Finally got out for the first time this year...hit my favorite hot spot. As a shore angler, it's tough sometimes, but I have a spot on a fairly busy lake that always produces.

So...I get there as the gate opens...0600. Get to my spot, and have 4 nice LMB by 0615. Then along comes Gomer #1 trolling up in his boat 20yds from shore. Asks if I'm catching them and proceeds to tell me that I'm fishing in a good spot. Thanks...I know. Not surprisingly after zig zagging all over my spot with his trolling motor the bite turned off. He finally motored off...only to return with two more buddies in the boat. 20 yds off shore casting towards me. Awesome. Thanks bud.

Head to spot #2. This is a more well known area, near a discharge. No one was there so I start tossing a jig. As I pull in my 3rd fish in the first few minutes I notice another guy (we'll call him Gomer #2) had walked up and was fishing 15ft away from me! Seriously...there's 1.70 miles of shoreline...is it necessary to be that close? Finally, after 2.5 hours and 7 fish I'd had enough...I left. Before I was 6 steps away, he was standing where I had just was.

Funny enough, as I left I saw some random dude with a bait bucket and 3 rods set up 5ft from Gomer #2. How's it feel? Gomers of the world unite!

Not trying to come across as an a-hole, but is it wrong to expect a small amount of fishing etiquette? If I can cast towards someone else, and hit water that they can cast to...then I'm too close. Usually not an issue, but twice in one day got me worked up. Part of the fun is finding good spots on my own.

Ok, end soapbox.

Tuna

I see dumb people and they don't even know they're dumb. Common courtesy requires enough intelligence to realize your imposing on someone, Gomers don't posess that knowledge.

Good point.

You hit on one of my pet peeves, someone moving in on you while you're fishing.
I won't come close to any reef or shoreline, that someone else is fishing, I'll find somewhere else.
However, some do not feel the same and pull right next to me when on many occasions.
Granted, the lakes are public, and everyone with a license has the right to fish on them but, but common courtesy should prevail.
Just wish you could pass legislation against stupidity!

I was on a very remote lake in Quetico once fishing a hot spot where the water runs into the lake. Me and my buddy were killing them there. Then in comes 4 canoes off the portage with a couple of guides. I actually knew one of the guides. They make a few casts out right by us while they are on shore. Then once they get into their canoes, they float out right next to us and start casting all around us. We had jigs banging off the side of our canoe when they casted a couple of times. Since we had been there for a couple of hours and probably caught most of the fish, we ended up just moving out of there. We didn't see them catch one fish. After watching them for awhile we decided to head to the other side of the lake where the water dumps into the next lake. We didn't get off more than 8 casts and there they were again, fishing right next to us. So again we take off and move down through the current to the next lake and sure enough here they come a few minutes later, casting right next to us again. So then we just paddled back up stream to the first lake to get away from these idiots.

OMG - that is horrible behavior and surprising that guides were involved. My experience with different fishing guides in the Ely area has been nothing but "great."

Can you name any names ? Only interested in staying clear of guides who were part of this...

@ Q-Mike

A similar thing happened to me bass fishing on Bull Shoals Lake. After hours of hunting for active bass, we were exploring a cove and spotted several good size bass in the clear water. We starting fishing and had landed one bass when a guide and his party came roaring in and started fishing not 20 feet away. The idiot had spooked the fish and when they didn't catch anything, the guide asked if we had caught all the fish? I did not say what I wanted to, just a terse NO. They then sped off but the fishing was done for in that spot.

I've got one: suppose you're about 50 yards out from shore fishing the weedline where you finally have some walleyes zeroed in, and some idiots toss an explosive (I'm thinking an m80, not some dinky firecracker) into the water from shore and laugh about the underwater explosion like the idiots that they are. Think the walleyes stuck around? Fat chance. It would probably be a crime just to say what I would have liked to do to them.

It appears that I'm not the only "Gomer magnet"!

A few that come to mind...

Fishing Lake Marie in northern Illinois, close to 400 acres. I'm anchored on the drop off of a sandbar in late fall. Only a few other boats on the entire lake. Another boat with three Gomers set up a drift several hundred yards away. The wind is perfect for them to come close to my location if they don't change course or move on. As they get closer and closer I keep thinking to myself that they will adjust their drift to pass by me a good distance. NOT, they wind up drifting right into the side of my boat and get their lines snagged on my anchor line :o

One spring day I'm fishing a windblown shoreline on a 2000 acre lake in Illinois. Along comes a Gomer in a fancy bass rig drifting down the shoreline within 10 feet of shore. As he gets close I have to stop casting and wait for him to past or my lure will be in his boat. Normally most boats doing this will move out from your location and then come back in once past. Not this guy, right through with his electric. He's not more then 50 feet past me and on my second cast I hook and land a 27" walleye :) It was fun watching him rubber necking.

quote LJAY: "OMG - that is horrible behavior and surprising that guides were involved. My experience with different fishing guides in the Ely area has been nothing but "great."

Can you name any names ? Only interested in staying clear of guides who were part of this... "

No, I am not going to name names, I still like the guy, and he apologized for the incident later. He explained to me about the type of group he had and was sorry they started casting all over us. He should have, as a guide, told them to move on. We were the only canoe on the whole lake, they could have gone anywhere else. I don't think they caught anything at either end of the lake.

One other time we were on Shade Lake and there is a long dead end cove and we were the only canoe on the lake at that time as well before a canoe comes around the corner and sees us fishing back there. I thought surely they will turn around, they have the rest of the lake to themselves, but no, they fished all the way down the cove to almost right next to us. We just left and didn't say a word. I think they might have asked if we were catching anything, I just kept my mouth shut and paddled out there. I really wanted to say something, but I was up in Quetico trying to relax and be stress free and I felt I would be better off just not saying a word.

My carnal self has got the best of me one time as I was crowded by another boat while I'm shore bound. "Oops, my bad" as my spoon smacks the side of whatever pretty boat they they were intruding from.

Another time I am fishing for flat-heads and the idiots from across the river who think they own the river parked their amphibious vehicle in the river on the opposite shore and turn their lights off as if I could not see them. Twenty minutes later they drive on across there river and very near to my lines and ask if the fish are biting.

It is possible that all these gomers are from Michigan and really don't know any better. In there honest defense they line up shoulder to shoulder at times for during the salmon runs.

quote QueticoMike: "

quote LJAY: "OMG - that is horrible behavior and surprising that guides were involved. My experience with different fishing guides in the Ely area has been nothing but "great."

Can you name any names ? Only interested in staying clear of guides who were part of this... "

No, I am not going to name names, I still like the guy, and he apologized for the incident later. He explained to me about the type of group he had and was sorry they started casting all over us. He should have, as a guide, told them to move on. We were the only canoe on the whole lake, they could have went anywhere else. I don't think they caught anything at either end of the lake.

One other time we were on Shade Lake and there is a long dead end cove and we were the only canoe on the lake at that time as well before a canoe comes around the corner and sees us fishing back there. I thought surely they will turn around, they have the rest of the lake to themselves, but no, they fished all the way down the cove to almost right next to us. We just left and didn't say a word. I think they might have asked if we were catching anything, I just kept my mouth shut and paddled out there. I really wanted to say something, but I was up in Quetico trying to relax and be stress free and I felt I would be better off just not saying a word."

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I am amazed at these stories. I can't imagine going to a place like Quetico and crowding other fisherman. I don't like fishing near other people anywhere. Oh well...

Happens a lot, unfortunately. In my experience it tends to be the bass fisherman targeting docks while I'm sitting on mine fishing.... Have some manners and take a wide birth

I've had numerous run-ins with being crowded on lakes by bass or walleye fisherman.

Not all are upsetting to me. For example, I'm fishing where the cloquest dumps into island lake. This is known early season hot spot. When I arrived I was the only boat, within 30 minutes there were two others and it's tight quarters. We could easily cast into each others boats. It's a busy lake, prime walleye season and I'm in a known hot spot. I kind of expect it. Other multiple instances on Vermilion or Winnie - it's the norm, not the exception. It doesn't really bother me.

Shorefishing - there are a handful of little trout lakes in the area. Loaine comes to mind. There's a popular shore fishing spot and people are going to set up next to you. It doesn't bother me.

For me it just depends on the situation. There are times when the behaviour is rude and there are times when it doesn't bother.

This happened to a friend of mine when he was shore fishing with his 10 year old son. It seems the boy was reeling them in pretty regularly and someone came way too close to him. The boy accidentally hooked the guys glasses and casted them into the Mississippi river. He left after that. Haha

~JOE~

I've had boats circle me on Lake Pepin, just troll around and around and around my boat while I boat fish after fish after fish after fish with the TGO method. If they'd stop trolling, they'd catch something too. I've had a dozen or so boats circle me.

Another time on Lake Michigan, I was wading. I'd fished for a couple days and caught nothing. Then I found every smallmouth in the area relating to one rock. A fellow fisher kept moving closer and closer and closer and I invited him to share the rock, explaining that they were all there, but he declined and continued to watch me catch fish.

I'm glad others find this as annoying as I do. Last summer fishing at a resort in Ontario, "Gomer" and his buddies motored up to us preparing to drop anchor. They had to hold onto OUR boat to position themselves to drop anchor. We were walleye fishing at dusk. I was so annoyed I grabbed the Pike Pole and put on the fattest, most obnoxious topwater bait I could find and proceded to cast like a fool... I normally wouldn't do such a thing, but I was so pissed. They obviously didn't take the hint.

There's no excuse for crowding in a relatively remote area. However, folks who are used to crowds--let's call them city people--kind of seem to take for granted that there will be crowding and even contact.

I was riding with a guy in a truck on Lake of the Woods and we were tailgating some poor guy 20 miles out with no one else around. The driver didn't even realize it until I pointed it out. If you are used to heavy traffic on the road or on the water you kind of forget about how it is supposed to be after a while.

If you fish the opener or nice weekends on Mlle Lacs, for example, after a while you don't even notice other boats or people.

Just start casting the biggest daredevil or weight at their Kevlar canoe.

Oops,Oops. They will move.

I have had Jet-Skiers go between me and the shore(40ft. to shore). That's why I ALWAYS keep a Zara Spook rigged and ready. I haven't hit one yet...they are going so fast it is hard to judge the lead!!

We were crappie fishing on the Canadian side of lake of the woods (a million acre lake) and were fishing a spot well off any plowed roads or community holes when a couple of locals drilled holes not fifteen feet from my fish trap. There were plenty of fish to go around, and I think we even offered them a beer but to this day I haven't seen anything like it.

arlo-
You go to all the good spots. Never been up there for crappies. You go out of Oak Island to Deepwater and tugs?

quote Savage Voyageur: "Just start casting the biggest the daredevil or weight at their Kevlar canoe.

Oops,Oops. They will move. "

Amen brother!!! Done it a couple times myself.

I have had an excellent selection of many of the above happen to me, but on the plus side I have also experienced great courtesy in crowded conditions. It is hard to avoid crowds when the fish are "in" during migration runs for steelies and salmon and guys have little choice but to do the best they can.

I was in a conga line fishing from shore on the AuSable River in Michigan one year for spring steelhead and the group of six fairly tighly spaced anglers set up a casting rotation where the most downstream guy cast up and across first, then the next guy upstream cast after the first guys line drifted down, then the third guy, etc., then the whole sequence was repeated. Those fish saw a lot of baits and when anyone got a hook-up we all reeled in and let the lucky guy play it out. No one knew anybody else, we just adjusted to the best scenario possible and enjoyed a fun day, sharing the water and rooting each other on.

Mostly I try to go where and when no one else goes, just to play it safe. There is no cure for gomers, I actually think many of them take pride in their arrogance.

Ok, all together now- "You can't fix stupid." ( or annoying, clueless, obtuse, dense, moronic, sluggish, irresponsible, daft or half-witted)

quote Obsidian: "Ok, all together now- "You can't fix stupid." ( or annoying, clueless, obtuse, dense, moronic, sluggish, irresponsible, daft or half-witted)"

You can fix it, it just ain't legal.....LOL

Here's another one but it involves camping not fishing. Camped on Russell Lake across the big bay from Chatterton Falls. Along comes a party from the portage headed straight toward our campsite. Since we were already camped there they land and camp right next to us I would say within 25 yds. Later another party comes along and camps on the tiny island that is about 25 yds on the other side of us. So here we are in the vast expanse of Quetico on a huge lake with many campsites and we are squished together as if in a state park. We were based camped so we had to put up with this for 3 days.

That first night would have been a long one for those other two groups. That would have been a karoake night and booze bag night with the radio going and wolf call contest thrown in.

I'm very familiar with the Mille Lacs style of fishing where there are up to 20 boats trolling Lindy rigs in a space the size of a Smart Car. They have no problem snagging lines then complaining you're in their trolling line. You could be a mile from anyone else and within minutes boats will be in your drift line dragging their rigs in circles around you. I HATE THAT KIND OF FISHING!!!

Once on Mille lacs while slowly trolling with lindy rigs I had the misfortune of catching a nice walleye somewhat in the area of a 24ft bayliner that was parked bobber fishing. He promptly decided to change fishing style to copy us. Only problem was that his big v8 powered boat wouldn't idle down slow enough for lindy rigging. No problem.... Just put it in and out of gear to go slow enough. Clunk, rmmm,rmmm, rmmm, clunk, rmmm, rmmm, clunk.......as he passed within 10 ft of us...

My tolerance level varies on this type of behavior.

If I'm on a Mille Lacs' reef on a Saturday in June, I expect to have to deal with idiots.
If I'm by the marina on Waconia on an mid-May evening for crappies, I know I'll be dealining with them.

I used to just ignore them but I have gotten fed up enough where I give them a taste of their own medicine. I have gotten very good with my trolling motor and the ability to manuever in front of someone. I can also pitch a jig on someone's hull pretty easily.

However if I am the only one on a spot and see this activity, I consider it pretty egregious. I have been known to shout out "so I found them, you want me to catch them for you too?" or while ice fishing "any closer and you'll be asking me to drill your holes for you". I'm not talking about someone who comes up and fishes the other side of a reef, or stays 50 yards away. I'm talking about those that come up within talking distance.

I am under the firm belief that you should let idtiots know that they are idiots, otherwise they may never realize it.

I have a friend that will pitch a marker as far as he can when he finds a spot he wants to mark. Every once in a while he will fish near the marker just to draw people to it and away from where he wants to be fishing. Works pretty good.

quote gutmon: "I have a friend that will pitch a marker as far as he can when he finds a spot he wants to mark. Every once in a while he will fish near the marker just to draw people to it and away from where he wants to be fishing. Works pretty good."

I do that quite often... If I get into some fish I'll mark the spot on my gps/graph. Then I'll troll a ways away and drop a marker or two.

quote gutmon: "I have a friend that will pitch a marker as far as he can when he finds a spot he wants to mark. Every once in a while he will fish near the marker just to draw people to it and away from where he wants to be fishing. Works pretty good."

Did that once on Mille Lacs and had 6 boats eventually anchor and circle around the marker bouy. Never saw one catch a fish. We actually used the marker to see the end of the reef to know when we should end our drift and head to the top of the reef.

They were so tight around our marker we had to ask them to move so we could retrieve our bouy. Didn't try to throw them off on purpose but sure was funny to watch.

T

quote lundojam: "Arlo - You go to all the good spots. Never been up there for crappies. You go out of Oak Island to Deepwater and tugs?"

Sabaskong bay/Nestor falls area.

I was having good luck catching trout. A guy came in the fishing pier asking me how i was doing. Told him, what does he do? Hops in his boat and goes and posts it right where i was casting. I landed about two feet from his boat a couple times, I think he finally got the hint.... very frustrating.