish with them, DON’T fish by them. Staying at least 75 yards away from other boat is not just common sense, but respectful.

If we are catching fish at one location or are leaving a spot and we see a boat with children on it, Monica and I have no problem going by their boat to tell them to fish the area we just left or invite them to come closer to us, so the kids can catch fish. That is a totally different situation then the things I mentioned above and there is something about the excitement of kids catching fish that I love, and I believe most people would agree with me on that, because they are the future of fishing. When those fishing instances happened to us, I didn’t say anything, just shook my head, but that did not stop Monica from giving her opinion on the subject loudly. We can all share the same water, be it, skiers, jet skiers, people just out for a boat ride or folks fishing. I’m just saying, please slow down, give anglers some space and use some common sense or fishing etiquette.