I was fishing a tourney on Palestine a couple months ago and my buddy got shot at while unhooking a lure from a dock. Shotgun pellets landed right beside his Iclass.

yes. I heard it was a elderly lady that shot a shotgun at him.
I think.it was the Kilgore bass club

old lady was yelling, old man fired the shot

I disagree with your disagreement. People are evil by nature. Always. I'd rather tear your [censored] up than risk getting shot. Invest in a better tarp if it's tearing that easily.

Now that's crazy!

Let me make sure I understand you. You pitch up to my dock and land on my boat cover and hang up. You would rip it out leaving a rip in my cover rather than getting it out or cutting it off? It's MY fault cuz I don't have a better boat cover?

[quote=DalMichaelLasI disagree with your disagreement. People are evil by nature. Always. I'd rather tear your [censored] up than risk getting shot. Invest in a better tarp if it's tearing that easily. [/quote]


Then you should either learn to cast more accurately or stay the HE77 away from people's docks. Your attitude is what leads to fist fights at boat ramps, and worse.

Uhhhhh what?

Yup, it's the fault of those who pay hundreds each month for their slips and try to protect their equipment and not the fault of those who fish the slips with total disregard for the property of the slip owners.

I was at my slip the other night when two men in a bass boat started fishing the dock on the other side of me. They were tossing their lures into the sides of each boat and allowing them to fall down into the water under the boats. They would then do a slow retrieve back.

At first I thought it was just a case of not being able to cast that well but then I realized they were doing it two-three times at each boat in each slip before moving to the next slip.

When they came around to my side of the dock I asked them not to cast their lures against the boats as gel coat repair could be expensive.

One of them flipped me a bird and the other one told me they had a right to fish the slips as they were on public water. So I asked if it was O.K. if I started casting lures against the side of their bass boat.

The one who had flipped the bird started cussing me so I pulled out my cell phone and took a picture of them and their boat number. I was asked what I was doing and I told them I had their boat number so the owners of the boats could contact them if they found damage to their gel coats tomorrow.

I told him I was also calling the game wardens since what they were doing was malicious and could cause damage to the boats in the slip.

He told his partner to sit down and then he turned and left the area, going wide open throttle and rocking all the boats in the docks on both sides of him as he left.

Thirty minutes later I saw they were back in the area but was now fishing the inlet pump tower area, inside the no boating restricted area of the pump tower.

Then you have some who steal anything they see that is not locked up in the slips. I have lost a very expensive prop to thieves who stole it from my boat in my slip a few years back and in August this year I lost four fishing rods that I forget to remove after coming in late at night from fishing.

This is why dock owners don't want people casting jigs and lures inside their slips. They see too many morons who have no respect for the property of other people so they don't want anybody fishing the area.

Plus there is no way to tell the 90% who are honest fisherman from the 10% who are thieves looking for something to steal as they fish the slips.

So if you can convince everybody who fish the slips to respect the property of the slip owners and not to steal from the slips then maybe the slip owners would not mind you fishing the slips.

The best thing to do if you hook someones property/boat and you can't retrieve the lure from in YOUR boat, is to cut the line and learn to cast better. With all of the trigger happy nutjobs who think they own the lake now, it's not worth a $5 lure.

The best thing to do is learn to cast properly so you do not hook somebody's property/boat.

It's not a matter of owning the lake, it is a matter of owning the property in the slip and having spend a lot of money for that slip which you want to use for free.

It is wrong to shoot at somebody for fishing your slip but it is also wrong to damage the property of the slip owner. This is not an issue worth killing over on either side of the issue.

It can be frustrating having to remove the jigs and lures from your docking lines every week or finding damaged property from those fishing the slips.

I would say there are more people damaging/stealing the property of slip owners than there are "trigger happy nutjobs" shooting at people fishing their slips.

I will ask you the same question I asked those two bass fisherman who were bouncing their lures off boats the other night. Is it O.K for a slip owner to toss lures at your boat when you are fishing his slip? If not why is it O.K. for you to toss your lures at his boat or the equipment on his slip? After all, you don't own the water your boat is setting on.

If people would learn to cast properly and respect the slip owner's property then more slip owners would not mind the slips being fished.

I would be concerned to leave a lure stuck in a boat seat. Sure would hate for someones child to sit on it, step on it, or brush by and get it stuck in their leg. At the same time I would NEVER pull it hard enough to rip the seat. If I did accidentailly do any kind of damage I would leave a note with my name and number. I would take my chances with getting on the dock.

I have the same worry when I get hung on the structure under the dock and break it off. What if someone is swimming there and got hung up?

I think this is really an interesting question with no good answer.

ez, I'm completely with you on the damaging of slip owners' property. And I was shocked to hear about the knuckleheads using folks boats as a backstop. IDIOTS.

However, the slip owner's attitudes may also need a bit of a tune-up.

"It's not a matter of owning the lake, it is a matter of owning the property in the slip and having spend a lot of money for that slip which you want to use for free."

Ya see, every one of those slips and docks was built on a public reservoir. At the choice of the owner. And in so doing, I'm sure the owners were aware that all the water around their dock is public.

Now days we have a bunch of discourteous anglers on our lakes. Then add to them the meth-head thieves and I'm sure you dock owners have your hands full.

In no way do I condone any of the actions of the guys flipping boat slips when it involves trespass or property damage. By the same token, stating that people want to use the slip you paid for free of charge is just a fact of living on a public lake. It's structure, it's shady and fishing around them is permitted by law.

I'm confused.

I agree with you. If your gonna fish slips, learn to cast. If you do make an errand cast, don't trespass. Of course it's not ok to damage another's property.

Maybe you took offense to the gun totting nutjobs statement? If you aren't one of them then why take offense? I've seen so many guns pulled unnecessarily in my life and it really pisses me off.

The fact is the fault lays on both sides, because there are a lot of sorry people out there. If a bass fisherman is disrespectful to a dock owner, the dock owner feels the need to disrespect the next guys that come by fishing. And vice versa.

Honestly you sound like a very level headed guy that isn't part of the problem. But not all dock owners are as calm as you are.

Where did you get the notion all thieves are "meth-heads"?