Have you ever had a run in with a Anti-Fishermen

[retiredbosn]

It's against the law to do that in Georgia. So nope, I've never had it happen.

I'm a long time lurker and havent posted much here but i would like to comment on this as I am used to dealing with matters of the law

I'm a police officer and I have to be honest, how would this would be against the law???

what if you were fishing and someone pulled up next to your boat and started slapping the water with their oars or something. I dont see how thats against the law, but its sure going to screw up your fishing.

just because we all have the right to fish with licenses on public water doesnt mean we cant prevent anyone else from being on that same body of water unless they are doing something that is a crime against your person.

I would like to know your thoughts

Just as a point of reference where are you from Nightstick?  Most southern states have laws on the books making it illegal to harass, or impede in anyway people involved in hunting and fishing.  Add to that you go in front of a judge that hunts, before a jury that hunts, and it doesn't take much to show that you were intereferred with.  

[nightstick911]

It's against the law to do that in Georgia. So nope, I've never had it happen.

I'm a long time lurker and havent posted much here but i would like to comment on this as I am used to dealing with matters of the law

I'm a police officer and I have to be honest, how would this would be against the law???

what if you were fishing and someone pulled up next to your boat and started slapping the water with their oars or something. I dont see how thats against the law, but its sure going to screw up your fishing.

just because we all have the right to fish with licenses on public water doesnt mean we cant prevent anyone else from being on that same body of water unless they are doing something that is a crime against your person.

I would like to know your thoughts

Just as a point of reference where are you from Nightstick? Most southern states have laws on the books making it illegal to harass, or impede in anyway people involved in hunting and fishing. Add to that you go in front of a judge that hunts, before a jury that hunts, and it doesn't take much to show that you were intereferred with.

Wisconsin, with that in mind i am a municipal officer that doesnt deal much with enforcing hunting and fishing laws.

i guess i'm just playing devils advocate.

I would think it would be pretty easy to ruin someones day of fishing without making it look like you were outright harrassing them.

so i'm wondering how these laws would be enforced

[retiredbosn]

Here in WV the Conservation Officers are duly commissioned with the same powers as any law enforcement agent.  They can even write speeding tickets.  The law is STRICTLY enforced here.  Basically you call the game warden and turn  a person or group in for harassing you while fishing, they will be carted off, or ticketed.  So basically if you are in the woods during the first week of hunting season without a firearm, and have noise makers or whatever, you will be arrested.  Floating the river in a boat without a pole, and making a fuss around the fishermen, and you will be arrested, or cited at least.  Outdoorsmen in this state are very organized and proactive, we take on the anti's locally, by county, and state.  We have our own lobbyist at the Capitol and fight them every step of the way, so far we are winning.  By that I mean the anti's are thwarted on issue after issue.  

[MALTESE FALCON]

One of my neighbors, (a very cranky old lady) always acuses me of tying-up to her seawall. I've never been closer than casting distance from her property, but every time I'm out there fishing, she comes out screaming at me that I'm "disturbing her fish", or trespassing. I just smile at her and keep fishing.

Falcon

[Md]

This may be a bit off topic but, a funny thing happens when fishing a series of docks from a boat. Dock owners come up with some very creative strategies so that you don't fish "their water". Besides being yelled at (I just laugh at them), I've had people run into their homes and grab their pole and cast toward me, decide to go "swimming" in full dress, throw rocks into the water and the best yet was set up a target on their dock and shoot at it with a BB gun. I'm sure I'll see some new stuff this year too...it just make me shake my head!

[MitchIsFishin]

Paul, excellent post. I've never personally had anyone confront me while fishing, but I did a few years back while buying some lures. Two young women were looking at the lures and commenting on how nasty the hooks are & how they 'damage the fish'. I'm picking out my lures, and one of the girls approached me & asked why I fish. Told her. She said she felt it was a cruel activity and thought it should be outlawed. I advised her that no one in this nation was going to put a gun to her head to make her fish or accept fishing, but it is an activity that many like, myself included. She then inquired wasn't there a more humane way of catching the fish without using hooks, and had also admitted to being a vegetarian. I told her yes, I could shoot them with my glock .45, but it makes catch & release really hard. She didn't know about catch & release. I took my lures, paid & left.

[baboosicbass08]

Last year I went camping at a State Park with some friends and one of the days we were fishing the lake there in my jon boat and we ended up having someluck in a small and I mean SMALL cove part of the lake and we all started catching fish. We were facing the shore in the boat and some kayaker apparently couldn't have gone behind us where the whole lake was, apparently he needed to go 10' in front of us where we were all facing, that guy really ticked me off. ?Other than that like MD posted people will try to swim out to where you're fishing

[bass wrangler569]

[BARON49_Northern NY]

Some good posts here.  I will add one.  

There is a lady who just hates fishermen around her dock, boat house, and property in general.  I normally don't bother fishing around her place when I see her.  This one day I did fish her rock retaining wall and she came running out screaming at me that I was catching her "pet" fish.  She went on to say these were her pets and she feeds them and if I continued to fish for them she was going to call the cops.  I said really?  These are your pets?  She smiled and said yes they are and told me to leave them alone.  

I reached down in my box for a pen and paper.  I asked her what her name and address was?  She wanted to know why?  I told her I was going to call the Game Warden and let him know that she was feeding wild animals and making pets of them, as it is strictly forbidden and illegal here in NY.

This is the first time in years I ever saw this lady at a loss for words.  She gave me a nasty look, turned around and stomped all the way back to her cottage.  It was all I could do to keep from laughing.   ;D

[BassinBoy]

Well I was fishing with this other dude once and we went into a store to get some food. We wore our fishing vets, and carried in the poles we had. There were two teenage girls sitting on the porch of the store who says "You know you could of picked a better sport" so I quickly replied "You're right but deer hunting season is not open" And we just went into the store and got our food.

;D 8-)

I bet they didn't say anything else!

[kevin07]

I have never had anyone yell at me for fishing, but i have had people tubing down the creek  and they decided to go swimming in the hole i was fishing >. I should have said something to them but I don't think they did it on purpose, i think they were just ignorant city folk and didn't know any better. On the other hand i have had people yell at me for bowfishing but i can see why, people just don't like seeing arrows through the fish they see in their back yard. I have even had the cops called on me for this. On one instance a guy came down and told me not to shoot the koy fish he put in the creek. I then told him it was illegal to put any fish in the creek that did not belong, so i shot both of them when he went inside . I don't know if that was the right thing to do but i know that if they would reproduce it could cause a problem and im sure he could have got a big fine for putting them in the creek. Boy were those some big koy fish the one was over 2 feet.

[retiredbosn]

People who chuck rocks or swim in the hole I'm fishing in don't bother me a bit.  I caught my PB largemouth 7lbs, in the same hole my son was chucking rocks, and I mean big rocks in when I hooked up.  My sone was only three at the time.  I was as amazed as anyone else, I'm not advocating throwing rocks before you fish, but I would not leave a hole because someone was.  You never know you may catch the biggest one that day right under their noses.  I also fell down a hill once while deer hunting, and low and behold a buck came running in to see what the ruckus was about, he tasted good, lol.  

[Branuss04]

Branuss04 there is a song for your situation ... Brad Paisleys - Im gona miss her!

What's funny is I used to make her listen to that song. I would randomly sneak it into a Mix CD.  I had to make sure she knew how I felt  ;D

[flipinstick88]

A few years ago a fishing buddy of mine and I had a mutual friend that was anti-fishing. He wasn't a crazy PETA person, but he did think it was a little crule. We started to ask him if he wanted to go fishing with us and eventuly he would tag along. He wouldn't fish, just hang out while we did. I started bringing an extra rod with me and after many session of him sitting on the bank being bored he started to fish. Much to his suprise, he stared to enjoy it. Less than a year later he bought his own rod and reel!

Score one for me for converting an anti-fisherman!! ;D

[FD.]

I was in Lake Summit last year fishing offshore when a jet skier circled me a couple of times. If he did not have his girl on with him he would have found out how far you can cast a DD22.

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

I was in Lake Summit last year fishing offshore when a jet skier circled me a couple of times. If he did not have his girl on with him he would have found out how far you can cast a DD22.

She must not have been a keeper then....

[Muddy]

Hey Baron: Is it True:  On Greenwood Lake NY there is an ordinance you can not take your boat closer than 35 yards of private shore front property, including docks and boat houses?

[joshuaryan]

Nope, never experienced any anti-fishermen, although everyone in my family take jabs my sister and me for waking up so early in the ice colded mornings or go out in the burning hot sun just to catch and release fish.  

[retiredbosn]

I'm a proud member of PETA- People Eating Tasty Animals!!!!  :

[Paul Roberts]

A few years ago a fishing buddy of mine and I had a mutual friend that was anti-fishing. He wasn't a crazy PETA person, but he did think it was a little crule. We started to ask him if he wanted to go fishing with us and eventuly he would tag along. He wouldn't fish, just hang out while we did. I started bringing an extra rod with me and after many session of him sitting on the bank being bored he started to fish. Much to his suprise, he stared to enjoy it. Less than a year later he bought his own rod and reel!

Score one for me for converting an anti-fisherman!!

Good story. So many people are not anti, just have no experience with anglers or angling. If you ask them what they think, squeamishness is often front line. This is why I'm not combative with most people on this kind of issue. I'm also careful to provide them a good experience so they at least don't get turned off.

While I was doing animal research as a university student I ended up sharing a summer apartment with the President of the student chapter of PETA -to our mutual horror.

But we were both entirely civil, acknowledging each others differences (he was urban -from NYC) and we didn't discuss our respective ideas at all. We both kept to ourselves, but I did take him out into the field a couple times to show him wildlife related stuff I knew we'd share an interest in.

One such excursion was to re-find a young coyote that I had got to actually play with me. I could run and leap through the hayfield and have that 'yote get all excited and leap around like a puppy, mirroring my playful behavior. We didn't re-find the animal but ended up talking a bit about whether playing with a wild coyote was a good idea and talked about wild animals becoming habituated to people, and what that could mean for both. I told him about the increases in coyote and mountain lion attacks on people in places where habituation had developed. His philosophy (house of cards -we all have one) couldn't go very far with the idea though, having a pretty limited understanding of wild vs domestic. He just felt that people have f'd up the world and should now just leave it alone. I'm wondering if he ever took that to it's logical conclusions.

So far, I've found real fringe AR people to be somewhat asocial, having some kind of traumatic view of the world, or just indoctrinated (sheep). Most people I've met though, just lack (good) experience.

[BARON49_Northern NY]

Hey Baron: Is it True: On Greenwood Lake NY there is an ordinance you can not take your boat closer than 35 yards of private shore front property, including docks and boat houses?

Have not fished Greenwood lake in years, but I did go and check the NYS regulations. Nothing there about that, also did a Goggle of Greenwood lake and nothing about it there either.

The only laws here in NY that they are really starting to inforce is a 5 mph speed limit within 100 feet of shore, docks, or anchored vessels. On some of the smaller lakes and rivers you have to idle no matter what size motor you have now.

[.ghoti.]

I had just such an encounter, about 20 years ago, before the kinder, gentler Ghoti you all know came to be. I used to be a bit crazy.

Had two folks give me some grief about cruelty to animals, and spent about 10 minutes throwing rocks all around the area.

I put away my gear, and offered them a free introduction to the art of swimming. They both left.

[farmpond1]

Nope, but if you do just move on. You are not going to change them so

there is no reason to waste time trying. A very small percentage of

Americans actually hunt, but the vast majority are not against it.

Those are the people we should care about.

One example will illustrate my point. Deer hunters should never

tie their kill on the hood of a truck. When carcasses are being

transported, they should be covered. Bambi mother's head flopping

around with her tongue hanging out and blood are over her is not

a pretty sight. Those sad, dead eyes really upset some of "our

friends". So, a little common sense is all that's needed. Your rights

have a better chance of being protected if your responsibilities are

met.

8-)

Guilty as charged-sort of.  Last weekend I went ice fishing at a neighborhood pond.  I ran into the lake manager and some friends of his who were pulling out tons of small bluegil (that's bream for you southern folk)  Anyway, the lake manager said there were way too many bluegill in the lake and they needed to thin them out ("Reduce the biomass" as he called it).  So they were tossing the smaller ones on the ice for the crows to eat later.  I contributed a small number to the pile myself.  In retrospect, I wish I'd picked them all up and carried them out of there.  Any none fishermen (or even many bonafide fishermen) might very well have misconstrued that pile of panfish as a wanton waste and give all fishermen a bad reputation.  I regret what I did and I won't do it again.  Had the lake manager not done it, I probably wouldn't have done it in the first place.  Ah, well, live and learn!

[BASS fisherman]

Sort of in an indirect sort of way I guess I did.

I was fishing a tournament at a lake that is always crowded with summer activities.  

It was maybe 40 minutes until weigh in and we were fishing near a no wake bouy marker.  Apparently this lake had one boat owner who thinks he owns the lake, and apparently it was his duty to annoy every fisherman on the lake all by himself.  

So this guy keeps getting closer and closer to us as he is towing a skier.  Finally he cuts between us and the bouy which was only 40 feet away.  I had just casted and figured he would turn to the outside of us, but nope, he went right over my line.  

All of the sudden my reel is smoking!  The boat caught my lure and was pulling out line!  All of the sudden the line broke and the skier fell face first into the water.  

Now I dont know if the skier caught a foot full of hooks or not.  

I reeled in my line and got out my heaviest jig that I had and just waited for that guy to come back.  I was going to test my casting skills on a moving target!  Well he never came back around and he tied his boat up and went inside his cabin.

My boating partner wanted to go over and sabotage his boat but I didnt think it right.  

[NBR]

I have never been but if I was I'd get their picture and a picture of their car if possible.