here is mine...like everybody else,I've got some ugly encounters but here is one with a happy ending...
several years ago was fishing a Redman tourney on Lake Sinclair(Ga.)..was flipping docks and came up on one with couple little boys bream fishing off it..one was probably 6 years old and other one couple years older........did the usual "catching anything" greeting and both of them started telling me about a giant catfish had pulled it out of the holder and swam off the night before with the older boys brand new rod and reel....both of the boys were kinda dejected over losing the rod and we told them we were sorry and continued fishing down the bank...
probably about two docks down,I saw a bobber at edge of a boat house with no rods on nearby docks...just on a hunch,I snagged the bobber with my rod tip and pulled the bobber to the boat and pulled on the line....no giant catfish but there was a brand new rod and push button reel....
I turned around and headed back where the boys were on the dock....as I got with within earshot I told them I had found a rod and reel that I might sell cheap...the older boy asked how much and I replied probably a dollar would be enough....older boy told the younger one to run up to the house and get a "dollar from Daddy"...and younger started to the house and I told him to hold on a minute til they saw the rod because it might not be worth a dollar....I can tell you,it was worth a hundred dollars to see the look on their faces when they saw the rod lying on my deck,recognized it as theirs and both of them trying to tell me at the same time that was the rod the catfish had swam away with...I told them that if that was their rod,I just couldn't charge them anything......and it was worth another hundred dollars to have seen and heard them running up to the cabin hollering out to their Dad they had got their rod back....

Two counter situations:

Cedar Creek Lake and fishing with my partner going from dock to dock.
An old lady came out of her house and walked to the end of her dock as we had started fishing it. She told us to leave and quit fishing her dock or she would shoot us.
I made our way around and kept fishing. A couple docks down a man and his son I assume were on their dock. As we came up to it he told us not to worry about that lady. He said the sheriff had taken her guns just a couple weeks earlier.


Maybe a decade later on Richland Chambers I was fishing a BASS Federation tournament by myself. I had a decent stringer and had a little time to burn so I pulled into a cove I knew had good fish from time to time. It was a double cove so I pulled in and went directly to a dock on the point between the coves and as soon as I came off plane I saw a man who was on his riding lawnmower. As I came up to the dock he ran his mower up to his house and went inside. A minute later he came out and headed right to the dock.
I was thinking, here we go again but when he got to his dock he walked up to me and asked how I was doing. I said pretty good and told him a little about my day. He then said he had more vegetables than he could eat and wanted to know if I would like some of his tomatoes. He had a sack of them with him.
You never know. Also as I fished back in the cove I caught a few fish including a 4 pounder that I culled a fish with and missed a larger fish.

In my 40+ years of bass fishing I've never had a negative encounter while fishing... Now we don't have a lot of private docks on the Ohio River or any of the Corps. lakes up north, so wasn't the opportunities I guess. I'd say all my negative experiences happen at the ramp and with other fishermen either crowding or cutting you off... Now we just moved to a TVA where everyone has a dock so I guess I might have something to look forward too... Dan

I've been fishing Cedar Creek my entire life and certainly have my favorite docks to fish and there is one in particular that is my absolute favorite. I never go to the lake without running over to the "tomato dock". One day while fishing it, a man comes down from the house to the dock. As he's approaching, he looks kind of familiar. When he gets close enough, I say "Sir, is your name Harold?" He replies yes. I said "My name is Alton Kiser, do you remember me?" He says "OMG, how have you been? Are you still married?" We proceeded to catch up for about 20 minutes while I caught 4 or 5 bass off of his dock.

Harold was the jeweler who sold me the diamond and the wedding bands for my wife waaaaay back a long time ago when I proposed to her. The ordeal of the design of the bands and their being made is a story in itself and for another thread altogether, but it was about 20 years from that time to the fishing time. Crazy small world.

Many years ago, we had a guy on Enchanted Isle, at Cedar Creek, come down to the water and tell us to stop fishing his dock. He said he owned the water around the dock and out about fifty feet. We told him he was crazy. He turned red and stormed back into the house. I was concerned that he might return with a weapon.

I was relaying this tale to my buddy that also had a house on Enchanted a couple of weeks after this. He told me that everybody down there knew the guy and he was a kook. He had gotten into a fight with a neighbor. The police were called and he ended up in some hospital for troubled souls.

Folks with short fuses have always been around, we just have more now than ever.

I’ve never had a bad encounter. Hell. Last Thursday night we had a beautiful lady come down to her dock with her giant Bull Mastiff. I mean HUGE!!! She didn’t see us at first, then apologized for her and her dog “messing up our fishing”. Then….right under her and her dogs feet, in less than a foot of water, my partner hooks a 3-3/4 pounder on a frog. He had to reel the fish in as fast as he could, for fear the dog was fixing to dive in on top of the fish!!!

Of course we thanked her for making our night enjoyable….and letting us take one of her fish for a boat ride.


One other time, I was fishing a dock and noticed that they left a halogen light turned on from the night before. It was bunji corded to a corner post and was catching the wood on fire. It was starting to get burning pretty good, so I fired up my motor and turned the back of the boat towards the dock, trimmed it REALLY REALLY high and swamped the dock. Put out the fire.

The next day I was fishing the same lake. When I went by that dock to see the aftermath, the owner ran out and asked if I was the a-hole that sprayed his dock. I said yes. He started laughing. He said he was hoping for some insurance money….then said he was joking and thankful that I was there when I was. He said his elderly dad was crappie fishing the evening before and forgot to unplug the light when he was done.

Since then, that guy tells me everything he as brushed around his dock whenever I see him.

Me on the Other end of the dock encounter. About 12 years ago..

Long story short, 2 missing ceiling fan blades.

Me cussing braided line users who can’t cast for chitty chitty bang bang.

(I searched for the post)

Come on Dan, you live in Ohio, who is going to complain from a dock that is only 3 foot deep of water? Then, you have not caught any bass in that certain lake in years. LOL
I have a buddy who lives just outside of Marysville, and he says a 2 lb. bass is a monster there and you rarely ever seen one when you fish year after year on those lakes around there.

grandparents moved from arkansas to sixshooter on lake tenkiller mid 60s, I got to fish the crappie dock free (so I thought. lol) and most nights someone had to come get me for me to leave.

guy named charley ran the dock and we got to be friends, full blood cherokee and a hoot to be around. charley is credited with keeping me from a life of chawin on red man chew (he had a bag in his pocket at all times), gave me some and forgot to tell me not to swallow the nasty chit that accumulates. I learned young.

worked on the same dock the next year, ran people to their private docks and houseboats in a 14'/15hp, got to use the boat to fish when I could. sold minners, sometimes gassed boats (rarely), swept etc. awesome job for about 3 months a yr. and I got free crappie dock fishin!

Buddy of mine got caught in a nasty thurnderstorm on Eagle Mountain during a tournament. Lightening everywhere they decided to pull in under an empty boat house, when mother nature calls and he pulls his britches down and squats off the side of the boat, after he finished wiping, he looks up to the house and the owners are starring at him sippin on their mornin coffee. He said the lightening had slowed and he got out of there as fast as a could.

Catfish attractant.....

A few years ago a buddy and I were fishing lake limestone, we were in the back of a cove when a big storm started brewing, we started idling out as fast as we could ( full of timber ) but the storm hit us before we could get out, it was a bad one, I happened to look over to my right and there was a guy on his dock motioning us to come over to his dock, we pulled into his dock and he raised my boat up on his lift, there were 3 footers rolling in there, bad lightning and torrential rains, we sat there for nearly two hours talking with the man waiting for the storm to pass, he is a good dude, he told me he had a couple pet bass around his dock, I came back and fished it during the tourney, caught one of his pets, it was a 4 lber, he hangs out here quite a bit but I have not seen him post lately.

Years ago, I stepped off the boat onto a floating dock. The part connected to shore broke, the whole thing tilted sideways and it dumped me back into the boat. It didn't hurt anything but my pride but I did manage to snap the end off a rod in the process. Wish I had that on video.

Never fails. You ever notice If you fall or fart, somebody is always right behind you.

We used to call that chumming.