Harassment

I have been targeted several times and now I hear of others lately. While fishing bass with live bait I was approached twice this year by bass guys attempting to run me off my spot. Agrivating but I let it go. But recently I have heard of more guys who keep bass to eat being harassed or “pushed off their spot”. I certainly hope this is a select few instances, but I am starting to hear more of it. Sure hope this isn’t a trend, we all need to get along on the lake.

sticker wrote:

I have been targeted several times and now I hear of others lately. While fishing bass with live bait I was approached twice this year by <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>bass guys attempting to run me off my spot. Agrivating but I let it go. But recently I have heard of more guys who keep <em class=”ido-tag-em”>bass to eat being harassed or “pushed off their spot”. I certainly hope this is a select few instances, but I am starting to hear more of it. Sure hope this isn’t a trend, we all need to get along on the lake.

Sticker, although I am a bass guy and I would not specifically target a bass with live bait or keep one, harassing or aggrevating someone who appears to be doing so is shameful and disrespectful. I have not heard of such a thing happening. I have heard of tournament boats trying to push recreational anglers off their spot before though, for both walleye and bass. I think some tournament anglers think that because they are in competition, they have more of a right to be there than someone who is not in a tournament.

I can recall an incident occurring years ago when the walleye closure time period was just starting and a launch with the governor and a vikings player out of Fishers targeting smallmouth were harassed by a dozen walleye boats. The boats drove circles around the launch, held up signs, and swore at them because they didn’t agree with the new regs.

I’m a so called Bass Guy and I also Keep bass a few times a year to eat. I normally only keep them real early in the spring and late in the fall when the water temps are cooler. I target fish in the 12-13″ range for eating and target lakes with a over population of this size fish. I have never been harassed or seen anyone who has been. It would not end well if anyone harassed me for keeping a fish that is fully legal to keep. I would not change what you are doing simply to please some A-holes !!!

Harassment is not warranted. You are fishing per the regulations on the body of water. Do I fish for bass and keep them ? no. But I would never put down or harass anyone that is exercising their legal rights. Sportsman and fisherman need to be united. None of this my preferred methods is the only methods etc.
I would get boat number and call DNR if they really harass you as it is against the law.

Mwal

sticker wrote:

I have been targeted several times and now I hear of others lately. While fishing bass with live bait I was approached twice this year by <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>bass guys attempting to run me off my spot. Agrivating but I let it go. But recently I have heard of more guys who keep <em class=”ido-tag-em”>bass to eat being harassed or “pushed off their spot”. I certainly hope this is a select few instances, but I am starting to hear more of it. Sure hope this isn’t a trend, we all need to get along on the lake.

Did they think you were targeting something else since you were using livebait? I am not condoning their actions just curious.
Its irritating when folks piling right in on a person like that and its happened to me on many occasions too.

That is BS.I’m a bass guy and fished a fair amount of tournaments.I never even thought about harassing anyone if there catch and keeping a few.May have swore under my breath a time or two.
If it happens again let them have it sticker.
I have known a coupla a-holes through the years that could be like that,there fun to PO at the landing though.

Whip out your phone and film their boat numbers and then video everything they say. Don’t respond, don’t move. Just record everything. They will move along.

sticker wrote:

I have been targeted several times and now I hear of others lately. While fishing bass with live bait I was approached twice this year by <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>bass guys attempting to run me off my spot. Agrivating but I let it go. But recently I have heard of more guys who keep <em class=”ido-tag-em”>bass to eat being harassed or “pushed off their spot”. I certainly hope this is a select few instances, but I am starting to hear more of it. Sure hope this isn’t a trend, we all need to get along on the lake.

Probably select few instances. Do you know they were pushing you off your spot because you were keeping fish or they saw you catching fish and wanted in the action.
Lots of A holes in this world and they have come out of the woodwork the last 24 months.
Just move to a new spot bass are dumb. Especially for live bait.

While fishing for trout I was ‘questioned’ as to why I was using a spinning rig and had kept two for the frying pan by a ‘fly fisher’.
Only once. Several years ago.

Leo Dogg wrote:

While fishing for trout I was ‘questioned’ as to why I was using a spinning rig and had kept two for the frying pan by a ‘fly fisher’.
Only once. Several years ago.

I had the opposite thing happen. I was fishing my way down stream and ran into a guy with a spinning rod working up stream. He started apologizing to me because he didn’t have a fly rod. Nope, we’re both fishermen and that’s the only thing that matters. We had a nice chat and then went on our way.

The only people harassing me this year are the weed police. I had one last week demand to look into my live well and other compartments. I told him to get a warrant. He said he had a right to do this! I laughed in his face and told him “Nice try. Now go read the Constitution”.

SR

Bass are no different than any other game species. It doesn’t hurt to keep and eat some. Keeping smaller ones can help increase the average size in lakes that have any shortage of forage.

What once seemed rare is all to often becoming a norm. Hearing and seeing too much of this. Not thing wrong with expressing your opinion in a respectful manor. But people forcefully pushing their agenda on law abiding people needs to be addressed soon. Seems like things are escalating. Won’t be long before someone is shot and killed because they didn’t know enough to not be an azz

Randy Wieland wrote:

What once seemed rare is all to often becoming a norm. Hearing and seeing too much of this. Not thing wrong with expressing your opinion in a respectful manor. But people forcefully pushing their agenda on law abiding people needs to be addressed soon. Seems like things are escalating. Won’t be long before someone is shot and killed because they didn’t know enough to not be an azz

Wasn’t there a guy stabbed to death on the at croix a few years back due to a dispute?

I recently had someone try to push me off a spot while I was in anchor mode/spot lock and he was back trolling pulling lindy rigs for walleyes

When I got to the reef, he was 40+ yards away from where I spot locked, he started backtrolling toward me, and got to the point I could have shaken hands with him and the other 2 in his boat. they had to pull up their lines to avoid my trolling motor as they passed by and I thought his boat was going to hit mine.

I was going to let his boat him mine as I would have put a scratch in his sparkles more than my 13yr old Alumacraft..

Nobody owns a spot/reef/hump and If I feel I give enough space when I pull up to a location, dont try to push me off. I should mention this was on a different lake, but felt the need to share my most recent experience with being harassed while fishing

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Randy Wieland wrote:</div>
What once seemed rare is all to often becoming a norm. Hearing and seeing too much of this. Not thing wrong with expressing your opinion in a respectful manor. But people forcefully pushing their agenda on law abiding people needs to be addressed soon. Seems like things are escalating. Won’t be long before someone is shot and killed because they didn’t know enough to not be an azz

Wasn’t there a guy stabbed to death on the at croix a few years back due to a dispute?

Yes that happened but I was a bunch of trash talk and yelling accross the river. That escalated quickly to some one driving across and saying it to there faces which ended in a death.

As to the harassment, just be a little crazier then them and stand your ground.

We occasionally keep bass for my daughter to practice learning how to clean fish, and my mother in law eats the fillets. If I got crap for keeping a bass or using live bait from somebody on the water, I’d probably highly consider following that person around and fish next to them keeping every big bass I could catch to fill a limit; While making a nice show of bleeding the gills before tossing in the cooler. Then I’d probably mention loudly how well the cats are going to eat.

bigstorm wrote:

When I got to the reef, he was 40+ yards away from where I spot locked, he started backtrolling toward me, and got to the point I could have shaken hands with him and the other 2 in his boat. they had to pull up their lines to avoid my trolling motor as they passed by and I thought his boat was going to hit mine.

That’s way too close for me. If I can cast to another boat, they are too close. I would never go that close to someone that was clearly anchored or working one specific spot. If I see someone is working up a shoreline, I won’t go in front of them either unless its WAY in front of them. Like several hundred yards.

Normally I do not run into proximity problems with other fishing boats. The issue I have is with recreational watercraft (not on Mille Lacs).

bigstorm wrote:

I recently had someone try to push me off a spot while I was in anchor mode/spot lock and he was back trolling pulling lindy rigs for walleyes
When I got to the reef, he was 40+ yards away from where I spot locked, he started backtrolling toward me, and got to the point I could have shaken hands with him and the other 2 in his boat.

40 yards(120 feet) is less that the width of most peoples front yards.

He was probably plenty pissed you parked yourself that close. The least you could have done is give him some room to maneuver or pulled in and “anchored” after he passed by.