Was on Fork today and headed to a road bed. Saw a guy(center console Skeeter with a yamaha on the back) fishing near where I wanted to fish....he was fishing near his buoy marker....no big deal as there is a pretty big sweetspot on the bed. Gave them a wide berth and circled around.

About a 100yds from his boat and buoy #1 was another one of his buoy markers.

I did not jump right on top of the second buoy but I did not avoid it by much either....gave a cushion of about 30yds to the second buoy.

As soon as I started fishing, the boat came straight to the second buoy and gave me the "stink eye" for a while.

I did not think it was cool to reserve spots by putting out multiple buoys???

My feeling on this, and I may be wrong, is he dont own the lake. He cant expect someone not to fish a spot, just cause he had a bouy out.

My opinion on this is....I don't mind the guy having multiple buoys out there and most time will try and give them their space, but the buoys had better be within a resonable distance of each other.

If I see a buoy 100yds of someone fishing I'm not assuming its their buoy anyways. So I say fish on. You tried to give them their space and thats all you can do.

100 yards is much... 25 yards, i let em have it. 50 yards, questionable.. 100 yards... no way! no reservations on public waterways!

I was out at Fork and there was a guide fishing on a spot I wanted to fish. I stayed far away from him and let him put on a show for his customers. I personally just feel like [censored] if I come to close to them. Well this other guy comes in by himself and he on his cell phone talking and moving in. I'm not kidding this guy fished with in casting distance all around this guide. My partner thought it might be Redington out there that was guiding. Not sure. Either way this guide held his lip out there when I know 99% of people would have been cursing this guy out. Props to who ever that guide was.

+1

At least he did try to respect the other's space. I was on Conroe and had 1 marker out. We'd move 30 yds. or so upwind of it and drift about 30 yds. past it then troll upwind again and repeat. This guy came up and proceded to pull up the marker! I hollered at him to "Put that marker right back where you found it!" He hollered "I didn't know it was your's." I hollered back " You knew da*n f*&^$#@ well it wasn't your's!" Guy cranked back up and left.
As stated, I don't think you can reserve water and don't mind people coming fairly close but I see it kinda like personal space. I could stand 4 or five feet from you and you would be ok with that. But if I walk closer and closer to you, at some point you will begin to feel uncomfortable. That might happen to be 2 ft. for some and 6" for others. I feel like a long cast away is as close as I feel someone should come to another fisherman, and I won't get closer than if we both made long casts at each other our baits would hit halfway between us. JMO
And I rarely would get that close unless passing or fishing school bass with several other boats. I prefer to go where I am more or less alone.

It is public waters, I give other boats a wide berth and chop the throttle to minimize my wake way before I get near an anchored or stationary boat. I don't like being on the receiving end of big waves so I try to not cause them for others. 100 feet is usually adequate.

Key word PUBLIC LAKE! No one person can tell you where you can and can't fish. I respect others on the water but, I think I would have give him his space on the buoy he was nearest and that's it.

if you go to fork get use to it i was at the skeeter owners and had a guide in a hawk come 15 yards from me and my maker and stated fishing live bait but after fishing fork for over 20 years its just part of it

I had a similiar issue a few years back but somewhat oppisite...Before I had a boat I fished off the bank at Fork in a cove. Was fishing away when a guide pulled right in front of where I was fishing and started casting the rod for his customer. Stayed there till they pulled in the fish and then left. Thought it was pretty rude but not much that could be said...

IMO. Just ask the person who you are coming close to if they think you are to close. I don't mind a guy coming in where I am at, if he ask if I think he is too close. And so far the guys that I have told were to close apologized and gave me a little more room.

I would say you were in the right. Honestly I don't mind people pulling up fairly close so much when I'm on open water structure unless its a tournament.It's fishing up in the creeks and stuff that it gets to me when someone pulls up close.The other day on fork we were whacking them on this tree about 20' from the bank. Some guy actually came down asked what we were throwing and then proceeds to try and fish the same spot from the bank. But I have found with some guys it's not worth saying anything. They honestly don't have enough sense to realize they are in the wrong. We had a guy see us catch a fish recently on texoma. He came pulling up throwing at the same spot we were. He goes don't worry I'm not in you guys tournament. The guy in the back of his boat was embarrassed he put his rod down and wouldn't even look up.

Chances are maybe he simply marked the road..so he could see the roads path..or he could have found fish on another spot and didn't retrieve his other bouy..seen people mark the path of the road with multiple buoys many times..maybe somebody did something like me..about a week and a half ago..got home..then thought cant believe I forgot my buoy..while putting things up..talking to a friend..wind blowing a little bit..pushed me off the hole..simply forgot..oh and believe me it was not the first time..I feel the same way as JMS..on deep water it doesn't bother me..heck I live here and fish quite a bit and I actually enjoy seeing others catch fish and even talking with them.

some one did that at skeeter tourny to me. i found school of sag daddys on a deep hump not on a map. i went there tourny dad and a guy must of found same fish he had a bouy out on the top of it. we were circling around him trying to find other fish on graph and as we were he trolled over and droped a bouy on other side of a large hump and then fished in middle of the two. i was extreamly mad and told him good luck. next morning i beat him there and wacked 8 lbers all morning in front of him not catching a fish. it was great