If I pull up to one of my spots on lake martin and I see someone fishing there, I take down their tag number and call the law.

Hotshot, if you see a red Ranger sitting on one of "your" spots, please call the law. And then wait right where u are so we can talk.

Wtf??? That's some BS. You don't own any spots on that lake. That's the dumbest crap I ever heard of. I hope you was joking.

more sarcastic than joking.

maybe he has a place down there and don't want anybody fishing off his pier LOL
Funny thing, and a tip, some of our best fish have come from some dang good crappie holes.

Most of us have "good" spots and I could care less who sees me fishing there or who fishes there... public lake.

I used to catch lots of BIG stripe on smith using goldfish, Kois I believe. They are much easier to keep alive than shad but expensive. We paid a dollar apiece for them but the worked great.

Yep, they are public, but if you want to pull up to one of those places next year and have a good day, you better be tight lipped about it this year. I had a couple of striper honey holes back in a creek, that were good for several years. That is, until I took a buddy from work to one of them. The next three weekends, He was there with a different person each time. One of those times, there was four people in the boat. He didn't have a boat, so He was hitching a ride with anyone that would take him. Over the next two years it only got worse. I don't even bother with that creek now because every time I go there, there is someone already in my spot.

Thanks metal. That was my point exactly. People will fish a good spot to death once they get wind of it. That is why I usually fish alone now. I know I can keep my mouth shut.

I agree with this 100%, I juast didn't agree with the guy calling the law on people for no reason.. Matter of fact, I had a guy to send me a message on FB about Crappie on Wedowee.. Gave me a sob story about how he only get to fish the lake twice a year with his older "70" year old brother.. How much they love catching crappie and eating them.. He sure would like to get him one good mess of fish.. SO I told him what to use, how to use it, and where to use it.. Well little to my surprise, this ole POS SOB, been fishing all the time, putting pictures up on FB, left and right.. Like he knows what he was doing.. I called the SOB, out on it.. Tried to say he was giving them to the Local FD.. BS, I know its public, but I just gave out a hot spot to a retired man, who comes to find out lives on the lake!!!!!! SO I can see where people would be pissed

The odds are that your "hot spot" is also someone else's "hot spot" and its completely unrelated. Ive fished many tournaments on lay lake and we run to our first spot only to have someone else already sitting there. Now, I will say this. I don't have a boat and I fished these tournaments with friends. I would not take someone else to my buddies fishing holes....that's just wrong.

That's a good point tfd. How much were you charging when you were guiding?

I agree a good point for private land hunting, but when fishing public waters it's like hunting public land and hanging a treestand on public land and leaving it as a claim expecting nobody else to ever hunt that area. Or, in a public fishing scenario believing that you are the first person that ever found that honeyhole and nobody else has ever found it.

Is it a tough situation? Yes, but that's why it's a continual process of finding new places, changing techniques, lures, presentations, etc. This is not to say that it's okay to homestead on someone else's fishing hole, but expecting to be able to lay claim is not okay either.

20 years ago I used to hunt Eufaula NWR and found lock on treestand in just about ever tree that was big enough for one. Well we ran into a local guy that as working at one of the businesses and he said he had 12 stands up out there, the regulations stated no stands to be left in the woods, so we help him remove the stands every time we ran into one and sat them by the road for him to pick up. Needless to say his hunting claims didn't work. It's just part of hunting and fishing public lands and waters.

Not trying to be argumentative, just trying to put some perspective into the equation.

I just wish I had a Honey Hole. Now its just a Witches Wallow.

You don't need any honey holes to catch stripers on Martin this time of year; just go to the shoals and throw something white into the eddies behind the rocks next to swift water. When the lake is full, the right side is best. When it's not full, just find the eddies and hold on when they hit. A 25 lb striper on bass tackle in swift water is a lot of fun. You can also catch them where Hillabee Creek runs into the lake.