How far away is it okay to get from your marker bouy? I marked a school on a submerged point on Ray Roberts last weekend and moved about 50 yards away to cast back to it. I'm fishing out of a kayak in open water and I hit two fish off the bat. A boat pulls up about 20 minutes into it and sits on my marker and casts up the point. I didn't say anything but he saw my bouy for sure. Just wondering how far is too far when you drop a marker.

50 yards is not too far. Should have thrown across his front deck.

We wouldve been haveing some words on that. He probably didnt think it was yours but shouldve ask since you was right there before he even made his first cast.

I would be careful "throwing across decks" in a kayak, if you do this to the wrong "Joe and Jim Bob" they may run you over or something....

not sure how to handle this in your situation, I guess I would keep fishin , not worth ruing your day over.

Although they should have been able to put 2 and 2 together, if your using a bright orange bouy, that's your first problem.

Tammi and I were fishing early Sunday. We had dropped a buoy on a ridge and were fishing between a tree on one end of the ridge and the buoy (about 100 yards) We were the only boat in site believe it or not.
A couple of youngsters were headed down the boat lane and saw us... they immediately got off the gas and turned toward us. The guy tried to put on a good show feigning reading his electronics but one guess were he shut down and dropped his trolling motor.
I didn't really care because we were fun fishing and Tammi said they were young and wouldn't stay long. It did get under my craw that they basically had their boat against my buoy but in the end Tammi was right. They didn't catch anything and were gone in about 15 minutes.
If they had stayed I was going to pull up right next to their boat and start fishing next to them... but that's why I fish with my Tammi... her much cooler head always prevails.

support

my approach is this..

If I think that the approaching boat is trying to get on top of the area that I'm fishing, I will make conversation and tell him/her that I've marked fish and point out the fact that I have a bouy located RIGHT THERE! and say something to the effect of "hey, I'm not fishing in a tournament or anything, and your welcome to fish along side me - but can you please move off a bit so I can cast up to where I marked the fish before you got here? you pulled your boat into the exact area that I was fishing" Some people are just plain ignorant or lack any sort of class and may continue to do so, but at least you stated your intentions and given him the option to move or leave the spot alltogether.

Fishing Fork during the spring there's all kinds of guys that will cut you off when you're fishing a bank or creek channel and it's just par for the course. One of the reasons I'm trying to learn to fish deep structure better so I can get away from all the "Bass Pro Specialist".

The right question is how far should people stay away from your marker buoy. If you have to ask or are concerned then they are too close.

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Orange markers are like beacons in the night when it comes to potlickers, lol. They can hone in on them from 1/2 way across the lake. I've had it happen several times too. I usually go pick up my marker and leave, they rarely have a clue what to do at that point because they have lost their reference point. Had a marker out on the Vine one day and was casting a c-rig and crankbait towards it (actually past it on either side). Then an idiot in a ski boat idled up to it and picked it up, acting like he had no clue. I hollered at him and he looked at me and said, "Is this yours?" Of course I said, "YES". He dropped it back in the water but then I noticed it started moving. He ended up with the line all wrapped up in his prop. Grrrrrr

My take is if you are going to drop a marker you better stay within a cast or so the above mentioned marking 100 yards does not fly. Marking a spot then pulling off to an adjacent area and expecting it to be honored doesn'twork either. Some people are turning into whiners about this kind of stuff.

When you put out a marker don't leave it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!100 yards off is to far to save a spot

Some people just don't care and have the attitude that its everybody's lake. They just throw courtesy out the window

In my opinion, a marker buoy is for marking structure or fish you are fishing, not for marking a spot so you can stray away. If you are close enough to fish the spot or structure then you probably have nothing to worry about. In the event that someone gets to close to where you are fishing, you have a few choices. For me, if I'm on fish, I ask them to back off and if I'm not, I leave them to it. I'm not always nice about it, but what else are you going to do.