Common Courtesy is in Short Supply Sometimes

I'm going to get up on my soap box for a little bit this afternoon. The topic - fishing bank courtesy.

When I decide to fish on a Saturday or Sunday, I set my alarm clock and get up early. I even pack the vehicle with rods, reels, and supplies the night before. A fishing day is just like a work day, I'm up before sunrise.

This morning I arrived at Ford Lake in Ypsilanti Township a few minutes at 6 o'clock. I was the second car in the parking lot and that car was left over from the night before.

When I set up for carp fishing I fish with 3 rods, with either rod pods or bank sticks. Today it was bank sticks. I spaced them 13 size 11's apart to leave enough room to fight and land a fish without tangling my lines, but compact enough not to take up an unreasonable amount of bank space.

At 8 o'clock a big group of guys come in and set-up nearby. Eventually they put out 12 rods in total between 2 kids and 3 adults in their group. They started about 100 feet away from my position and started moving towards me down the bank. When he casted the 12th rod, it crossed over my right side line a little ways and I headed over and retrieved it. He said sorry and retrieved his line. No problem...it happens. I'm happy he's happy.

At 11 o'clock 2 more guys arrive with 3 more rods. They commence to set-up between my position and the guys with 12 rods. It turns out they all know each other. I tried to talk to them, but there was a communication barrier so I headed back to my lawn chair and waited.

They don't immediately start fishing. They assemble their rods, mix bait, bait up and then kick back for a while. They were using shrimp. I don't know the name of the rig, but it uses a sinker and then 3 separate hooks spaced about 4 inches apart leaving a bout a foot of line with 3 hooks below the sinker.

I'm wondering when they plan to make their casts because I'm anticipating trouble, but I decide to give them the benefit of the doubt and I wait patiently. After 30 minutes which includes 10 minutes talking to the guys with 12 rods one of the new comers makes his cast.

Predictably, it's right over the top of not only one; but two of my lines. I take a deep breath and calmly walk toward them calling out.

"I think you casted right over me."

Response.

"No I didn't."

Not an "I'm sorry" or "My mistake" nothing. No apology. He just turns around to his buddy and they continue talking like nothing happened. I am sure I had an incredulous look on my face, but I resisted the urge to say anything. Experience has taught me that it's not worth it, most of the time. Besides that, I was outnumbered 7 to 1.

I retrieved my far right rod.

Then the guy comes over and says again, "I don't why you're mad because I'm not anywhere near you."

I was steaming at this point, but decided to say nothing. I sat back down for a few minutes and calmed down. The last thing I'm going to do when I am trying relax spending a day fishing for carp is get into an altercation with strangers.

The guys continued on like nothing had happened and seeing that I'd pulled in my rod started moving their stuff toward me on the bank. Like a couple of bullies. Fishing bank bullies.

At this point I decided to leave.

One guy comes over and says, "You leaving?"

"Yes."

And he says, "Oh good then we'll fish your spot." They immediately turned their backs on me and casted out the other 2 rods right in front of me. One guy even tripped on my left rod and bank stick as he made his way down the bank into my spot.

Amazing.

So I calmly packed the rest of my stuff and left. But the two fishing bank bullies turned a nice day into a bad day with one cast and no apology.

I realized later as I walked back to the vehicle their intention all along had been to bully me into leaving so they could fish with their buddies.

Well, the solution to that is to get out of bed earlier. It's first come first serve at my house. But these guys don't roll like that apparently. My blood pressure is rising again just thinking about it.

I don't know if the two guys will ever read this, but if they do I hope it makes them realize the rudeness of their actions and maybe they won't do it again.

The day wasn't a total loss though because I did snap these two pictures: