It has come to my attention the lots of anglers are very territorial when it comes to fishing. For those of us who have been fishing an area only to have another angler come in and start fishin the same area, I would encourage you to share, even in tournaments. Take it from a weekend anglers perspective, every time he comes into contact with a tournament angler he is getting treated poorly or being told "get out of my spot" they are going to be turned off of tournament fishing. Or even worse, be turned off of the sponsors we have plastered along side our boats. For it is because of them we even have sponsors in the first place. As a sponsored angler we work for the consumer, they are the most important piece to the puzzle. So next time your on the water be kind and respectful, a little common curtesy goes a log way! One of the easiest ways to grow a sport or make new friends is niceness!

I agree the weekend warriors grow the sport. At same time respect is mutual. I have no problem letting a guy fish thru. Nobody owns a particular lake. What gripes me is the pot licker. For example. On Arlington I'm known as the angry kayaker. I didn't start that way. Out of context and possible post theft. But am I the only one that gets upset with 250hp boats following your every move?

Any body of water has plenty of places to fish without invading someone else's fishing spot. Whether bank, boat, kayak or tube, respect the person who is already there. Not doing so displays arrogance and bad manners.

Simple Solution DO NOT GET NEAR ME !!!!!!!!! If I can hear you, your to close. If I can see what bait your using, your to close. if I can feel your slimy presence...your to close! Its oh so rather simple, not everybody that fishes out of a yak is sociable. I spend an unimaginable amount of time and effort to find my fish be it bass or sunfish...I don't need some Johnny weekender who has put no effort into doing anything on his own cashing in on my hard labor...yeah Im not on the water to make friends or feed the pot lickers...

Weak...

On spacing, it also has something to do with what the other angler is doing as you approach. If the angler is standing and fan casting a spinner bait, and the casts are 40 yards, it seems right to stay well out of that 180 degree cast pattern, not crimp his or her casting distance nor getting in front of his path. But, if two anglers are in a cove with plenty of standing timber flipping jigs, I'd think the distance could be much closer. I'm thinking here of non-tournament fishing.

Everyone has likely seen the confrontation between KVD and Iaconnelli on YouTube. KVD is fishing a spot, Ike rolls in . . . but hard for a viewer to tell how close, and KVD says something to him like, "Really?" to which Ike responds with a "Don't be that way; if you want me to leave, just say so." That was about the extent of it. Ike drifted off as I recall.

There is another really good example of a video of a young guy fishing from his boat when another belligerent fisherman rolls up and seems to think the he owns the water. They were actually crossing on the other side of a stand of timber, as I recall, not all that close. The YouTube guy thought the other man was joking, but realized he wasn't. The other guy dogged him the rest of the day talking about "no respect." He was looking for a fight. I guess what happened was the Youtuber got the guy's boat number and reported him. Turns out the thug was . . . a thug with an arrest record for either assault or dog fighting or something.

In this case, it ruined the Youtuber's day; the other guy wasn't out there so much for the fun of fishing, just bullying around the lake, found someone to victimize.

I'll see if I can find the video and post it.

This topic ought to be "surveyed" here on this website with questions and multiple choices like:

1) When you approach another fisherman, boat to boat, what distance do stay back? a. b. c. d. e.

2) If you are in a boat and approach an area of bank fishermen, what distance do you stay off the bank. a. b. c. d.

That sort of thing. Tabulate the responses.

Brad

Andrew Flair's encounter.

If you watch the video, two boats are well apart, one going this way, the other that way, Flair takes the inside of the timber line dividing the two boats, then the encounter. Brad

Some bad language warning.

Brad

Worth a watch:

Who owns the water here?

And, here, KVD and Ike have a tiny altercation.

I actually think KVD made his point pretty fairly with his, "Think that's cool?" comment. And, really Ike was too defensive expecting KVD to just tell him to leave. But, if KVD had said, "Mike, leave!" it actually would have sounded harsher, I think.

These videos really throw off distance perspective and Ike does appear to be crowding in to an area where there appear to be 3 boats already working a pretty small area.

It all worked out well with Ike rolling off.


Brad

KVD vs. Ike

I do wish that more guys that have the flexibility to fish M-F would consider this. Most folks (myself included) work our tails off in "regular" jobs m-f and can only get out on Saturdays and Sundays, which means things may get a little crowded every now and then.

I am never one to get on top of someone else, but I also do not loose my mind on someone that is two casts away from me. As long as someone is not deliberately cutting you off, running through your cast/fish, or violating the unwritten 2 cast rule, be considerate. That may be the only day that guy gets to fish all month.

One night, at the Thursday Working Man tournament, this guy cast his lure right up next to my kayak and caught the winning fish of the night from right underneath me.

I didn't get too upset because, as it turns out, he's a pretty good guy...

That's not to say that I'm going to let him forget about it any time soon


Craig

I don't fish tournaments anymore, but when I'm on public water and a tournament boat approaches where I'm fishing, I'm not going to vacate my spot unless I'm ready to move. I'm not going to pull out a shotgun, either. I see no need for any altercation on the water, but I will "hold my own." For just "fun fishing," (like we did in Oklahoma, Brad), it doesn't bother me if we both cast to the same brushpile at the same time. No problem. With someone I don't know, I'd probably try to fish away from them. If I'm on public water and approach a tournament boat or a bank fisherman, I'll usually give the bank folks at least 300 feet on either side of where they are fishing - unless they're fishing from or very close to a launch ramp. I won't cut in front of anyone fishing down a bank until I get at least 400 yards in front of them. I fished only weekends for many years, and I understand how a weekend angler would want me to fish during the week now that I'm retired. However, I feel like I've "paid my dues," and will fish whenever and wherever I choose to. I think that friendly competition among anglers is great, and I enjoyed it when I did it - but I refuse to be intimidated into leaving a particular fishing spot unless I want to do so. In my mind, mutual cooperation is a lot more likely to prevent problems than fishing like you need a proctologist in the boat with you. JMHO.

I agree with you Jason because after this season fishing Bass Champs we fished against 250-300 other teams. The lake starts to fish small and sometimes you run into people. Common courtesy go a very long way and It just takes one bad apple to ruin a trip. I've been on both sides and would much rather be courteous than a jack wagon, after all it's just fishing out of plastic boats and chasing little green fish.

My point exactly!

I fish to relax so I don't look for confrontations on the water. I will actively avoid others and even give way when necessary if we are both heading to the same spot. However, I think that you're entitled to the area around your boat that is within casting distance so if I go around you to an area well beyond your casting distance then it's my area. This applies mainly to power boats as they generally create a bigger disturbance and seem to be more "jerkish." I'm usually ok with sharing a fairly small area with another kayaker so long as they are polite.

Fishing Palestine I kicked the TM in high to go by a dock where some folks had some lines in the water. I was out about 50' or so past where their lines entered the water. The old man, at least 75, started cussing me and begging me to come over there so he could whoop me. I thought I had given them plenty of space, didn't linger and it was my electric motor but he was hissed bad. No apology was going to be accepted. He even went up to the bank and followed me down the shore line for a couple of properties as I attempted to fish other docks, cussing like a sailor and making crazy threats. Life is too short for that type of crud. I don't pull up in front of someone and start fishing unless it's at least a couple hundred yards ahead. I try to give bank fisherman some space. If I'm on fish and you are fishing a tourney and I'm not I will give you a tip on what I'm doing to catch them and let you have the space. However I won't give way if you're just being an [censored].