Have you ever met those Karens or Kens on the lake while you're fishing? You know what I'm talking about. Those crazy homeowners that come out and start yelling at you because you're fishing. Right? I mean, we all have our moments. I've been fishing for dozens of years and I can tell you tons of stories, but I'm going to tell you about three of them right now. And what I'd like you to do is share your stories too. Share them down in the comments down below. I'll read them. I might even respond back to them.
But there's three that come to my mind right now. Couple examples of what I'm talking about. The first one is when I was fishing this smaller lake, rather picturesque lake ringed with these older homes, they all had docks, lots of lily pads, and it was loaded with bass. And so, I was fishing it one nice summer day and just working my way around the lake and I come across this one dock and out comes this older man. Comes running out and, "Get off my private property. Get out of here. You're fishing here illegally, you got to go. You're trespassing." All this stuff. I was like, "What is this man ranting about? What's going on?" You know, and he got closer to me and I'm like, "Sir, I'm not on your dock." And he goes, "I'm not talking about that. You're on private land. You need to go now. You're trespassing." Like, "Sir, your dock is private property absolutely. I'm not fishing on it. I'm not standing on it. I'm not infringing on your private property." "Yes, you are. You see my property line over here, my fence there, that fence there, that forms the line all the way to the other shoreline. I own that property all the way over there and you're trespassing." I was like, "Okay, now I understand the misunderstanding." I said, "Sir, you know, your private property ends where the water begins except, of course, your dock." Tried to explain that to him and he wouldn't have anything of it. He was, "You're trespassing. I'm calling the police on you right now. I'm gonna get you arrested for trespassing," blah, blah, blah. I was like, and I told him, I said, "Okay." Well, as I dropped my anchor down, I said, "Please do call the police. And when they come here, please bring them back here and I would love to hear them explain to you your property rights. And I'll wait. Not a problem. You know, let's get this resolved."
So, I wasn't being a jerk about it. It's just like, okay, you know, I'm calling your bluff. Anyway, he went storming off into his house and I hung out for a little bit while longer, skipping stuff under his dock and hanging out but he never came out. So, I was like, "All right." So, I picked up my anchor and went about my merry way and never heard from him again. I got to pause for a second here, in my state, there are two RCWs. These are laws on the books, misdemeanors that the first one is nobody can infringe upon the legal take of game. So, that applies to both fishing and hunting. No one can interfere with that. And secondly, if someone is convicted of that and you're a victim, the second one says you have the right to sue them. Now, to be really clear about this, he wasn't infringing on my right to fish. He was just yelling at me and no big deal. So, that doesn't apply there but this next story it does.
So, this one, I was fishing a much larger lake. It's a very popular lake in my state. Lots of recreational boating on it and lots of smallmouth and largemouth bass. Very popular for bass fishing as a matter of fact. And there's this one dock on the lake that all us bass anglers know about. It's got a sprinkler at the end of the dock. The story is where that if you are fishing it, this lady will come out and turn on the hose spigot and, you know, drench you and try to prevent you from fishing around the dock.
Well, I've fished that dock personally many times without any incident. So, I was beginning to think that this is probably just folklore. Not a big deal, until one day it did. And I was coming up to the dock and I saw her come out her back porch and she's heading over to the spigot. I backed away from the dock before she even got to it. And sure enough, she turned that sprinkler on. And I was out of range at the time, and I thought to myself, "Well, how do I handle this one?" So, like any well-prepared bass angler, I have rain gear on my boat. So, I put on my rain gear and went right back up and started fishing her dock. And I fished it like all the other docks, skipping underneath it, do whatever. And I may have lingered there a little bit longer than normal, not sure I remember now but at any rate, I moved on. And when I got out of range, took my rain gear off. It was a sunny day, my boat dried off. Not a big deal. There was no confrontation, never talked to her or anything like that.
Mind you, I was not trying to be provocative there, just trying to make a point if nothing else. But had she come out, I keep copies of those laws in my glove box, and I'm more than happy to share that with anybody who's trying to interfere with my legal right to fish. No one's taken me up on it yet, but I do have copies of that. You might wanna look in your state and see if there's any similar laws. It's always good to have those handy in case someone wants to get in a confrontation with you. You can just hand them to them if they're willing to, you know, accept it.
The last story could have been really dangerous. It could have had a bad outcome. This one is, I was fishing with a buddy of mine out of his boat. I was in the backseat this time. And it's a different lake. This is a third lake, totally different lake, ringed with houses and docks again. I wanna make it really clear, not all homeowners are crazy, by the way. This is just some isolated incidents. But anyway, my buddy has a concealed carry permit, and while he doesn't actually have it on his person while we're fishing, he does keep it in his glove box. Never had to use it for any purpose whatsoever, but it's there. I bring this up because we are fishing along, you know, dock to dock, to dock in vegetation and stuff in between. And we come up to this one dock and out comes this angry lady and she's yelling at us for fishing her property, you know, messing with her dock and yelling at us that, you know, we're messing with the fish and causing them harm and all kinds of whatever. She's coming up with all kinds of weird stuff. And, again, tried to explain to her, you know, "Hey, you know, we're just fishing. That's it. We're not damaging anything or infringing on your rights or any of that stuff." And she won't hear nothing of it. She was just ranting and raving at us until finally she, in her tirade said, "I ought to go back in my house and grab my shotgun, come out here and blow a few holes in the hull of your boat. See how you like that." To which my friend turns around, looks at me, looks at the glove box, looks back at me, looks back at the glove box, looks back at me, and I'm like, "All right, this is a bit out of hand."
I told the lady that, you know, "Ma'am, I understand you're angry but what you just did was threaten somebody with a lethal weapon. You don't have to have that on your body or show it in order to threaten somebody with it. And that is illegal, you've just now committed. You could be arrested for that. You know, let's take this down a notch here. Just relax, you know, go back in your house, we'll finish what we're doing. We'll be on our way. It's no harm, no foul. Not a big deal." Well, she was, [vocalization]. She didn't want to hear any of that. And my friend tried to calm her down too but she would not, you know. So, she went storming off into her house. Well, my friend and I made a couple more casts, and then just to be sure, he kicked that trolling motor on a little bit on high. And we went down. We skipped a couple, the next couple of docks, and then continued fishing just in case that woman was crazy enough to actually bring out a firearm.
You know, it's not so much that she scared us away as it is... Fishing is supposed to be fun. And it's not worth it. It's not worth getting into a big confrontation with somebody. It's not worth, you know, my gun's bigger than yours or whatever. You know, it's just move on. Just separate yourself from the situation and you can enjoy the rest of your day without having to fill out police reports or anything else. It's fishing, right? And to be fair, like I said, some homeowners...a lot of homeowners are fine. They come out, "How you doing? How's fishing?" They'll come out and gab with you and they're great. I've met more nice homeowners than I have bad, but the ones that have had come out and yell at me, they're somewhat justified. You know, they are tired of finding hooks embedded in their property. Either it's in their dock, in their kids or them, or maybe their pets have stepped on these hooks, or they're finding them stuck in the upholstery in their boat. That's, you know, more to their dock or in the boat cover.
You know, come on guys, bass fishing it's a small community. Let's take care of each other. If you hook something, remove the hook. Please don't leave it behind. And if you accidentally damage somebody's property, then fess up to it. You know, go up to them, say, "Look, you know, the wind caught my lure, whatever, and accidentally hooked your upholstery." A lot of times when you do that, you get the respect of the homeowners. And most of the time they're like, "Oh, yeah, that boat's 26 years old. You know, it has more damage than that. You're fine. Not a big deal." It is just that. Not only does it resolve the situation there, but then the homeowner, even if they've been an angry homeowner in the past, might have a different impression of bass anglers. Because if you leave it there, the hook there, if you leave damage, it's us guys that get the brunt of that the next time somebody comes along, fishes their dock. So, let's just take care of each other.
Anyway, off my pedestal. Let's hear your story now. I want to hear what some of the incidents you've had and how you've resolved them. Talk about it down here in the comments below and I will read and I will respond to a lot of them. We'll see you there.
