The fantastic electronics with which boats are rigged today raise an interesting issue. Crappie are such a big deal here that families have put out trees, stakes, and other attractants for decades. It used to be the kind of thing where you shared the location with your family and that's all. Nowadays we have folks motor by slowly when they see someone fishing. They use the side imaging...Mark your cover, then come back and fish your spot if you aren't there.

What do you think? Poor form? Or, it's everyone's lake...people can fish wherever they choose. What say you?

For me I look at it like this. It is a public lake, no one person owns it and they don't own the fish that are in it either. If it was a trot line that you put in and you baited then I consider that wrong as that is your line you have to tag a trot line with your name and address. It's yours. The water doesn't belong to you just because you sink some structure in the lake that doesn't make that spot yours you can't lay claim to it as you don't own it. You can't stake a claim on public water. My 2 cents.

That makes sense to me.

Of course, in Kentucky...folks may be a bit more possessive of traditional family stake bed areas...Just saying be aware....

welcome to the forum!

Public waters, I'll give you 75 yards in front of me if you are casting. If you're vertical fishing 15 yards should be more than enough room. It doesn't matter who put the structure out.

Public waters means the water is public. Doesn't ruffle my feathers if someone is fishing one of my "spots" that I pull up on. All the more reason to have plenty of backup plans.

Me personally, if I see someone set up on their spot, I'm not going to slow roll by them to try to pick up the structure on side scan. I'd wait for them to move then I'd roll around trying to find the structure they were fishing and mark it myself. Is this "cornholing" someone's spot? IMO, no.

I was fishing on a lake years ago with a buddy. He had a few brushpiles out. We roll up to one and no one is there. We began fishing and had another boat roll up on us and begin fishing the same pile. They were close enough I could touch their boat with my 12' rod. A few non-threatening words were exchanged and they left. Was that the right thing for them to do? IMO, no. Now if we would have invited them to come that close to us and fish the same pile, that's a different story. If they would have waited until we left the spot and began fishing it, more power to them.

Doesn't matter how you feel about it, it's gonna happen. What would be good is if people fishing their local waters would put in BP's besides just fishing others work. It would help the fish population on some of these older lakes. I remember a guide trying to get people together and do this a few years ago. I never did hear how that turned out...

thanks

I think something like this would be awesome on some of our local lakes that need cover...

Santee Cooper places artificial reefs

This gets serious .. I there was a confrontation between folks were a gun was showed ! all over a brush pile !! Park Rangers and Sheriff called. Really !!
I have quite a few trees and bucket condos out . Enjoy them I'm fishing yours too ! fish have evolved since the dinosaur! they not going anywhere.

This is one of those areas where "Do to others as you would have them do to you" is a really good practice. The best measure of right and wrong is not necessarily to ask whether or not there is a law against it, but rather to ask, "is this the right thing to do?" There's no law against someone pulling up right on top of you and fishing the very brush pile you're catching fish on. But it is in poor taste. It's nonsense. But, you can't make sense out of nonsense. And... people will always do it. Just use uncommon courtesy and do it without expecting it in return.

Well said Craigo!

that's awesome

It is a public lake, but nobody really likes a potlicker. That brush is no longer "mine" as soon as I sink it. I still want there to be fish when I get there though so I try to keep them as "secret" as possible. I still use black marker buoys and cast my jig when someone starts to come up on me so they look and think I'm bass fishing lol. Maybe I'm a jerk, but that's what I do.