I feel it is important to make this post because it seems everyday more and more people don’t seem to respect fellow anglers on the water.

First off let’s cover launching a boat. When you are launching a boat it is courteous to only pull in front of the launch to back in when you ARE ready to actually back into the water. Do not block the pull up area while you are unstrapping your boat, putting in your plug, or loading tackle. That area is intended to be pulled into to line up on the ramp and back into the water. Also when you load your boat the same thing applies. Don’t sit there tying everything up while others may need to get their boat out as well. Pull forward out of the load area and tie things up out of other people’s way. Another thing if it is dark when you are loading or launching a boat turn your lights off when you are backing down the ramp or pulling up the ramp. Most ramps are designed for multiple boats to launch simultaneously. It is very difficult to line up on a ramp looking into the lights of a truck on the slope. When your truck is on the ramp it is angled up which puts the lights shining right into the eyes of anyone else trying to launch a boat. I think this covers the main issues I run into with people at the ramps.

Boat operations. One thing that I see a lot is people coming way too close to other people fishing while they are planed out. This can be a little grey sometimes. Typically it is courteous to stay up to 100 feet away while planed out. The exception to this is when people are fishing IN or directly near the boat lane or common running area. With this in mind remember if you fish in or close to the boat lanes do so understanding you should not expect people to shut down off plane in these areas because you chose to fish there.  When you come into an area close to a fellow angler try to shut down far enough in advance to keep the swelling wakes from hitting the anglers boat. Another thing I see way too often is people running too close behind another boat planned out running down the lake. It takes a lot more distance to slow a boat down. There is no brake on a boat and it would not be good to land in somebody’s back seat.

Fishing Etiquette: Ok, here is the big subject. This is the topic that really burns a lot of people up and is the reason so many people behave so secretly about fishing holes.  First, just because you see a boat fishing somewhere does not mean you should go fish around them. Yes they may be sitting there catching fish and you may not be but still don’t. You don’t know how much time and effort that person may have put in to catch fish in that spot. Many people sink brush piles to hold fish. It costs time and money to do that and for someone to come up and fish it because you are sitting there is just outright RUDE. The lakes are big enough that you could go fish somewhere else even better it just requires some WORK on your part. Ok, this doesn’t mean you should not fish community holes. For those who don’t know what a community hole is I’ll explain. A community hole is a fishing location known by most anglers on the lake. On the same note don’t get mad when somebody comes fishing by you IN a known community hole it comes with the territory. When fishing an area and you find you are sharing the area still avoid fishing within at least two cast lengths of a fellow angler aside from going around.

Hole Jumping:  Ok this one is also classic and very important. Your buddy calls you up says “Hey man let’s go fishing I have been smashing fish in this spot”. You go out and go fishing in this spot your friend found. Now your friend does not “Own” this spot but he did find it and the ethical thing to do is respect your friends fishing spot. This means ask him if you intend to go fishing and want to go there. It means ask if he cares if you bring such and such friend with you. It means you don’t go out and catch fish there any old time you feel like it. You never know when he may go there for a tournament unknowing that his”buddy” smashed his go to hole. Also it means not showing the location to every tom dick and harry on the lake. Sure sometimes it was just timing and yall got lucky the fish were there, but sometimes that spot can pay off over and over again especially for a tournament angler. The same thing applies to going as a draw angler. Ok the point is to learn right, well learn. Analyze the fishing area and situation and go find your own location based on what made the spot you saw a good one. Don’t go to learn where other people fish. Tournament guys know that showing the wrong person where you fish will kill a good fishing hole. I have heard of some guys going out and catching a mess of fish to put in the freezer off somebody’s fishing hole that they were shown. That is total crap. A little curtesy and respect goes along way. I have a few friends with my total trust and I have theirs. I respect each one and I will not share one firends information with another friend without them knowing. If I think the fish are holding good in a friends location I will call and find out if he is fishing anything soon there and also if he minds if I fish the spot. If he does have a tourny or doesn’t want the spot hit for some other reason simple respect his wishes and find somewhere else to fish. Please help keep our sport respectful and honerable. There is a lot of competition out there but as with any competition poor morals and ethics will ruin a sport for the rest of us.