Left alone or harassed

[Tennessee Boy]

Water seems to attract strange people.  I’m cruising up the Tennessee River one day about 30 yard from the bank. I hear a strange noise and at first I thought it was coming from my outboard.  Then I look toward the bank and see a guy with no shirt,  long beard,  hair down to his waist.  He has his arms in the air.  He’s looking toward the sky and he’s screaming at the top of his lungs.   I gave the outboard a little more gas.

[BassSteve]

30 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Gosh.........where to start.........

When we were about 18-20 years old, my buddy Eric got a nice aluminum v hull with 18 hp evinrude. We were launching it at an extremely shady ramp known for wild human activity, but it was midday so we tried it anyhow. There were two guys on the floating dock, one awake one asleep next to a mountain of empty beer cans. My buddy backs the truck down , I’m in his boat that I’ve never driven. When it floats off the trailer, I start pulling the ripcord and it wakes up the sleeping guy. He stumbles to his feet, stares a hole directly through me, and says “hows bout you and me kill each other” hmmmmm how to reply......... I start pulling the rip cord on the 18 horse and mumbling some horrible things to it and it started! Thankfully the awake member of their party diffused the situation by telling his buddy to shut up and go back to sleep. 
 

 

 

this one lady made out of leather offered me and my buddy a tackle box and fishing pole for $5 when we were like 12 years old fishing near a bridge. Then she said someone paid her $5 to jump off the bridge the day before, it’s probably 20 feet high and over a set of shoals with 2-3 feet deep water............maybe she hit her head......... I can still hear the raspy “you wunna buy tackle box  fishin pole $5?”

I pulled into a ramp once and a state trooper had a guy pulled over. When we pulled in, the guy started asking us for a ride into town. We had driven 45 minutes to this remote lake to fish for like 2 hours and explained this to the guy. He says the trooper won’t let him drive because he doesn’t have a license (red flag). There’s no cell service so we can’t call a ride for the guy, I just said sorry buddy we are fishing. When I returned, my window was knocked out and every document in my truck had been rifled through, paycheck stubs all that jazz . But he left my iPod and loose change? I guess he’s out there somewhere plotting his revenge, who knows. Maybe I should have given him a ride or maybe I’m lucky I didn’t haha
 

I started to type another story or 3 but I don’t believe we are 18 and up crowd here 

Wow, some out there stories for sure. Well now you have me curious about that lol 

[DitchPanda]

I fish public county run ponds so there are no homeowners. That of course doesn't mean ive never encountered idiots. A few summers ago I was fishing the channel connecting two ponds...there was a couple drunk morons on the boat ramp dock being loud and stupid. Oh well whatever I guess...until the drunkest guy decides to throw a half empty beer into the bed of my truck bouncing it off my back window. The thought went thru my mind that I should get ahold of this dumb@#% and smash his face in. Instead I got a hold of a park guy I know...he called the cops...20 minutes later the guy was in the back of a car getting hauled out for public intox.

[Deephaven]

3 hours ago, soflabasser said:

This weekend I had several people get close to me while fishing.

Boats cut me off I pull out the Muskie stick and put a foot long bait within feet of both ends of their boat and continue to do so until they leave.  

 

As for other harassment, I have a shiny boat again.  Seems everyone on the lake wants to know if I am catching anything.  When I get fed up with it, my standard answer is "just a bunch of bullheads".

[soflabasser]

53 minutes ago, Deephaven said:

Boats cut me off I pull out the Muskie stick and put a foot long bait within feet of both ends of their boat and continue to do so until they leave.  

 

As for other harassment, I have a shiny boat again.  Seems everyone on the lake wants to know if I am catching anything.  When I get fed up with it, my standard answer is "just a bunch of bullheads".

I prefer to leave a spot if some clown is bothering me since I know several good places to fish and I know how to fish unlike the googans that love to get next to someone since they are desperate to catch a fish. 

[Bluebasser86]

I had a drunk guy scream at me for fishing his dock on a public lake a couple years ago. He was several inches shorter than me and over 3 bills. I thought the old boy was going to get himself worked up and have a heart attack. 

 

Last fall I had an idiot at a boat ramp start yelling at me for backing between him and another guy both struggling to load their pontoons at a 3 lane boat ramp. So I went 3 wide, at a 3 lane boat ramp, and this guy lost his mind. He was screaming and cussing at me, while I had my 2 boys in the truck. I'm usually pretty calm, but I was about to help him adjust his attitude talking like he was in front of my kids. Launched my boat and parked the truck while they were still struggling. Figure I must have hurt his feelings actually knowing what I was doing or something. 

[PhishLI]

Many of the spots I fish are pretty close to New York City, so we're in reach for the Red army bucket brigades. The vast majority of them are flat out unfriendly. Blank faces that refuse to acknowledge the simple human courtesy of hello in passing, or eye contact. It's the behavior of someone who's up to no good, and they typically are. I've had several run ins with these guys at night in the dark, which in hindsight was pretty stupid, but when my blood's up I'm ready to go. It's a defect that I'm working on.

 

One night just before dark I was fishing at one of our typical tree lined lakes. I'd parked my rods and bag right at the shore and waded out through a narrow cut in the trees. Maybe a few feet wide. At this point there were very few people there and the lake was wide open. I decided to switch rigs, so I went back to where my gear was and squatted down to rig a bait.

 

Out of nowhere this dude squeezes right past me, through the narrow cut, and into the spot I'd just been standing. There's literally thousands of feet of shoreline he could've chosen, but he did this? The dude turned back to throw a look at me. He looked like a gorilla with a hairline that went halfway down his forehead. i picked up my stick and walked right out, stood right next to him, then started whipping angry overhead bomb casts. This guy actually stuck it out for a few minutes, and my anger brought me past the point of caring about whatever came next.

 

Finally, he turned and walked back to shore. I then turned and watched him closely as he walked through the cut and past my gear. I fully expected something bad to happen to it as I followed him in. He just turned, looked at me, spit on the ground angrily, then walked away. I'm positive this guy was thinking the same thing I was, and that was me planting an elbow or ten in his grill. It's probably a good thing for both of us that he was just a touch less insane than I was at that moment and backed off.

 

This was the last time I allowed myself to get caught up in anything that could've resulted in someone getting seriously damaged, or worse, including myself.  Now I just say my special word, Goosfraba, and walk away.

[Krux5506]

Well I hate to say it but all my worst encounters are from other bass fishermen usually doing tournaments (while I'm leisure fishing) trying to crowd me or well within casting distance, or moving in if they see me catch something. It's happened so many times I actually just don't look forward to tournaments on my home port.  

 

I'd take a disgruntled property owner any day over a fellow fisherman who's absolutely careless about reasonable boundaries. 

[J Francho]

Everyone bugs me at some point or another. I've learned this is more about my attitudes and moods than anyone else's. 

[garroyo130]

14 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I could write a book about all the things I’ve seen at access areas. I’ve got lots of photos too, snapped this one just yesterday 

I’d much rather come across some dead carp than half of the weirdo humans I’ve seen! Hahah. Always smile, be friendly, and make sure you pick out a good rock to use for self defense 

 

Found your fishing spot

 

 

[volzfan59]

I've never really had a problem while loading, unloading or on the water. One day, while on my way home from the lake, I was fueling my boat and truck. Some trashy guy, along with his equally trashy female passenger drove by and flipped me off. 

[Bankc]

The only real harassment I've had to endure on the water is from local police officers.  But I learned that if you lie and tell them you're a lawyer and politely ask them to write you a ticket because you'd rather argue your point in front of a judge, they let you go pretty much immediately.  I also have fake business cards printed up saying that I'm a lawyer, because in reality, I'm a printer and that's easy for me to do.  Also, it's perfectly legal so long as you don't give legal advice or legal representation while giving the impression that you are a lawyer.  

[Deephaven]

12 hours ago, soflabasser said:

I prefer to leave a spot if some clown is bothering me since I know several good places to fish and I know how to fish unlike the googans that love to get next to someone since they are desperate to catch a fish. 

99.9% of the reactions of my bait getting close to their boat is an "oh sorry, didn't realize you could cast that far".  Using a 9'6" rod and nearly a pound of weight allows quite a cast

 

[PhishLI]

1 hour ago, Bankc said:

I also have fake business cards printed up saying that I'm a lawyer

Nowadays you're free to identify as a Kumquat if it pleases you, so why not a lawyer? Bravo!

[Bird]

Not much rattles me out on the water or even on land. 

BUT the wife and I rented a cabin on a lake many years ago and was out fishing on the bass boat while the wife was sunning herself in a bikini in rear of boat. 

 

2 guys saw me and her troll by and instantly pulled anchor and here they come. 

Followed us into every cove and back out in main lake without even making a cast.

I knew exactly what they were doing so placed a beach towel over the wife and they fled the scene but had the nerve to throw profanity my way.

 

Oh, they had a faster trolling motor so had to do something. Lol

 

 

[HaydenS]

Some of these crazy people need an attitude adjustment

 

[BassNJake]

17 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I could write a book about all the things I’ve seen at access areas. I’ve got lots of photos too, snapped this one just yesterday 

I’d much rather come across some dead carp than half of the weirdo humans I’ve seen! Hahah. Always smile, be friendly, and make sure you pick out a good rock to use for self defense 

Bow hunters?

[soflabasser]

2 hours ago, Deephaven said:

99.9% of the reactions of my bait getting close to their boat is an "oh sorry, didn't realize you could cast that far".

I prefer to go to another one of my spots since I rather not deal with these types of people. I know how to fish and have no need to get close to another fisherman unlike these desperate greedy googans.

[TriStateBassin106]

 

I usually fish alone or with a few friends but I'm kinda a celebrity like figure at my two ponds because i'm always posting catches on the fishbrain app,  I always have other anglers coming up to me and saying stuff like "I know you you're the guy from fishbrain who fishes here" or the usual small talk between anglers about the fishing. I also have family property on a private 300 acre lake that's for homeowners which I fish and it's basically the same situation. Except it's people fishing on bass boats and kayaks that recognize me. I even met another forum member on My lake! (He didn't tell me his username just that he was a member on here) 

 

 

Now going back to my ponds I did have one incident last fall where this Eastern European man would come around and harass anglers for fish to take home. One day I caught a nice 2lb bass and this guy basically tried persuading me to give him the fish in broken english. After telling him no multiple times politely he tried grabbing the fish tail first out of my hands which I then proceeded to walk backwards calmly and released the fish. He then started arguing with me in his native language before being pulled away by his wife. Haven't seen him since ane I hope Fish and Wildlife gave him a notice. 

15 hours ago, PhishLI said:

Many of the spots I fish are pretty close to New York City, so we're in reach for the Red army bucket brigades. The vast majority of them are flat out unfriendly. Blank faces that refuse to acknowledge the simple human courtesy of hello in passing, or eye contact. It's the behavior of someone who's up to no good, and they typically are. I've had several run ins with these guys at night in the dark, which in hindsight was pretty stupid, but when my blood's up I'm ready to go. It's a defect that I'm working on.

 

One night just before dark I was fishing at one of our typical tree lined lakes. I'd parked my rods and bag right at the shore and waded out through a narrow cut in the trees. Maybe a few feet wide. At this point there were very few people there and the lake was wide open. I decided to switch rigs, so I went back to where my gear was and squatted down to rig a bait.

 

Out of nowhere this dude squeezes right past me, through the narrow cut, and into the spot I'd just been standing. There's literally thousands of feet of shoreline he could've chosen, but he did this? The dude turned back to throw a look at me. He looked like a gorilla with a hairline that went halfway down his forehead. i picked up my stick and walked right out, stood right next to him, then started whipping angry overhead bomb casts. This guy actually stuck it out for a few minutes, and my anger brought me past the point of caring about whatever came next.

 

Finally, he turned and walked back to shore. I then turned and watched him closely as he walked through the cut and past my gear. I fully expected something bad to happen to it as I followed him in. He just turned, looked at me, spit on the ground angrily, then walked away. I'm positive this guy was thinking the same thing I was, and that was me planting an elbow or ten in his grill. It's probably a good thing for both of us that he was just a touch less insane than I was at that moment and backed off.

 

This was the last time I allowed myself to get caught up in anything that could've resulted in someone getting seriously damaged, or worse, including myself.  Now I just say my special word, Goosfraba, and walk away.

I've heard horror stories of the bass anglers who fish the lakes in central park, everything from being harassed by homeless people to kids throwing huge rocks and logs and even karens acting like they're game wardens. 

[DanielG]

I had one guy at a camp say that I was to close to the shore and there was a 20 ft limit as I was sliding by. He had a beer can in his hand at 6 am and I could see that it was far from his first and could tell because the M.O. for to many beers is loud and obnoxious. I just said, "okay, and continued to slide by". 

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, BassNJake said:

Bow hunters?

Who knows. Thanks in an ankle deep section of river so I wouldn’t think so but you never know 

[Deleted account]

1 hour ago, TriStateBassin106 said:

but I'm kinda a celebrity like figure at my two ponds

LOL.

[TriStateBassin106]

1 hour ago, BassWhole! said:

LOL.

I guess it's because I'm always fishing there? I never asked for any of that, I just catch bass and post them. People find that appealing I guess lol

[lou304]

My local lake has a lot of money on it.  my buddy and I get "bothered" by homeowners often this time of year when we're flipping docks. we try not to get confrontational but sometimes its difficult because they're arguments are so stupid. A marina owner came out and "spoke" to us the other day. 

As far as access sites, I just laugh. I've often said that when I retire I'm going to go to my local busy launch site and sit with a lawn chair and a cooler of beer and watch the show. That's cheap entertainment!!!

[Bird]

1 hour ago, BassWhole! said:

LOL.

Not funny as it's very frustrating getting asked for an autograph while in the midst of a cast.