Larry

Thanks for your help with the fish habitat and fish conservation!

Another way to look at it is.. There is only so much cover on an older lake like the one where you live. There are more bass than there are good places to live, such as you have built on your dock. With your neighbor's dock being barren underneath.. your's should be a prime location for fish in that cove to inhabit. The Bass will fan out to feed in the cove and use your dock as home base.

There will always be more bass to fill the voids left by any taken from there and with fewer bass to compete for food they should have an excellent growth rate!

Bazz

Larry--Man you better get back to those big ol cats..
Thanks for all you do at your lake..hope to see you this summer..

Larry,

I thought it was a pretty good question and cannot understand the wrath some brought because of it. This kind of rebuttal is why I got out of bass fishing all together. Arogant bass fishing folks have taken so much fun out of the sport I don't want to be associated with it anymore.

I spend my money supporting other types of fishing these days. I would love it it you would put a nice stainless steel cleaning table on the end of your dock and sit out on a Saturday morning filleting a 5 pounder when some of them troll on by.

Flip the guts out in the water as they lear and inform them that they should have been there earlier, they were really biting good a while ago but seem to have moved on. Maybe even have a fry daddy close by with hot grease and drop in a fresh fillet every once in a while just to keep the smell fresh in the air.

But I am not bitter or anything.

Larry has more class than that...

Kingdad you are probably right, in fact I am sure you are right, Larry has way to much class to do this.

But I can also see how much class the folks who jumped in and started bashing him have and that is my point.

Typical chip on my shoulder attitude.

Couldn't have said it better Tim. I have people threaten me with a gun before. Cost me a spot in the Championship back in the 80's with U.S. Bass. Needed one fish to move up into the top 10. Threats by a dock owner, and I pulled off and they caught a 2lb. out from under it. Been shot at on Texoma once. At Hubbard, they use to have guard dog that hosed people at night over there fishing. Like to got his butt whipped one night. It is public water. People move out to the lakes and talk about how clear an pretty the water is, then want to kill the grass. They don't understand that is the filtering system making it some clear and nice. Next thing you know there will be condo's out over the water.

I have never posed anything before on this or any other forum. But after reading all of the posts on this subject I feel something needs to be said.
As a property owner on EM who has a dock that I think at every tournement, they draw numbers to to see who gets to fish my dock when. I know everyone has a right to fish my dock. But I can & do expext you the fisherman, tournement or not, to repsect my property & my space. Dont run your boat into my dock, don't use my dock as a stop for your boat, on a windy day. Dont run your boat under my dock or walkway. If I am out on by dock don't fish it or at least ask if I would mind if you fish it while I am on it. Most docks cost more that any boat you are fishing from. If I had to replace my dock today it would cost over $70,000.00. So please respect my property as if it were your own.

I have been cat fishing from my dock & had tournement fishermen run the over my lines & cut them with thier trolling motors. I have been pulling into my dock in my boat & been cussed out by tournement fishemen fishing my neighbors dock, because I was cutting him off. My wife can't layout on our dock without getting harrassed by some low life (not necessarily a fisherman).

I have seen posts on this forum about how low people think it is to fish a brushpile that they did not put out themselves. Well how is that any different than fishing the brush that I have put out under my dock.

You talk about the dock owners wanting keep you from catching fish that you helped to pay for the stocking. You also say that ecomomics won't let the tournement release the fish in the open water. Well lets look at this from another point of view. I also helped pay for the stocking of these fish, & you and the tournement trails are making money off of a public reasource. Why don't you put some of that money you make back into the lake by building habitat for the fishery, like a great many of us "selfish" dock owners do. Why don't the tournements & the tournement fisheman give up a litle of their money to better protect all of our investment.

Thank you for letting me say my peace.

WE have a small bass club at Lake Meredith. Where we have our weighins is right next to a crappie house. We have started taking our fish back out in the lake after we weigh them. It takes a little time and effort is all. Some of the guys take their fish to the mouth of the coves where they caught them and turm em loose. I know this is not feasable for every club but it works for us. It keeps some of the fish from being caught at the crappie house and ate. I am not against eating a fish either. I usually eat crappie or walleye. my.02

Yes,I'd like some popcorn please.
Build it and they will come.Have had my share of trouble from dock owners.I'll nearly allways leave when asked by the property owner.Not worth the hassle or frustration but dont threaten me.
Allways respect the property of others,if some one is fishing from their dock or just on it for any reason I will swing wide and go on down the bank.Never get into a shouting match with the owner,it's unproductive and usually a no win situation.It all comes down to respect for the rights of others.

Funny stuff

To clairify my posts. My posts are in response to those docks owners or marina owners that throw stuff at people, cuss at people and without cause throw a fit if your anywhere near their dock and think becasue they own a dock they also own the water. Larry sorry I vented in your thread and you took the brunt it seems from your supporters I miss understood your post and I am sorry for jumping on you but I do stand by what I said about how dock owners and marina owners should go out of their way to make sure the general publics access to water is not limited or diminished in anyway.

I have on many occasions wanted to have words with dock owners but I always choose to keep my mouth shut and ignore them. I had one once in an Anglers Choice pro-am start swinging a boat paddle at me and hit my Non-boaters pole, it was all I could do to keep the non-boater from taking a spook and hitting the guy with it. I have had several incounters with dock owner such as this. I have even had them at 9:00 in the morning call the lake patrol on me because I awakend them catching a fish and whats bad I was not even fishing their dock i was fishing the bank between the docks. Its the lake damit not a hotel. I have also been told by off duty police officers that were working security that I was not allowed to fish in a marina unless I had a slip there and he backed down once I refused to leave and told him to arrest me for fishing public water and I was more than willing to stand up for my rights.

Take a lake Like Eagle mountain there is not very much shore that does have a boat dock on it in some areas.

Black Lab,
I really do not care how much your dock costs because what it cost means nothing it is on public water and with that does not give you any rights over me nor does me having a boat give me the right to damage your property but you should do what you need to protect your property and quit expecting the general public to go out of there way to make sure your dock is ok. You should show responsibilty for your dock in making sure it is not use as a boat stop. Remember you are the one that chose to put your dock in a public place. The public did choose for you to put a dock there. As for the guys running over your lines that is wrong and if you are fishing they should not come in on you. For every bassfisherman that is a jerk there are 100 others that will go out of their way to make sure they do not harm your property or interfere with you. I know the same is true for most dock owners but it is the few that are such jerks that get me riled up about this issue because the few are trying to make it law that if you do not have a slip in a marina you can only launch your boat and load your boat and can do nothing else. That is partly why I am so vocal on this issue.

Blacklab,
You have no idea what tournaments give back to the fishing industry, BASS and FLW give a tremendous amount back, The BASS Federation give a tremendous amount of time and resources back, I know local clubs help out with habit construction all over the State.

Again I apologize for my irritated attitude but I have been fighting with Marinas and dock owners over access for several years and I have a short fuse on the subject. I am sorry.

Great idea skeeter, except for when I eventually get around to affording that new Humminbird w/ the Sidescan

Tim,

If a dock owner was able to hit you with a boat paddle you probably had you boat resting on the their dock. I don't know I was not there.

Just think of the lake as the street in front of your house. you probaly do not want someone changing their oil in the street front of your house. You would probably have somthing to say to them.

The fact that you don't care how much my dock cost, says a lot about you. It tells me that you only care about yourself, & that you don't car how your behavoir effects the people & things around you.

You say that I don't know what tournements give back to the fishing industry. I know, it gives a lot of money to a select few. as a rul they dont give anthing back to the indiovidual lakes that they use & abuse. Eagle Mountain Lake has entirely to many tournements. I don't see any of the "Tournement Trails" (Bass, FLW, ABA Bass Camps, Workingmans, etc)doing anything to help Eagle Mountain Lake. They are in bussiness for one thing only, to make money, off of a resource that all of us pay for.

One last thing, I completely agree that just as there are tournement fisheman with attitudes like yours there are afew dock owners with the same attitude.