Buoy Hunters!!!!!

[Guest]

Everytime I am fishing mille lacs it is the same thing. I mark a rock pile and am the first person fishing it and than the boats start coming. They see my buoy and just come tearing right into the spot and pull up next to it
i am obviously working the area and they bulldoze right through
THan they think they are geniouses when they catch a fish next to the buoy.
One day in 2 hours my buoy was hooked 4 times. Now come on people have a little common courtesy for the person who has found the spot
Does anyone else have this problem
I am painting all my buoys black but i am sure the buoy hunters will still keep coming
and if you are a buoy hunter reading this
please have some common decency and respect the fisherman who put it there

[GullGuide]

I have 3 rules while guiding, or fishing in general for that matter...
1) NEVER stand up while fighting a fish.
2) NEVER use a net if at all possible.
and 3) NEVER, NEVER, NEVER throw out a bouy.
It seems that they are sure-fire A-Hole magnets, in fact, we threw one out over 80 feet of water one time on Gull just for kicks. You guessed it, we had boat after boat pulling up on it, was almost worth the price of admission
The way things are going on Mille Lacs right now, you basically have to be a total idiot not to catch fish on your own...seems that these bouy hunters are just that.

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Gull Guide Service
fishingminnesota.com/gullguide
Brainerd-Mille Lacs-Willmar
Bemidji-Ottertail

[doubleUcubed]

Gull, those were the exact rules my Dad taught me 30 years ago!! Heck, I think he may even have swatted me in the back of the knee's the first time I ever stood up in a boat! LOL! If you have to throw out a marker don't put it on the spot you caught the fish, keep drifting/trolling and put your marker at least a 150-200 yards away and work your way back to the point you caught the fish. Good Luck!!

[Schnauzer]

OK, here is another angle on the same topic. I have been drifting or trolling an area on more than one occasion when someone decides to pull up and drop a marker. I'm certainly not saying this is the case with "Keepandeat" but I'm throwing this out there as food for thought.

When this happens, I do get a little annoyed because I now not only have to worry about staying on the structure, I have to worry about not getting tangled in a needless marker. I often wonder if the other fisherman thinks I'm fishing "his" spot as I continue about my business.

The worst situation I've encountered was long line trolling Indian point at night last fall. That particular evening there were a lot of boats working the narrow reef that extends from the island but it was going very well - everyone was doing a good job of avoiding each other. Then, this joker comes in and puts out a series of about 4 strobe markers. These things each were about the size of an ice cream pale with a strobe extension rising about 3 feet above the marker. He laid them right out over the crest of the reef! So, for the rest of the time he was there, all the boats working the reef had to slide out to the side - and into each other's way. I finally did get snagged on one of those monstrous markers and lost my lure. I wasn't sure who had put them out because they were strung out while I was taking a long pass next to the point. That one really got me.

For the price of those big annoying markers, the guy could have bought a simple GPS and followed the reef waypoints, without the hassel of deploying and retrieving stuff that looks like it should be in a coast guard boat.

[Whiskeywalleyes]

I got an idea.
1.For those who chase the guides.
2.For those who cruising around until they find a Mille Lacs launched boat catching fish.
3.For those who flock to personal marked locations..

Lets give out some GPS Coordinates to keep these people off of us!
A. the gravel bar. N46 11.112' W93 36.946'
b.7mile flat Keep in out in the middle of the pond. N46 14.342' w93 41.358'
c.9mile N46 14.589' W93 39.700
D.8 mile N46 15.716 w93 42.187

My idea here is to let people have this coordinates and they can angle without chasing other people or launches or guide boat.

Ya all have fun now ya here.
Heck i think we should release every coordinate to everyone?? whats your opinion here guys? It would stop these boats from chasing around pulling up to other people.!!

[Guest]

KeepandEat, This is a little trick I've used in the past. Take a bobber and put a weight on it and use that as your marker? It works! use a bobber big enough for you to see and people bouy hunting will pass right by it! Or if you have a GPS that will work to. Brettskee

[Guest]

schnauzer
i am not one of those idiots
i pulled up to my own rock pile that is very very small
i was the only one there so i thought it would be fine to throw a buoy since it was such a small spot. from now on i will use a gps even though i would rather use a buoy
it is not hard to catch fish on mille lacs
you dont have to buoy hunt to do it
the sad thing is i bet there is a ton of people who wrote down all those coordinances that whiskeywalleyes gave out

[Schnauzer]

I hear ya. That's why I said my post is NOT an example of what you were writing about. Your post just reminded me of some of my frustrations when the shoe is on the other foot when markers come into play.

You are correct, in a situation like yours, I'd be miffed too.

There are some fine lines regarding fishing ethics. Most people can follow them just using common sense. But, they are ethics - not laws. So, unfortunately there are plenty of opportunities for selfish or uncarring people to make it a little tougher on the rest of us.

[GullGuide]

Here is an idea that was given to me by a client-
He told me that he used a plastic seagull as a marker. Not sure where one would get such a thing, but he said it worked well because no one thought twice about stopping, thinking it was just a bird.

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>"////=<
Gull Guide Service
fishingminnesota.com/gullguide
Brainerd-Mille Lacs-Willmar
Bemidji-Ottertail

[Guest]

I think Cabela's sells sea gull decoys, thats a great idea! But it might look strange when you make a close pass but it still is a good idea! Brettskee

[Guest]

If you think that is bad I was anchored slip bobbering last summer on a rock pile . We started to get a few fish and started getting some boats fishing around us. a person casted and got him line caught on our outboard motor. needless to say I was a little miffed and just cut his line (we wouldn't have got it untangled anyway) and then he swore at me for cutting his line. a little strange how some people are. like they the 1% can ruin it for the other 99%

[Guest]

I threw a bouy out last year to mark a spot on a spot when it was real windy. I didn't want to run my gps all the time and I figured it would be all right because nobody was around. I did fine for about an hour until charter boat decided to pull up on my bouy. Not only did the boat pull up near my bouy, it actually cut the roap with its props and then threw out the anchor. I understand that some spots are small and I too have tried fishing the same small rock pile or whatever when others are around, but this was a big flat that had plenty of structure to fish. I had the marker out mainly for orientation, but that's not what the launch boat thought. It happens.......

[Guest]

I have also had problems with a certain guide on mille lacs running a alumnicraft with a honda
i will be working my rock pile using a buoy and he will come in and just circle it and whenever i try and get back close to it he will cut me off
he also trolls 5 mph and always ends up hooking my buoy. He looks like santa claus with his beard maybe he will bring me a new buoy next time he breaks another one of mine
has anyone run into this old timer????i think he is a guide but i am not sure
and if he is reading this put some wd40 on your chair because i hate listening to it squeak!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Whiskeywalleyes]

GullGuide
That is the best thing I have ever heard.
However (1) problem now. You let that cat out of the bag, now your gull trick will be no longer useful everyone on the pond will no longer be driving past those gulls.
But very well though up!

[This message has been edited by Whiskeywalleyes (edited 06-28-2002).]

[Whiskeywalleyes]

If you recently read my post from spinner & beads, I fish the pond on june 26, 27, 28..

I had to try this..
Sunday morning we were pretty much fished out, tired of tossing back NON-slot eyes.
So before we came in we stopped at sherman's point 18' on the rock and tossed in a bouy marker for KICKS!!! bobber fished for ten minutes. All of a sudden we had three boats on us. Now let me Reiterate we were taking a break, eating, drink soda, with our lines out. Had no care in the world if we caught any more fish. Boats were all over us..
Every five minutes I would grab the net and pull up our bobbers... Our group on the boat, got a good kick out the people flocking to us!!! We laughed our buts off..
30 minutes latter we took off. People stayed out there think we were catching the world...
Lots of Laughs

[GullGuide]

Ah, what fun!
Fishing Mille Lacs this weekend, we too fished off of Sherman's Point, mainly to get out of the wind. When we got there we were the only boat even remotely close to the point. Within 20 minutes, we had 10 boats crowding in on us, some even anchoring in our drift path.
Today, we headed out to a gravel area out in the middle of nowhere where I had marked a small rock rise on my gps. There were two of us (boats) so of course, everyone within 5 miles thought that the fish MUST be biting out there if there were two boats so close together in one spot!! So, like on Sunday, a spot we had pretty much all to ourselves was packed with boats within a half hour. To make the story even funnier, we had marked the spot when we first got there with a bouy. A launch, which was cruising towards another spot apparently saw the marker and did a 90 degree turn off of it's course and made a B-Line for the bouy. The young punk of a captain stopped and dropped anchor no more than 20 feet from our bouy!!! The kicker was when we went over to retrieve the bouy, he stared at us and started shaking his head like WE were the ones intruding on HIM!!! Some guide he was huh?

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>"////=<
Gull Guide Service
fishingminnesota.com/gullguide
Brainerd-Mille Lacs-Willmar
Bemidji-Ottertail

[DCICE]

This is all too familiar. My wife and I were on the lake for the first time ever on Thursday. We fished amongst some boats a few miles out from Garrison having a blast(not used to fast action walleye fish'n) We ended up drifting off a bar that had a 32ft saddle between it's two parts. Well, the southern part apparently had not been touched due to the boat chassers. We pounded 'em for hours on top of this 25 ft bar. When we finally found one of the spots on the spot we tossed a bouy out after my wife caught 3 slots back to back. It sure didn't take long before the first of several boats had to take a whack at the bouy. As one boat was setting the hook on a nice 'eye he says... it works! as he starts his motor as to avoid dragging away our floating magnet... my wife saying I guess it's there for a reason!! Off they went! Oh well I need a little help from time to time too! Keep it fun! DC

[Guest]

I have to add to Gullguide's story. We also dropped a buoy in order to give us a reference for our drift path. While we were spanking the Walleyes 200 feet from our buoy their were several boats crowded around in a circle fishing my buoy. Had to laugh LMAO when I saw the look on there faces when we pulled into the circle and reeled up the buoy on our way home

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Paul
[email protected]

[Guest]

I think it would be fun to rig up a bouy to explode with a paint packet like they slip to bank robbers with the cash. Marked as an idiot for days.

[Just4fun]

I knew a guy from a smaller lake that had a great way to get people from fishing around his markers. The lake he lived on didn't have a lot of people on it but, once a marker was seen those that were around would fish around it. He would put markers out in really deep water that he could see from his house and get a laugh out of.

When other people would begin to crowd his good spot markers, he went out at night and would tie a bed spring onto his marker. He used a small rope to snag it about once a week and remove all the lures on it. When he stopped finding lures he would pull out the bed spring until next time.

[Guest]

Give this a try next time you get marker neighbors.

Put out one of those real bright colored liquid detergent bottles as a marker. The trick is, shorten the anchor line. If your're fishing 25ft put out 18 - 20ft of line. The marker will drift away until the anchor holds. 85% of your marker neighbors will drift aimlessly with the marker. Before you kwnow it all the neighbors are 100 yards away.

Just remember to go pick up your marker before you leave the area.

[Guest]

CaptainCurt,

I like your idea of an exploding bouy. I'm going to start working on that concept. I can't wait for the field tests!!!

[Guest]

CaptainCurt,

I like your idea of an exploding bouy. I'm going to start working on that concept. I can't wait for the field tests!!!

[Guest]

I spent 4 days this past weekend fishing the south central gravel bars. On Sunday there were about 20 boats in a 1/2 mile area. I saw quite a few markers being used. Most were not being fished directly but were used as a drift indicator. This tends to be a bit annoying because of the possibility of getting it caught in your equipment. I am alert to my surroundings while fishing , but during the process of boating a tripple , we almost drifted over a black marker. Orange and yellow show up good. Why use one that is only visible from 20' or so? I sometimes look forward to a "bobber boat" or two setting up in the area. This makes a nice drift indicator along with the use of my GPS.
Dino

[huskminn]

The black buoy is used to inconspicuously mark a spot so that Buoy Hunters don't flock in like chickens on a june bug.

I actually have a pleasant story to relate. I was fishing Rocky Reef last weekend with about a dozen other scattered boats. There were two guys in a boat that were back trolling into the wind on a straight line between two markers. They were catching fish. I had been drifting in that area earlier in the day, had left and then returned. In the mean time, they had come in and set up.

I still wanted to drift that general area, but was very careful not to crowd them and not to cut into their route in any way. Other boats around us could easily see that they were catching fish, but no one bothered them or their markers.

Kind of one of those "restore faith in Humanity" situations.

[Nuclear Fishin]

I'm seeing alot of very ego centered people on this forum who think they are just the greatest at walleye fishing. Its good to know that all of you are such experts, but Mille Lacs is a very busy lake with tons of fisherman, so it only makes sense that there will be alot of people on the good spots. Have you ever stopped to consider the fact that maybe those people were planning on fishing the same spots you found, before they arrived, and you only happened to be there? As for standing up in the boat when catching a fish, do you really think that people won't notice when someone is catching a fish? I've busted out laughing numerous times when people next us on a lake thought we were cramping their spot on a lake, when this wasn't the case at all.

I've also seen people try and hide a hooked fish by not standing up in the boat. Sometimes they even lose the fish because they are trying so hard to hide it. I consider myself a fairly experience walleye fisherman and can usually do quite well. I've found one of the best ways to scout out a new lake is to scan the lake with binoculars and see where people are fishing and who's catching fish. I also talk to people at the landing and share my successes and failures and gather some info on theirs. I also like to read these forums for spots and can understand people's frustrations with so many people on the lake and people coming so close.

But does anybody else think that fisherman in general just need to relax, and not think they're always being cramped and followed?

Some of these posts just make me think people want to think they know the secret spots, or lake and no one else does. And if someone is near them, they just think they're stealing their spot. If you want solitude, go up north. While your busy laughing at the followers, they're probably laughing right back at how stupid you look thinking you've got it all figured out.

[EconGuy]

Nuclear Fishin,
Enjoyed your post, I think you have it exactly right. Why anyone thinks that dropping a marker gives them the exclusive rights to an area is beyond me. This ain't tournament fishing(and if it were, you only get 75' around your marker). Lighten up, folks and remember that there are lots of people without GPS and/or maps that can only "follow the boats" to find the spots.
EconGuy

[weekendjunkie]

hey all, try this. confuses the hell outa them. Ihave 7 count um 7 bouys i keep in my boat at all times. when i pull onto a peice of structure, say long baron winnie, (thats where i do most of my fishing), i put all seven bouys out. i mark the edges and the top . i mark the front back and sideways of the structure. now this seems wierd but when your bouy hunter pulls up he thinks thati am the craziest motherf#$%&^*& on the water and cant possibly be on fish. then he leaves all the while i am slammin those ole marble eyes. try it sometime. the junkie

[EconGuy]

WeekendJunkie,
Why stop at 7? If you had 40-50 marker buoys you could stake out the entire Bena Bar.
EconGuy

[Thomas]

This year, it doesn't seem to matter where you fish. Just for a kicks, I went to one side of the lake and drifted across the lake with the wind - caught 15 walleyes - without adjusting my drift. Buoy hunters and fishers who get annoyed by buoy hunters - i say just enjoy the fishing.