First let me say, I'm no fan of professional fishing. I don't follow it, etc. So in no way am I defending them. However, if I knew a pro tournament was going on, I wouldn't even go fishing on that lake, much less be a jackhole and get in their way if I did. Not sure why y'all think it's cute to do that?? They know they don't own the water, but it's their JOB, it's how they make a living. Seriously, they may have travelled from 4 states away and don't know the whole lake, this is where they've been catching their fish every day, it's their "milk run".

I saw a clip one time of an FLW event where Mark Rose was leading the tournament, catching most of his fish off the same offshore hump. (most of those tournaments are won from a guy running the same spots each day) On the final day there was a local boat sitting right on his spot when he got there. He hung around for about an hour hoping the local would leave, but they didn't. Rose wound up finishing 2nd or 3rd in event, cost him the $125,000 check for 1st place AND knocked him out of AOY (which could be worth who knows what in endorsements). Yeah, that'a way to show him!!

Now, if we're just talking about local dudes in an amateur tournament, then I agree with y'all. Get lost, buddy!

You have got to be kidding me. The pro from 4 states away has more right to the public lake than the locals that pay most of the taxes in the area? If it's his job to catch fish, he can pick more than one spot when he's doing his prefishing. I'm not going to be rude to any of them, but they better give me the same respect, and that seems to be a problem with many of them. I know that some of the locals seem to have the same attitude though.

Ya'll are some fishing bad asses. Do you train together?

I typically just read on here, but you guys are hilarious. Next time just whip your ruler out and settle it at the boat ramp.

Or take your Kayak paddle and use it like a Ninja sword.

me and a buddy tied under a bridge in a 1986 tiller steer wearing crappie out on maribou jigs under a slip bobber we were hooking 2 at a time think we wound up with over 50 when we went home. guy and his young son come trolling up and see us catching they fished all around that bridge and as close to us as they could get never caught one I heard his son say "look daddy they got another one" 6 or 7 times he finally responded "yeah son i can see now lets go!" loudly at the kid. we couldnt help but laugh

Me either.




I don't look at FLW or Bassmaster events and set my fishing schedule around them. Plus they don't have any more right to a "spot" on a public lake than I do.




I sympathize and understand that. I'm not going to let one wash me up on the bank because he saw me catching a few fish. I wouldn't let any pro fisherman or local yokel do it. I don't do it to them and they aint doing that to me.



Sucks for him. I bet there was hundreds of thousands of square yards for him to catch fish in that lake. I would be willing to bet that every fish in that lake wasn't stacked up on that hump.




What makes the FLW or Bassmaster guys any more important than anyone else on the lake? It's a public lake, right?

word

With a kid involved in the other boat, I would have offered them some jigs and tried to help them but to each his own.

Yep

I think the following two paragraphs you posted immediately after you typed this MIGHT have slightly contradicted you, though

Some of y'all know these examples and some may not, and most won't care.

Many times the locals who sit on a spot a pro has fished 2-3 days, like in the example about Mark Rose, are doing it out of nothing but spite, dislike of the pro tournaments, and a big "F**k you" to professional anglers trying to make a living. I don't understand that but it happens.

Another reason is sometimes because they just don't like a specific pro angler. So they head out an hour before the launch, rumble around the spot in their boat and then fish. Whether they catch a fish or not, they don't care. They just want to screw up the spot of the guy they dislike.

IMO in those two instances, Joe Local is being an asshole just because he can. It's not cool but it happens. I've talked with pros about these kind of situations many times and there's only one good way to handle it — the pro should ask politely if he can fish there and if not, move on. That may be his A-1 best spot on the lake or his only one. If so, tough chit. Go find another one or to the B-2 backup. It's a big lake. Joe Local ain't moving.


But probably in most instances some local guys go out because Saturday or Sunday is the only time they can fish. The "we're only here a week for this tournament" doesn't matter. That may be the only weekend Joe Local has been able to get on the water because of work or family deals, or it may be the last time he gets to fish for the next however many weeks or months due to work or something else. He knows that hump with the stumps and rocks and mussel bed is the shizzle and he wants to catch some fish, and he doesn't want to move just because a pro wants to wear it out to catch 20 pounds and then sit there for hours "protecting" it from another tourney guy.


These are factors the pros have to consider and plan for. It's just part of what they do. Some locals will move on, others won't. Politely asking if they can fish, and then moving on if the local guy won't move, is the best option unless they want to mentally spin out or pitch a fit and make the situation worse.

I've never been in their shoes, but I'd like to think that if I was a pro who had only ONE spot on a 69,000-acre lake like Guntersville that was giving up the goods then I maybe didn't do a good enough job of finding 2-3-4 good places to catch something.

well let me be one of the ones to say, i wouldnt have a fiberglass bass boat. Mainly because where i fish, it would be in the bottom of the river by now and it’s hard to put a 50 gallon bait tank in a bass boat. To each his own.

Now you know you can’t do nice things to strangers on the lake like that. His ego will cause him to call you a know it all and tell you to go fork yourself. Then his next time out, he will be sitting in that same exact spot trying to do exactly what you were doing.

i probably would have if he didnt cast that curly tail grub right on my spot 5 or 6 times when my cork would get about halfway to the boat. I dont like to offer up advice without being asked either, some people take offense to it. most people will ask you what your using if they want to know ive been asked several times by people that will see us pulling in fish off a spot they just fished. theyll troll over and say something like we couldnt catch nothing over here what are yall using ill show em my set up and throw a couple jigs in their boat.