Fishing Etiquette

[Knoxabilly]

Solo- That's Great!

[wallydave]

During our last trip to the NW end of Lac Seul we noticed more boats failing to slow down when approaching boats either anchored or slow trolling. Some were boats from a lodge others were personal craft. When I mentioned this to the camp owner, I was told that one of their boats had been swamped by one of these lodge boats! WTF! Boating safety EH!! When someone puts anothers life at risk for any reason that's going to far!! Be Safe out there!

[TroyMansfield]

Solo- that is awesome! good work.... I can say I have experienced this a few times, I always look to whos in the other boat, if theres young kids on board, Ill move over and let them fish where I am working it. Its not the childeren fault the old man moved in and is not courteous, and who doenst want a kid to catch some fish, I am sure I can understand the dads frustations he might be having, no need to give him any lip service. but if its a boat full of adults and they only found the spot because I was there, Ill ask them if I am out of sync for the mille lacs lake shuffle, that usualy gives me some room, never met anyone who was real jerk on the water.......yet.

[#lakes.area75]

This really pisses me and my father off as well... whenever someone does this to us, my dad trolls closer to them with me throwing my 2.5 oz. red eye spoon... they've always got the hint...

[Ten Horse Johnson]

I hear about this problem but have been lucky not to experience it out on the water. I'm sure it's only a matter of time. I have certainly had times where I was excited to fish a specific hole only to find someone right on it. I just move along and find a different spot. It's worse on a small stream wading as someone may be right on the only good pool over a long stretch. Just gotta cut with your losses.

[rather-be-fishin]

We too fish Lac Seul for many years. First several years that we went we always hired a guide (who is the resort owner). He made it very clear to us that the "Canada Etiquette" is that if there is a boat on a spot, you DO NOT STOP, move on and fine another open spot! I totally agree with this and honor it when fishing in Canada. Not like here in MN, it is quite the opposite.....everyone goes and fishes where the boats are!

There is this one point that always had boats on it in MacKenzie Bay & we have always wanted to try that spot out, but it was never open. Last year the point was open so we headed there and started to troll the area. Shortly after another boat pulled up and asked me if I minded if he dropped an anchor right where we were trolling. I told him YES I DO MIND & that I had 3 other boats in my group that would be joining me. I felt like a JERK saying no to him anchoring there, but I do give him credit for having the courtesy & asking me first!

Another technique that we use is that our group of 3-4 boats usually fish together. So if a boat tries to move in on our spot, then we team up by trolling blocking any pattern they are trying to do. Works pretty good and they finally get the message! Also, if they pull up really close have used the casting next to their boat approach too.

Funny that people should mention the people from "Chicago".....We were fishing out in the middle of a big bay in Bay of Islands. This camp boat, which was from the same resort we were staying at, was coming across the bay at full speed with a guy riding in the front bow seat & heading straight for us. (we knew that these guys were from Chicago). It made us nervous because we thought they were going to hit us! We were thinking AYKM??? In the middle of this huge open bay they have to come right at us??? They came within 15 yards of us, still going full speed and waving as they went buy! UNREAL!!!

Another thing we learned this last year....is that the resort we go to has a "Catch & Release" board where people post the big fish that they caught and released (Walleye over 26" and Northern over 36")... We made the mistake and posted after our first day which was very successful in catching 26", 27 1/2", 28 1/4" and a whopping 32" walleye and a 41" Northern on the board. We thought it was weird that these same 3 boats from our camp kept showing up where our group was fishing all week long and tried moving in on us.......then realized that they were following us knowing we were having good success.....so now won't post until the END of the last day we are there!

Still can't complain because the fishing on Lac Seul is sooooo AWESOME and I have LOTS of SPOTS to FISH!

Only ONE more month to go to our 10 year of fishing LAC SEUL!

[fishincrazy]

I always carry a good assortment of weighted trebble hooks size 10/0 we use em to snag bunker on the surf.You throw a grappel hook at somebody they move!

This is even worse in NJ where i surf fish last Fall we where fishing on a sand bar wading and guy's where actually casting from the beach over our heads.I took out my knife and cut their lines.It really po'ed one guy he was calling me out so I went in.I guess when your on a sand bar 75 feet away you look smaller cause when I got to the beach to oblidge he was gone. On another bar up the beach one of my buddies got hooked by a plug trebble buried in his but he was hauled backwards into the trough.We had the guy who did this arrested for assult.People really are #!!$&#$!!!

There's pleanty of water out there with fish in it there is no excuse at all for people to do this!

FC

[Bitinlight]

Lac Seul is a huge body of water with thousands of spots. Of course, there are what I call "community spots" where guides fish and everybody else seems to know about. They have probably been told about them from somebody else and sent there to "try it". If there is nobody on one of these, sometimes I fish it, and if somebody shows up, I just move on. But what really makes me angry is when I am fishing a secluded spot that I kind of found on my own and somebody sees me catch a fish or two as they are motoring by and then invades the spot. If I am going to fish a spot, I want to be able to maneuver the boat the way I want, and if the school slides over 15 yards, I want to be able to freely move with it. And I really don't want company. If I want to fish right next to somebody, I might just as well stay in Wisconsin. If it happens it's frustrating, but I just move to the next spot.

[btmbncr]

I agree with V Bay Gord.This stuff just happens when your fishing.If it happens to me I just let it go or go find somemore fish away from the crowd.If you think having one boat show up like that is bad just come to Lake Oahe the weekend of the 4th of July and dip a net in the water.Bill

[tlars]

There is a flip side to all of these comments. Last year my wife and I were fishing a submerged island in McKenzie Bay. We had a marker out to orient us to the spot on the spot. Nature called for both of us so we went to a nearby small island. We were gone about 15 minutes. Upon returning, 3 boats, all with MN tags were on the spot. We quietly moved near the marker and started fishing. We got apologies from all three boats and they moved on. The courtesy of those three boats made our day!