Was I justified?

As I am fishing a particular shoreline and I see this bass boat coming behind me from the other side of the lake. Two guys pull up and go right in front of me, maybe 50-75 feet away. I yell over to the guy that I'm fishing here and that maybe there's somewhere else he wants to try. He responds with. "Are you fishing a tournament?" "No" I reply. He states " Well we are and we won't get in your way, we're just gonna work our way down" again I voice my displeasure at his inabiltiy to grasp the concept that I'm fishing there. He ignores me now and continues to keep fishing. I put down the rod and troll in front of him about 20 yards ahead to a laydown tree in the water. Cast my speedworm to the outer limbs and feel a solid thump, I set the hook and get into a nice fish, I boat a nice 2.5 lb bass, hold it up and yell this one would be a good tournament fish huh guys?, then release it and motor away. A few comments I could not make out from the duo but I didn't care I was happy. The boater seemed a little more than upset.

Question: Was I right in doing what I did? Or should I have trolled to a different location considering I wasn't in a Tournament. What would you have done. One suggestion was to try and see what I could snag from their deck with my lures. What are the groups thoughts? I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Now days, discretion is the better part of valor for me....I would have just motored on out of there to quieter waters....and went fishin!

John

Way to go!

I don't like the Tournament Fishing attitude. Some of those guys figure because they've paid an entrance fee they have no obligation to be courteous.

Having said that, if it was me I'd have just paddled away. Life's too short to let jerks mess with my fishing. Now, when I was younger there's no tellin' what kind of mayhem I might have perpetrated on those a**holes. ;-)

I have pulled off many a bank and gone somewhere else even when I was unethically (If not against the rules) cut off by another tournament angler. It makes me mad, but I try to get over it and get back to fishing.

Doug

I love fishing tournaments, but would never think my time on the water is more valuable than the next guys. If I see bank fisherman on a shoreline I like to fish, I don't fish it. If I see a boat anchored near an area I am going to fish, I ask if they mind if I sneak past them. I think a lot of people see these big sparkly boats and right away have a negative attitude about us for reasons such as Randys. I do my best to counter those attitudes here on Winnebago. I think more of us need to stand up and think about others as well, regardless if you are in a tournament or not. My last tournament on the 28th , I had 3 boats come into my waters (within 10 yards of my boat) that were also in the tournament I was fishing. They saw we were on the smallies and kept creeping closer and closer. A 4th boat, saw my marker buoy and would not come any closer than that (over 100 yards away). We were fishing back and forth between 2 points. It just goes to show that some people could care less about anyone else, and some people respect others.

Randy, I think what you did was awesome, and the guys got what they deserved. It would have been even more funny if you followed them all day, they would have probably broke down completely though. Oh well, i just wish there was more respect out there.

Chris

Chris

Rich P

sket

Even if you don't show up they will probalby worry so much the rest of the day they won't be able to catch fish.

An awful lot of tournament anglers -- I'd even go so far as to say it's a majority of them -- seem to think that being in a tournament gives them some extra rights on the water over the recreational angler. The more 'casual' that angler appears to be, the more they act as if it's their God given right to ignore his presence. Personally, I've always felt the opposite. The tourney angler should give the recreational angler the right of way, so to speak.

Truth be told though, I've had recreational anglers as well as tourney anglers do this to me. It's not acceptable behavior no matter who is doing it.

By leapfrogging him and cutting him off, you kind of stooped to his level. By catching a fish in front of him, you could have torqued him off to dangerous levels. Like the several other of the old timers here, I'd be more inclined these days to avoid confrontation. But I'd have tried my damndest to catch one BEHIND him, then remarked to no-one in particular that guys who can't catch 'em in the first place probably shouldn't be in tourneys.

I also thought Ronnie's suggestion was quite good. Kind of like the one I used in a "situation" with a property owner who had set out "private swimming area" buoys in front of his house. I was fishing down the bank when he came out and started yelling at me for fishing in a "marked swimming area". It's illegal in CT to put out any kind of buoy without a permit from the state. Of course none of these yahoos actually have permits. So I got out my camera and took a couple pictures of the buoys, and told him that the permit # is supposed to be prominently displayed on them (which I kind of made up on the spot. Not sure that the actual reg says about that), and asked him for the permit number. He threatened to call the marine patrol, and I said, "Good, it'll save me the trouble." He went back inside, then came out on his deck with a cell phone in his hand, and stood there for a few minutes. Never made a call. Just went back inside eventually.