If youāre like most anglers in this world, you slave all week at a job you hate. Your mind is constantly day dreaming about the enormous fish that are waiting for you out there in the salty brine. In these dreams you can feel your heart racing as the school of monster fish moves within casting distance. Every night after work this week youāve patiently sharpened your hooks, re-tied your knots, and set your reelsā drag to exactly the proper amount of slip needed to land your adversary. All this preparation has been carefully completed so that when the opportunity arises your gear will be completely ready for anything that may come your way.
Though you can hardly drag yourself out of bed during the work week, your day one the water has arrived and youāre up early. You didnāt sleep a wink last night and youāre out of bed 30 minutes before your alarm clock goes off. Youāre fully dressed. The coffee is brewing. Your heading to the garage to get the fishing gear loaded in the boat. Today youāre going to land that big one, you can just feel it. By the time you get to the boat ramp there is just enough light to fire up the boat and run safely to your secret spot. You shut the motor off 200 yards away, grab your push pole and sneak up quietly to the promise land. You are positive the giant fish that live there donāt have a clue about your presents. Closer and closer you silently glide, inching into position to make the perfect cast. And then your hear something off in the distance. It is a soft noise at first, but is growing in volume rather quickly. Itās another boat and itās heading right for you. You think to yourself āthereās now way this other boater is going to buzz meā. He can clearly see that Iām fishing and Iām sure heāll show me the courtesy and proper etiquette that he would want someone to show him if he were in my position. But he just keeps coming, not veering off his course. Now you try to wave him off so that he doesnāt mess up the scenario that youāve been planning out all week. Oh No! Itās too late! The fish hear him coming. The whole school gets spooked and stampedes at warp speed completely off the shallow grass flat and into the channel seeking to elude the offensive noise of the oncoming outboard motor. You are pissed and give this clueless idiot the middle finger wave to let him know that you think heās number one. With one inconsiderate act this person has destroyed a weeks worth of dreaming, planning, and preparation. The wonderful fishing experience you have looked forward to all week has been ruined and you havenāt even made the first cast of the morning.
This scenario happens all too often. Many people who own a fishing boat DO NOT understand how much space they need to give to other boaters in order to show them the proper etiquette that is required to catch wary fish in our shallow lagoon waters these days. Here is a little rule that I try to live by. If Iām on my push pole, I try to stay at least 100 yards from another boat. The yardage increases to 150-200 yards from another boat if Iām on my trolling motor. If my main motor is running, I try to increase this distance to 300 yards. I always try to enter the flat behind someone that is working in a certain directions, never cut in front of them. By implementing these simple rules into my daily charter routines, I donāt make enemies and the fish in the areas I visit are not spooked prior to my clients casting at them. The next time (actually every time) youāre on the water please be mindful of others. You donāt want to be the cause of their failure as they try to land the fish theyāve been dreaming about all week.
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