Rant on.

[nezevic99]

I don’t fish the bay often and was reminded why on Saturday night. I had grand designs of going over to mud to fish the shallows for snapper. I threaded a piece of rope up the links of my anchor chain to deaden the clanking, I concocted a berley of pilchards, bran, bread, tuna oil and several kilos of blended prawn shells, I caught fresh squid to have prime baits and saved the whiting frames from recent adventures to add some variety. I put in at the mouth of the river and puttered across the bay in the afternoon to set myself up for the change of light and the tide change in the evening. I slowed down to idle and snuck into my chosen spot in about 7m of water, my mate slipped the deadened anchor over with barely a whisper and I slipped the second anchor over to steady the boat without making a noise. We started to trickle out a slow procession of this gorgeous concoction of berley as the sun was going down. A couple of other boats came across and anchored nearby but displayed the same sense of caution when arriving.

Then the sun went down and it started. I’m not sure whether these blokes could smell the sausages we were cooking for dinner and decided they felt like joining us for a BBQ or whether they were just inconsiderate and stupid. The first one came over on the plane from behind us and I thought he hadn’t seen the all round white light as he was heading straight for us. So I shone the torch at him as he got within 50m. So he swore at me to tell me to turn it off. He then did a lap around the boat, drove over where our baits were sitting and parked at 45 deg from the bow 30m away. He clanked his anchor chain through the roller, revved in reverse to back off and then started clunking around the boat. Bloody hell. They sat there for about 20 minutes, and then decided that they’d go somewhere else. Clanked the chain back through the roller, and then roared off at full tilt.

The second one came roaring across from the port 10 minutes later, did a figure eight over the baits then passed 20m from the bow to anchor behind us.

I gave up at this point as anything that may have been sneaking up my berley trail had been driven over 5 times by now and no doubt had buggered off to quieter waters. So I pulled the anchor and came back across to see if I could pick something up in the port. I anchored quietly on our chosen spot and started feeding floating baits back out. Only to have some clown do the same thing again. Motored up over our lines within 20m, drove up past the front of the boat and dropped his anchor. I had well and truly had enough by now. Started pulling the anchor only to find that by the time I’d pulled it in, I was less than 5m from the side of his boat.

Don’t people understand personal space anymore? Don’t people understand that shallow water snapper are a skittish fish that needs quiet to fish for them successfully? I was furious when I came back in.

[alleycat]

Hi nezevic they say 10% of fisherman catch 90% of the fish and it looks like you have found out why, some have absolutely no idea..

[murf]

wow are people really that inconsiderate up there? :( I feel for ya

cheers Murf

[nezevic99]

I'm still disappointed in humanity. I had spent hours getting ready for that trip between bait collecting and rigging. Best laid plans laid to waste. It never ceases to amaze me.

Back to fishing offshore and in horrible conditions landbased to slow down the fleas.

[Funchy]

The worst part of all this nezevic99 is that the bloke has no idea he even impacted what you were doing mate or how he impacts others. And, how indignant do they get when ya front em with it? I've had a couple of bourbons so best I leave it at that or esle I'm gonna go to town on these inconsiderate, selfish, moronical, duplicious, cantanmektric, frooking, bastalidian, ........ ohhhhhh geeeez!!!!!

[leelee]

Pull up anchor and drop in 20-30m behind them. See what happens.

Better still motor over to them and politely ask if they have a problem with you anchoring 20m off them, if they say yes then point out thier obvious mistake.

Cheers

Lee

[pickers]

maybe you should name your boat..."IDIOT MAGNET"....seems to be working for you.
pickers

[brock13]

A quick solution i have found that works is a slingshot and some size 3 sinkers haha

[sharkymark2]

Better make that some nice big mullet onions rather than sinkers :).

[marty+jojo]

I was fishing the sunken wall the other weekend casting up current as far as i could, i was using the electric to slowly work along the wall. These pair of twats watched us casting up current then started motoring in. So i landed a cast about 5 feet off the side of there boat and then they proceded to anchor. so i pulled up the electric and started the outboard by now we were about 10 meters away. So d%ckhead says doing anygood? I just gunned it at them and then turned off leaving them some wake F*^k em.
Marty.

[BAR UP]

Sharp gaff through the side of the neck i'd reckon.

[Damned67]

Quote from PinHead in the 'Fishing Etiquette Rules' thread over in the General section:
"I have 2 rules when I go fishing:
1. Enjoy myself
2. Try not to annoy anyone else.

If someone does annoy me I just move..not going to let them ruin my fishing trip..if they still persist I will give them a gobfull then back to relaxation mode."

While I've never given anyone a gobfull, I try to work by the same principles.

But I certainly feel your pain! My fave fishing location is Harry's reef, and I like to drift with plastics. Knowing the general situation out there (ie drive flat strap into the crowd of boats, don't bother quietly sounding around for structure and/or fish, then drop anchor as loudly as possible), I try to hang wide of the crowd. That said, despite trying to get there long before the crowds, once I start hooking up, I can almost guarantee that someone will up anchor, motor over, and drop anchor right where I'm drifting (oK, that opens up a whole other can of worms... is someone drifting 'entitled' to that 'area'? I don't own that water, and I'm more than happy if someone starts drifting over the same spot with some etiquette, but I do get pissed if someone anchors there when they can see that I'm drifting over that spot....).

But yeah, there are some inconsiderate (and uninformed) tool bags out there!
I was out there one day, and some guy was dropping and retrieving his anchor so damn often, he may as well have been drifting! Of course, the fish went off the bite in that spot so I moved elsewhere.... And he probably continued to wonder why he wasn't catching anything....

We can try as much as we like to improve our fishing chances in any one spot, but in these highly publicised areas (Mud, Harry's, etc) you can almost guarantee someones going to undo you best effort.

Cheers!

[brock13]

And people still wonder why when some bloke randomly K.O's them back at the ramp

[brock13]

They should teach etiquette in your license then there's no excuse

[rabbi]

Hi Jon,
You have em up there too mate.
For some unknown reason if other fishos see more than 2 boats in the one area its the place to be.
I used to fish for Murray cod at Copeton and one year I caught and released a cod in excess of 30kg on light gear and a lure. From the moment word got out I had a troup of fishos following me around trying to suss out where I caught it.
The name of the game is stealth, especially for cod and a week later I went to my spot at copeton in my tinny, cut the motor and fired my little minn kota up and worked my way around. Got a couple of cod around 10kg and released them and had numerous hits.
Within a short time I had 3 boats zooming around rattling ,banging and clearing the oil from their 2 strokes. Not a touch after that.

But I left smiling as I knew as long as there are fishos like that there will be good fish left there for the knowing fisho to catch.

Theres my rant mate.
Long time ,no see. I thought you must have left the country:D Steve.

[nezevic99]

Nah still around Steve. Between uni and a pregnant wife, I’ve been trying to keep my head down. If I don’t bring home a fish, I get frowned on for spending the cash. L From what I’ve been hearing I haven’t missed a lot down that way anyway. Partly why I haven’t bothered. Hoping for some summer time floods to get them moving.

[netmaker]

funny thing is these idiots dont think about what can happen if they hook up a good fish. if they get a good fish on and lose it around your anchor rope because they anchored too close, it would be hard to stop laughing. i move if i think there is any chance of losing fish to someone elses anchor rope.
davo

[rabbi]

Nah still around Steve. Between uni and a pregnant wife, I’ve been trying to keep my head down. If I don’t bring home a fish, I get frowned on for spending the cash. L From what I’ve been hearing I haven’t missed a lot down that way anyway. Partly why I haven’t bothered. Hoping for some summer time floods to get them moving.

Must have been a cold start to winter mate:D

Katrina is much the same as far as spending cash but she has been pretty happy with the Trag and Jackets but wondering why I am still bothering with the jew???
The jew have been non existent this year.
Dont know if a flood is going to help Jon, had a look at the bar today and its as flat as a door and pretty much crystal clear. Reminds me of mid summer along with the heat .
Its mid week and the river is full of boats!!
We will be catching Threadfin salmon here soon and they will be getting Jew in Tassie if this trend continues.
Take care and will let you know if anything changes.
Steve

[nezevic99]

Ha ha yeah score enough runs and one will get through to the keeper eventually!

[Hornblower]

Had virtually a carbon copy but with only one boat last night in the Broadwater. Three blokes on board and they anchored about 20 metres off the port side and threw the anchor in. There go the bream! We moved to a secondary spot and of course came up with nothing. Never mind, there is always tomorrow night!

[flatzie]

Lucky you cant buy torpedos at Woolies! Sure would sort things out a bit!
LOL Anyone who has fished much has had these experiences, which dfy the imagination!
Flatzie

[Dougi]

Mate I feel for you,Not very often I fish the weekends now for that reason.I do split shifts 2 days 2 nights and 4 off,so I try and fish during the week days.Some people just don;t no or just don;t care.
Cheers Dougi