Coping with the crowds this year

[Fin S]

With little league, summer camps, church, and other activities shut down this spring and summer, people seem to be going to the lake more. Every weekend is about as crowded as a holiday. I've been working a little on the weekends so I can take off and fish mid-week, which cuts down on the pleasure boats, but there's still plenty of fishermen out, and the fish seem pretty pressured.

 

Are you guys having the same experience? If so, have you kept your same fishing schedule/routine or have you been changing things up this year?

[plawren53202]

6 minutes ago, Fin S said:

With little league, summer camps, church, and other activities shut down this spring and summer, people seem to be going to the lake more. Every weekend is about as crowded as a holiday. I've been working a little on the weekends so I can take off and fish mid-week, which cuts down on the pleasure boats, but there's still plenty of fishermen out, and the fish seem pretty pressured.

 

Are you guys having the same experience? If so, have you kept your same fishing schedule/routine or have you been changing things up this year?

I am mainly a bank-only angler. My experience with publicly accessible bank fishing spots in the St. Louis metro area has been that they have been ridiculously crowded. Even my subdivision HOA pond, which is supposed to be for subdivision property owners only (yeah right ? enforcement is nonexistent) has been slammed. At least 5x as many people fishing it as I ever saw on the busiest days pre-Covid. 

 

I think most people have experienced similar. I messaged back and forth with one of the people I watch on YouTube. He said that it had been so crowded in his area that it made it difficult to film videos.

 

Some good news though...stuff started opening back up in our area about 3 or 4 weeks ago. My experience has been that the crowds have gotten noticeably better. Still more people than pre-Covid days, but much better than at the peak of quarantine.

[Jermination]

10 minutes ago, Fin S said:

With little league, summer camps, church, and other activities shut down this spring and summer, people seem to be going to the lake more. Every weekend is about as crowded as a holiday. I've been working a little on the weekends so I can take off and fish mid-week, which cuts down on the pleasure boats, but there's still plenty of fishermen out, and the fish seem pretty pressured.

 

Are you guys having the same experience? If so, have you kept your same fishing schedule/routine or have you been changing things up this year?

yeah buddy. everybody and their brother has bought a boat here in knoxville. I was on Norris last saturday and that place is a freakin zoo man. Best bet is to try to go way up river on some of the lakes to get away from the wake boats, or the santa maria if you are on loudon lol

[Black Hawk Basser]

There's definitely at least 50% more people out every day at my local lake, and maybe 100% more on the weekends.  However, most of them are throwing nightcrawlers or leeches under beach ball-sized bobbers, so I don't worry too much about the pressure on the fish.  It does frustrate when I try to hit a certain area and people are almost shoulder to shoulder along a stretch of the bank.

 

I have fished at more remote places this year than I ever have, and that is mainly due to the increased fishing activity at my tourist-trap lake.

[DitchPanda]

My experience has been similar. I fish a small local lake..what I would consider my home lake...all the time. Used to be weekends would be decently busy but weekdays there would usually be nobody. This year's weekends are almost pointless and weekdays there is usually people in the majority of the good spots and 10 to 20 people splashing around on the swim beach. It has forced me to find new areas and new ways to fish them.

[BassNJake]

7 minutes ago, Jermination said:

yeah buddy. everybody and their brother has bought a boat here in knoxville. I was on Norris last saturday and that place is a freakin zoo man. Best bet is to try to go way up river on some of the lakes to get away from the wake boats, or the santa maria if you are on loudon lol

Norris has been a nightmare.

But its not like Cherokee, Douglas or the other lakes along the TN river are any less crowded.

 

[Jermination]

3 minutes ago, BassNJake said:

Norris has been a nightmare.

But its not like Cherokee, Douglas or the other lakes along the TN river are any less crowded.

 

cherokee handles the waves so much better than norris does. norris is too narrow for that many giant boats

[WIGuide]

There are definitely more people on the water up here. It's not super nightmareish but there's definitely a lot more people out and about than the normal summertime. As far as actual bass fishing pressure though, I think it's about the same. A lot of the added boat traffic is panfishermen and the recreational boaters. 

[Dminor9]

The crowds this year on our local lake are insane. I haven't even been out fishing in over two weeks. Wake Setter Boats, Ski Boats, Cigarette Boats, Jet Skis, Pontoon boats, Bass Boats, and everything in between keep me off the water. Add in kayaks, tubers, swimmers and divers off of docks ad rope swings, and it is a disaster waiting to happen. Lake Placid in Texas has only 198 acres surface area. Fairly small for all the traffic on it. Add in it is 105 degrees today, fishing is at a standstill for now. Since a lot of the larger lakes are still only partially open, the spill over is coming here. The larger lakes (Canyon Lake, Lake Travis) are opening up more every weekend, so hopefully in the next couple weeks I can get back to fishing. 

[Fin S]

1 hour ago, Jermination said:

cherokee handles the waves so much better than norris does. norris is too narrow for that many giant boats

That's good to know. I fish the Loyston Sea part of Norris, so it's not quite as narrow there.

 

I've been meaning to take a trip over to Cherokee or Douglas on a weekday since I've never fished either one. I'll have to try that.

[Jermination]

1 minute ago, Fin S said:

That's good to know. I fish the Loyston Sea part of Norris, so it's not quite as narrow there.

 

I've been meaning to take a trip over to Cherokee or Douglas on a weekday since I've never fished either one. I'll have to try that.

yeah i spend most of my time on norris there around the point 19 area--boat traffic isnt quite as bad back in cove creek if you want to give it a try. I'm pretty much done with that lake until october when we can catch smallies again lol

[Bruce424]

oh yeah. the lake i fish are pressured enough. add 500% more fisherman....

[TriStateBassin106]

2 hours ago, Pickle_Power said:

There's definitely at least 50% more people out every day at my local lake, and maybe 100% more on the weekends.  However, most of them are throwing nightcrawlers or leeches under beach ball-sized bobbers, so I don't worry too much about the pressure on the fish.  It does frustrate when I try to hit a certain area and people are almost shoulder to shoulder along a stretch of the bank.

 

I have fished at more remote places this year than I ever have, and that is mainly due to the increased fishing activity at my tourist-trap lake.

Holy shoot this is relatable, still annoying though when some kid with a bobber cuts you off from working the bank. At least many more kids are now getting off the phones and playing with worms and hooks! 

[BoatSquirrel]

Its no better here in Middle Tennessee.  Time to hit the streams and get gone!

[Tywithay]

I hate it.

[Bankbeater]

It's been a circus on some of the lakes that I fish.  Most of the people coming out to the lake are parking and fishing right off of the ramp, or trying to park as close as possible to the water.

About 9 AM is when the first wave of crowds show up.  They leave about noon and the afternoon crowd comes in right behind them.

I've been hiking about a mile to a mile and a half down the lake to get into some less pressured water.

[Way north bass guy]

I count myself as one of the lucky ones I guess. In all the weekends I’ve been out since our ramps opened back up, I can count on one hand the number of fishing boats I’ve seen, and most of those were trolling for rainbows on Georgian Bay. Honestly though, most of the lakes I fish even in the height of summer, I hardly see many other fishing boats, and the real bad lakes for jet skis/wake board boats etc I stay away from on weekends, at least in the summer. That’s the joy of having hundreds of lakes within a half hour of my place. 

[BayouSlide]

This is tough on us retired guys: used to plan on having the lakes mostly to myself midweek. Now midweek is as crowded as weekends used to be.

[Bluebasser86]

I've always fished during the week because of my work schedule, but the lakes are still crowded during the week now. Looks more like a weekend most weekdays if the weather is nice, and now the pleasure boaters are out tearing things up and acting stupid, so I've got that going for me.

 

Lots more bank anglers too. Saw a first today. I've seen a lot of the upside down spinning reel people lately, but today I saw a guy trying to use a spincasting reel upside down (reel on the bottom and reeling backwards). I guess at least guys like that are just blocking a bank fishing spot from someone who might actually catch a fish if they weren't there.

[WVU-SCPA]

I have a growing fear for safety on the lakes around me.  The increase of people getting kayaks/boats and not having a clue on general operation is alarming.  Something is going to happen.

 

Tournaments start back up next week, game plan might be to start the furthest from any launch possible.  The ramp at weigh in is going to be a circus. 

[gim]

I have some advice for any of you cursing about dealing with crowds at the access and/or on the lake: go fishing in the rain!  Inclement weather will keep virtually all of the people off the lake other than the die hards.  Plus, there's also another perk: the fishing will often be better too.

[bagofdonuts]

same here, all the lakes are overrun. but, i started seeking out hard to get to creeks to wade and fish like i did as a kid. Its been a blast.

[Glenn]

Yes, it's been crazy busy on all the lakes and rivers in my area.  Hit a smaller lake last weekend that usually has very little pressure, and it too had a flotilla on it as well as an army of bank anglers.  Literally had to ask several times for people to get out of the way at the launch.

 

It's insane.

 

Campgrounds are jammed packed too.  Looks like a major holiday weekend every weekend now.

 

I suppose the flipside is the entertainment factor at the ramps and at the campgrounds. Lots of new RV owners that have no clue what they're doing.  Did you know RV sales have skyrocketed too?

 

Want to social distance?  Pick up tennis.

 

[Dens228]

I'm semi retired, work four our afternoon shifts doing security at a high school and have summers off.  Thanks to that I usually limit myself to weekdays once the ice melts.  This year it is like every day is Saturday.....lol.

Two out of the last three times out by about 9:00 am the lakes I'm at were so crowded that there was virtually no place to work an area without violating fishing etiquette.  One of those times two boats were fishing the narrow mouth of the small bay I launched from and as I tried to paddle through in my kayak one of the boaters shot me a stare, I politely told him I was leaving and the only way to do it was get past him best I could.  He did reply with a smile and said, yep, it is getting a bit crowded.

 

[lo n slo]

don’t get me started