Crowding

[WKSparrow]

Not a new topic, but a new twist...

I put my permanent shack out the first weekend in Jan... at least 400 yards from anyone else. Was isolated for awhile, and did fairly well until 2nd weekend in Feb - when I went up and found six wheel houses (in 2 groups of 3) within 75 yards of house. Had worst weekend yet.

Until this weekend, when we went up and found the wheel houses gone, but TWO RENTAL HOUSES within 50 yards of my front door.

The twist?? The owners of the rental houses are persons whom I have seen on this forum many, many, many times complaining of people crowding their houses.

The 'rules' these people create to attack others apparently don't apply to them. I have patronized the same access point exclusively for the last 5 years. I will be looking for a new place to access URL for next year.

Just had to vent. Thanks.

[kelly-p]

I don't know if this is directed at me or not but this past weekend we only had 3 houses in new places. 2 of them 1/4 mile apart 7 miles out and the other 1/2 mile south from them.

[WKSparrow]

Not you Kelly-P...

I dont want to get into trouble by naming names, so...

[18 inch Crappie]

The law says 10 feet, so any place is free game I guess.

[JustinG]

I don't think its funny - what ever happened to just plain old good sportsmanship? Are people that desperate to catch a fish that they need to be in someone's lap?

Laws are laws yes, but where is the common sense?

Justin

[Random guy]

I never could understand it. I like to fish out by myself. Often the fishing is better and I get some peace and quite along with some privacy. I don't want somebody fifteen feet away when I am cussing at "stupid fish", picking my nose, scratching or slipping and falling on my...

[kelly-p]

Thanks WK. That's something I always try to avoid but as fast as we are moving around it's all kinda turning into a blur. One thing to keep in mind that is that this year when Agassiz road runs across Hillman's road there are now 10 or so rental outfits in an area where in the past there were only Foster, Buddy and me. There's a lot of shoulder rubbing and headbutting going on. I can almost guess where your house is from your desciption of what has happened. Unfortunately it looks like you ended up right between 2 rental outfits going nose to nose. 2 well respected bothers that like to scout around and find places off by themselves have been in that same area(I think) as you the past month. (Lite tan wheelhouse maybe 8X10 or12) Last week they had some trouble with a rental outfit with wheel houses that setup right alongside. They walked over and complained and that night someone dumped a pile of walleye carcases on their door step. That's when the 2nd rental outfit moved in to back up their friends in the lite tan house.

[brady_d]

I couldn't believe when we pulled up to our permanent house this last weekend. It was on the ice and we hadn't been up there in 2 weeks. There were marks where portables had been set up and holes that had been drilled right next to the house. They couldn't have been any farther than 10 feet from our front door.

[cast_and_blast]

I was up over the weekend in a portable and I guess I have a little different take - I really didn't see anyone crowding me at all!

I did have one guy almost drive over my tip-up when driving to me to ask how fishing was...you couldn't get out of your truck and walk 50 feet? I felt like telling him that fishing was good unless you drive right next to the hole.

Overall folks were very polite and seemed to keep their distance - always appreciated.

Good Luck!

Scott

[MOBY RICHARD*]

Crowding on the lake can definately be a problem, especially if someone does rely on the 10 foot rule, but a little perspective on the 50 yard distance would not hurt.

50 yards/150 feet, away from any side of you, gives you over a 100 yard/300 foot diameter, which makes you the only house within about 1.6 acres. I would call that pretty generous considering that the law allows for only a little more than 314 square feet of privacy, plus the square footage of the house.

Put that on a more practical square grid of 300X300 and you have over 2 Acres.

With the 400 yard distance that you set up on, you are talking about hoping to reserve over 103 Acres for your group on the radius basis, and over 132 Acres on the more practical 800X800 square grid.

Lets see, approximately 48,000 Acres East of the Line, divided by 132 Acres, equals just over 363 Fish houses that would be allowed under these parameters.

I don't think it will happen. There are about that many rental houses out there. They generally get out there first, and stay till the last, so I guess no one else would be able to go out once they are set up.

A lot of people are complaining about not being able to fish west of the line, yet are unwilling to share the 48,00 Acres east of the line.

Let us not forget, many have fished the same spot we set up on. There is no telling how many people have this as their favorite spot, or as a reliable spot punched into their GPS.

As much as I would like to be the only one on the lake, it is neither fair nor reasonable to expect that because we set up a certain distance away from others that all others following should remain that same distance away.

On most lakes one could only wish there was enough room to set up 50 Yards away from every one, let alone still being able to be close enough to a good spot.

As we well know, on Red, even 10 feet can make all the difference, let alone 10 yards.

[Desperado]

I've been going icefishing at URL every year for nine years now. Some of those years I made as many as 6 different trips to URL during ice season.

I've used/paid for access at Hillmans, Hudecs and WestWinds and have always been satisfied with each of them.

My number of trips to URL this year will be zero. . . hmmmm ? ? ?

[WKSparrow]

Thanks for the insight Kelly P and for the math Moby...

However, I would never expect to keep a 400 yard cushion... as you've eloquently pointed out, that's not realistic. However, I think 100 yards is not too much to expect. Less than 50 is way too close - this isn't much further than archery deer range!

As pertains to the law involved, let's keep in mind that the law is written to be universal to all lakes - and has to work for even small lakes near the metro area. URL is a totally different story in terms of the available fishing acreage. I think that most people who have fished URL a lot believe that there is enough room not to set up 50 yards away - especially this year, which I think, (and real veterans like Kelly can feel free to correct me) because of the lack of snow cover, has the most accessible acreage I've seen in the last five years, and likely even more...

Thanks for the dialog!

[kelly-p]

48,000 acres to fish, 80% of that within 1 foot of the same depth. Need anyone say more.