Ranting About Trot Lines

[martintheduck]

I've just got to get this off my chest....

 

3 weeks ago I was out fishing the local river. Made a little 5 minute run to my trusty hole and as I'm trolling up through there I notice a strange looking thing floating in the middle of the river, but don't think much about it. I go ahead and fish as normal... get the boat into the cut and start casting to the river to work the crankbait up a steep ledge. First cast, I get snagged on something and troll over to the snag and notice it's stuck on a d**n trot line. I follow the line up to the shore, pull in my snag and free it up, then notice I am pulling in that strange object from the middle of the river! I keep pulling it and turns out that strange object is the float for the trot line!

 

THEY HAD A TROTLINE STRUNG COMPLETELY ACROSS FROM ONE SIDE OF THE RIVER TO THE OTHER WITH A FLOAT IN THE MIDDLE!!!!!

 

I was ticked, so I cut it... put it in the boat and threw it out.

 

 

Fast forward to today...

 

Same scenario EXACTLY played out. Another trotline, but this time it was strung across the opening to my favorite hole. I cut that sucker again because it could have easily wrapped up my motor with how shallow it was running.

 

I AM SICK AND TIRED OF THE UNMANNED TROTLINES IN POPULATED AREAS! IT'S NOT LIKE THEY ARE FRESH LINES PUT OUT A FEW HOURS AGO... THEY ARE LINES WITH MOLD AND CRAP GROWING ON THEM THAT HAVE CLEARLY BEEN SITTING THERE FOR A FEW DAYS. TROTLINERS - CAN YOU PLEASE USE SOME FREAKING COMMON COURTESY? IF I CATCH MY PROP ON ONE OF THESE, I AM LITERALLY GOING TO LOOSE IT.  

 

 

 

 

[Bluebasser86]

I about lost a LC 1.5 to an old, rotted trotline a couple weeks ago. I managed to finally snag the thing with my lure retriever and found out it ran across the deep end of a swimming beach??    I've cut them out of small state lakes (not legal to set there) and at least twice I've cut them when they were tied off to or set running under fish feeders! Talk about lazy. I snagged one in a state lake that was very well hidden with the ends attached to the under water bases of limbs that were driven into the mud by the offender/s, that had something like 47 hooks on it (only allowed 25 in KS). 

 

Very rarely do I ever see a trotline that is properly marked either. In Kansas they have to have the name, address, and phone number clearly visible attached to the line. I have no problem with people who want to set them, I've done it myself, but closing off an entire cove or section of a body of water with one is ridiculous. 

 

On the flip side, I've had guys in bass boats roar up on top of me while I'm fishing for blues or flatheads, cast all around and get way closer than I'd like them too, and act like it's my fault when they catch one of my lines. It's all about common courtesy, something that unfortunately isn't very common anymore. 

[BenBassmaster]

I know how you feel, a particular creek that I fish has tons of trot lines, because the man who owns property on one side of the creek thinks he owns the place. He puts trot lines up and down the creek, and he leaves them there for weeks on end.

Like Bluebasser86 said, "Common courtesy, isn't very common anymore."

[Hi Salenity]

Years ago I had some legally set limb lines set with the big visible tag on them I went to check them the next morning and found someone had put a rubber worm on my hook! I always wondered how big of a fish i had on that line? I did get a 38# flathead a few lines down...