**I don’t ice fish, but when I do fish on the bank, I try to be polite. What I do, is go to the spot I want, and ask anybody nearby (50-100 feet) “Mind if I fish here?”. I’ve never had anybody say ‘no’ so far, but if they did… I’d just go find another spot I like.
Mostly the reason I ask, is so lines don’t get tangled, because that’s a huge pain to hassle with.
**
I’ve certainly come closer to people than I am sure they have liked. I’ve had it happen to me as well. When you’re fishing hotspots it’s hard to avoid.
I’ve never seen fit to tell someone they were too close to me, even if I did mind. Also, no one has ever said anything to me.
When I fish w/ friends we tend to drink some and get pretty vulgar. Because of that I definitely avoid camps with children. I don’t want to ruin anyone’s trip.
Also, when walking by camps, or wandering a little when the fishing is slow, I think it’s okay to ask about other anglers’ catches. It’s helpful to see if they’re catching and get an idea of what to use. If people want to be secretive that’s up to them. That’s very rare though. Most will gladly inform me of the rig they’re using and many have offered up worms or other bait if I don’t have what’s working. Usually I’m doing the same thing anyway, I’m just a lousy fisherman.
I can think of one day leaving the sisters (Blanche, Florence and Lillian). I’d had a great day on the middle lake and saw an older gentleman fishing with his grandkids and having little luck. I chatted him up for a few minutes and saw he was using crawlers. All my fish were caught on salmon eggs and I informed of that. He sort of slumped and said he forgot his. I gladly handed him my nearly full bottle and helped him re-rig some poles for his kids with some extra bobbers. Within 10 minutes they had a couple fish and I was reconsidering my own departure. He welcomed me to sit with him but I decided to go home anyway. I hope he enjoyed his trip and I hope those grandkids will be fish addicts for the next generation.
You Ice fish enough and this sorta thing just happens I dont understand it I think most have a brain and keep there distance but there is a small majority that is just ignorant people who don’t care. These usually are the same people who boat over your lines while float tubing
As mentioned earlier I usually walk over and strike up a conversation some are cool and will BS with you Some are just tarded and sit there I just keep feeding them useless BS and giving them wild advice
. One year I told a guy to use mayo on his lures, another to soak his lures in urine ( BASICALLY TOLD HIM TO PEE ON HIS LURES ) hehehe if your going to crowd me im gonna get my kicks out of it LOL … Give it try… makes me laugh every time I think of the guys face when I told him to pee on his lures.
I’m looking for the video! This I gotta see, but I can’t find it. If you have it, PLEASE, OH PRETTY PLEASE repost it!!!
im with sinergy on this one. its not even ice fishing we are talking about, its fishing in general i think.
i remember one time my buddy, me, and my brother were fishing at mill hollow at our usual spot. there were some older fellas ( and by older i mean like 40’s ) with their young kids about 100 yards away. we could hear everyone on the lake, so it was no secret when someone caught a fish. i can remember that day i heard them tell one of their kids to go to the bathroom and check to see what we were using. i just laughed and shrugged it off. the kid went back to his dad and said what we were using and i remember him laughing really loud and cussing; saying that his son was a liar. then about 15 min later a very old gentlemen and his grandson walked up to us and watched us fish for a few min. they saw us catching fish and asked if we would mind if they fished next to us. we said that was just fine and told them where we were casting out so they wouldnt tangle us. about 10 min later the grandson ( who was probably about 4 years old ) asked his grandpa why we were catching fish and why they werent lol. i then leaned asked the older gentlemen to come over and i showed him how we were rigging our poles and what we were using, gave him some bait and hooks, and even hooked his grandson’s pole up for him. within 3 min of doing so his grandson had a fish on shore. we then packed up and left, but gave the man and his grandson the remainder of our bait and told them good luck.
i have no problem helping people out if they are polite and ask, but if they want to be sneaky or rude then they can figure it out on their own. all i know is that little guy probably had the day of his life that day on the lake.
after watching tommy boy last night i have another idea. i see most of you guys weraring thicker, almost ski/snowboarding/rain gear jackets. well since these are thicker jackets, why dont you tape some road flares to your chest on the inside of your coats and an old POS gold watch with come wires hangiong out of your sleeves… when someone gets to close, lose your jacket top for a second and start mumbling to yourself something about allah… there is a down side to this, and thats death, you might get shot… i know i would at least laugh
This is not ice fishing related but it fits the topic so I thought I would share. I was fishing the green river above little hole for those of you that have fished this section before you know there is the river, a little walkway, then towering cliffs not much room to walk in some spots. A friend and I were working this larger pool of fish taking turns working the run and the pool. A group below us who were apparently dry fly fisherman were watching us put a hurting on the fish with our nymphs kept shaking their heads in disgust. It probably didn’t help that my buddy was drunk and every time he caught a fish he held it up and yelled at it “you don’t eat orange worms” then released the fish showing them the fish yelling “take that dry fly boy!”. The were trying to wait us out and take the pool but we kept catching fish after fish and found no reason to move. The fish started rising at the head of our pool so I tied on a dry and started hooking up this way. I think that was the last straw because the finally decided to go upriver. I was polite and said hi as the walked by but the didn’t respond. They did stop at the top of the pool I was casting to and pointed out the rising fish to his buddy. I thought no big deal some nice fish in there he will just move on. The look at them for a second then his buddy starts to dap his fly on the water. I was starting to get upset but thought I would let it slide and they would move on. Then he starts making 1/2 casts into my hole I am fishing. Remember they have been watching us for about 45 min in this hole. So I yelled up to him “hey buddy what is your name” acting all friendly. He replied back to me his name was Clark. I then said to him “hey Clark if you are going to fish in my hole would you prefer to just use my rod?” He about fell over called me an a*hole and mumbled up the trail how he was going to kick my arse… My buddy just died laughing..