great trip; some rude fishermen

[happycamper]

We spent two weeks camping and fishing on Namakan. The fishing was fantastic for the first five , followed by 4 slow days and then picked up again. We fished an area where the bite was strong for a few days with lots of boats, all were friendly. Some anchored, others trolled and then some drifted, no trouble. Later at another spot, we were drifting, came closer to an area where a Fazer Smokercraft was trolling, but initially not near us. He changed direction directly toward us and as he aproached yelled "move your boat" and eventually ran the nose of his boat into ours.

There was another case where only one other boat was fishing and moving away from us quite a distance, turned and as he came closer, asked us if we had to fish out of his pocket when there was this huge lake here. We also noticed a few other fishermen setting out two markers, fished between them giving us the impression he was staking out his own private fishing area.

[reinhard1]

Welcome to HSO!!well for the most part it sounds like you had a great trip. always some boneheads around, and unfortunatly you ran into a few. running the nose of his boat into yours is childish and pathetic. i think some people think they own certain territories of the water for some reason. glad you didn't let a couple of bozo's ruin a great trip in an awesome area to be anytime. good luck.

[SkunkedAgain]

Yeah, welcome to the forums!

I'm sure that you'll get 100 shades of answers on this one. However, I'm with reinhard1 on this - boneheads. If they were really upset (and smart) they would have just moved. I've been in that situation before when I felt that someone moved in and crowded me out. Instead of starting something, I just moved on to another spot and enjoyed my day. These guys sounded like they needed to be macho. Common these days unfortunately.

[Friar_Tuck]

if you were drifting & not under power, no matter what isn't the boat thats running under power the one obligated to change course?

[SledNeck]

This is why I'll just go fish another spot if someone is one a reef or shoreline. Ive never had someone run into me, but Ive had people pull up infront of where I was trolling and anchored

[Kab Kid]

Welcome Happycamper,

I thought like the others that I should say my peace here...I may have had the same smokercraft pushing me last weekend. It was busy and we found fish a bit spotty. In the past few weeks with walleyes on the reefs it's amazing how boats close in after the nets come out a couple times. I have NO PROBLEM if someone joins my trolling pattern going back and forth over an area, join the flow and understand that the original boats should get the right away...

Now if you anchor...huge problem if you come into an area that has boats backtrolling around over an area and you anchor. NOT O.K. If you want to anchor then find a spot on the reef without other boats and anchor away. But I had a boat a week ago that witnessed us netting 2-3 nice walleyes on 2 passes over a small area, then proceeded to motor within 6 feet if us and start to drop there anchor exactly where we were reeling up another fish. I could have reached over with my rod and touched them...they did leave after I let them know that I didn't appreciate what they just did...join the flow, don't interupt a pattern...that's just my two cents!

[Satchmo]

This issue has come up many times and in my opinion it all boils down to common respect. I completely agree with Kabkid that if an area is full of trolling boats you should not drop anchor in the middle of them. When the bite gets tough the swarming begins. I fish many, many different areas on Kab, but have resorted to the community spots on occasion. I have witnessed many times guys drop anchor on the trollers, but I have also had the opposite happen. One time, I sat on a favorite little corner of one of the reefs with my kids doing some precision corkin'. As evening progressed and the walleyes moved up to feed, we started getting very steady action as the trollers were finding a very slow bite. Two of those boats trolled sooo close they hooked my fairly short anchor rope. One gentleman even had the gall to ask me to pull up my anchor and unhook him while we were catching fish. I certainly was not going to stop netting fish for my kids. It was bad enough that I was going to have to pull up my anchor at dark with hooks in the rope. I think with 25 thousand acres we can all find enough room and if we show a little respect to each other things will be fine. Let's have fun out there.

[SledNeck]

Kab and Rainy are both bad for "net watching". I have never in my life moved in on someone cause I saw their net out. BUT tons of people do it. Whats funny, is if Im not catching any on a certain spot, I'll dip the net in a few times just to screw with people!

Ive now resorted to black painted bouys. They work awesome.

[Xplorer]

I wont even consider throwing a buoy anymore, and many times will resist reeling in a fish if a boat is passing by. I will keep the rod low until they are past.

[SledNeck]

I hand land alot of fish. Boy is that scary!

Buoy is nice in the wind to put on the edge of a rock pile or something so I can drift on a perfect line past it

[pikestabber]

Two years ago while trapping crayfish (on a busy lake, and 4th of July to boot) my brother and I had quite the funny experience. We ran our line of ten traps about 30 yards apart along a weed edge in shallow water. We dropped our traps (which all have orange painted pop bottles for markers) as we went and kept motoring along in a straight line. Even though it only took about 20 minutes to set them, by the time we got the last one in and had turned around to head back to the dock there was not one, not two, but THREE different boats trolling around our "buoys" in 5' of water and fishing away! We almost died laughing!

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

I wont even consider throwing a buoy anymore, and many times will resist reeling in a fish if a boat is passing by. I will keep the rod low until they are past.

I love that move! sometimes i just slow reel the fish and take my hand off the reel and wave to the other people as they drive by... 50% of the time it works everytime!

[bobbymalone]

If someone literally hits my boat, on purpose, that guy had better hope he can still swim with a muskie lure buried up his rear.

[gizmoguy]

Take a brightly colored oil jug and tie on 2 feet of line with a weight. toss it out and let it drift. it will pull the spot chasers along with it. Gits them out of the way and great for some laughs.

[Lostbay]

For me it's all about where you are fishing. For example when I fish he community spots I expect a little less common sense by some and don't get too worked up about any thing. Luckily I've rarely had people anchor in my drift/troll and never had someone charge me. Now if you are in some out of the way spot, small reef or bay and someone nudges in on you that is uncalled for. I try to stick at least 100 feet or so from others when I enter a community spot, at least till I figure out the drift or trolling pattern. I agree with others that if it's not a community spot I go some where else or get nowhere close to the original boat, too many other spots.

I've noticed that most (not all) people that have crept up near me are novices or new to the lake. If they are nice and not too close I am more than happy to share what little knowledge I have, especially families with kids out fishing. 95% of people I encounter on kab are great and I don't mind fishing near others with common sense.

I'm not too proud to admit I've hooked an anchor rope(all my fault) in the past while drifting. Luckily I realized I was the silly-me and broke it off.

[JAK]

Welcome Happycamper,

I thought like the others that I should say my peace here...I may have had the same smokercraft pushing me last weekend. It was busy and we found fish a bit spotty. In the past few weeks with walleyes on the reefs it's amazing how boats close in after the nets come out a couple times. I have NO PROBLEM if someone joins my trolling pattern going back and forth over an area, join the flow and understand that the original boats should get the right away...

Now if you anchor...huge problem if you come into an area that has boats backtrolling around over an area and you anchor. NOT O.K. If you want to anchor then find a spot on the reef without other boats and anchor away. But I had a boat a week ago that witnessed us netting 2-3 nice walleyes on 2 passes over a small area, then proceeded to motor within 6 feet if us and start to drop there anchor exactly where we were reeling up another fish. I could have reached over with my rod and touched them...they did leave after I let them know that I didn't appreciate what they just did...join the flow, don't interupt a pattern...that's just my two cents!

X2 I agree!!!

I would add that I make a very concerted effort when approaching an area to see if the boats are there fishing. If there are boats present then I watch to see if they are working a drift, jigging, rigging, or trolling. I then make sure to set up and work a different depth or area from them. If they move over to where I'm at, I move out of their way. I continue to do this unless they start to “chase” me.

While I normally don’t like to fish around a bunch of boats, there are times when I have run 20+ miles one way to fish an area. I’m not going to leave because someone feels like they “own” a reef. Of course this is ONLY if the reef is large enough for multiple boats to fish on/at.

Common sense goes a LONG ways! Unfortunately some don’t have common sense or lack the experience to fully understand fishing etiquette.

[happycamper]

Thanks for all the sensible replies.