found the sandies in about 30 feet of water out in front of murrell park.(1/2 mile by water straight out from the shore) 1 out of 2 were keepers but no magnums. LOTS of boats flying by but that didn't seem to bother the fish. all on bottom hitting chrome slabs and a tailhummer. didn't see birds and did not see any concentrations of boats elsewhere. fish would scatter and you may go 10 minutes without a bite but they would circle back around and the action would pick up again. hint-don't leave your spot too soon. give it a few more minutes before you pack up and leave. caught maybe 50-60 in a couple of hours and left them biting.

Was there on Friday. About the same spot, but the fish were surfacing and the birds were "working". It could have been a great time, except for the fact that one gentleman insisted on trolling through the school with his big motor with two lines out. I was amazed at the ignorance. Three other boats, including myself, were on the edges casting in to the school.

As soon as he would troll through, the fish would scatter for about 10 minutes. Then, as soon as they would appear, he he would come. I didn't want to get too mad, but several times held my hands out, shrugging my shoulders and asking him what he was doing. He just smiled and continued on. Everyone finally had enough and left.

I truly hope that he was not just being lazy and was fully aware of what he was doing. Maybe he just did not know any better...

Maybe he will happen by here and read this post and think twice later...

Next time I will make it very obvious that I am unhappy and hopefully educate the idiot.

Hman-I agree with you 100% on the troller interference. I set out a marker bouoy and shortly after, had a guy drive right up to it from out of nowhere. Thought he was going to run over the top of it at 1st but he veered off.(would actually have laughed had it caught up in his prop) Maybe half a cast from my boat! What goes through someone's mind when they do that? Does someone trolling NOT understand to keep their space?? I won't waste my time on the jet skiers because they simply don't have a clue BUT with fishermen it's gotta be common sense!

If he does not know to not troll through the middle of schooling fish if your trying to catch fish, i doubt he knows of the TFF.

Great point Fish Hawk!

When they get around me I play a mean defense to keep them off my marker buoy.

I run a slant!

Suppose the Troller found them first, with absolutely no other boats around; and put out a marker bouy or two, say off Sand Bass Point? A couple of trolls later the slabbers see him pullin' in some big-uns and motor right up to his bouy(s). What's your take on that, fellas?

Happened to me and Spinr' Bait. Of course late arrivers assume the bouy(s) belong to someone not trolling and are ticked at the troller for, well, trolling thru the group of boats. What's a troller to do? And what does "assume" mean?

If the troller found the fish and marked them with a buoy and kept on trolling well after they were found then its shame on him. You can't blame someone for taking a spot that you left. He might not have seen it was your buoy marker. If you find fish in one spot and don't stop and fish it theres no one to blame but yourself. You can only be in one spot at one time. If you're off trolling 300 yards from your buoy you don't have a right to that whole stretch of water IMO.

Looks like they just found us based on the number of posts.

Bill & Spinrbait, welcome to TFF.

Dont get upset this is a Haggards and Jones arguement that will never be settled.

Unclefish makes a good point. If a troller finds them why do they drive off? If they find something worth throwing a marker buoy for, you just ran a small orange advertisement that says "Look! We found FISH".

This forum is alot of fun, dont take anything personal, just take what you want and forget about the views you dont care for.

Well I guess I will put my two cents in.

The best thing to do when fishing anywhere is to try and see what is going on from a distance before diciding how to fish anywhere. I know of one instance in particular on Cedar Creek.

I came up on the Merrimac hump and watched as small blessing trolled the outside edge and was doing very well.
I moved my boat well to the inside of his trolling lane and we both caught fish, he trolling and me slabbing. He was doing better than I was and when he finished his limit he invited me to take his position. Small Blessing had a bouy out which I saw and kept a respectful distance from. The old "Golden Rule" always applies.

Omar Cotter
(817) 937-8755

www.luckotheirish.net

Thanks for the welcome. Unclefish does have a point .. especially since my two bouys were painted black (a stealth trick I learned many years ago) and though they were only about 20 yards apart, it took much longer than that to turn around each run.
But the point I was trying to make is that things aren't always what they seem. And to become agitated on what you "assume" simply makes an "a_s" of "u" and "me". There's enough lake for all and certainly plenty of fish, if we only practice common courtesy; which I find very pleasant in this forum. You guys are of the same mind-set as me and Spinr Bait ... 90% of those on the lake were raised right by our Dads .. the other 10% don't fish anyway.
Footnote: that day off SandBass Point was great. My nephew and Spinr' Bait and I caught a cooler full of plump sandies AND so did the dozen or so boats that were anchored. As they stacked up over the sandies, we were careful to troll well clear of anyone .. so all had fun.

I once watched a guy in a barge troll over and over through acres of surfacing fish at Tawakoni. Someone finally lost it and started yelling at him and he responded in kind. It almost got to the point of "boat rage" as they screamed back and forth. What I heard that amazed me was the troller was yelling that the trolling wasn't scaring anything, when of course it was screwing up the action. There are really folks out there who honestly believe that trolling does not scare surfacing fish and who can't be convinced otherwise. By the same token, there are many who haven't figured out that the best approach with surfacing fish is to get behind the path of the surfacing school and follow them rather than get in their path which usually scatters them when they get too close. As Omar said, I like to see what's the movement pattern and try to ease in without crowding the fish or anyone else rather than just plowing into the heart of the school.

Thanks for understanding Bill & Spinnerbait. If the fish are surfacing the last thing I want to do is mess with all that trolling stuff but thats just me. I personally won't troll except in the summer time as a last resort, way too much work.

I was on Grapevine Saturday out from Murrell too. My 4 year old son and I caught quite a few sandies on Lil Georges. We moved on after a while and found more fish on a shallow point about 1 cove West of Meadowmere. The point comes out into about 5-7 feet of water in the main lake and then drops abruptly to 20ft or so. They were on the ledge before the drop-off. The birds were working sporadically on the point; no other fishing boats around though.