How Close

[SmoothLures]

How close do you get to the water? I hate inconsiderate people who'll walk right under your lines, getting in the way of you casting, reeling in, ect. How close is close enough to get them to go around your setup? I don't setup near people, but they'll come around without fail. :rolleyes:
I don't want all of my stuff to be where the edge of the waves are, myself included. Any ideas?

[saltandsand]

How close do you get to the water? I hate inconsiderate people who'll walk right under your lines, getting in the way of you casting, reeling in, ect. How close is close enough to get them to go around your setup? I don't setup near people, but they'll come around without fail. :rolleyes:
I don't want all of my stuff to be where the edge of the waves are, myself included. Any ideas?


Me personally...I don't go rubbing shoulders with someone else who is already set up. If the area is packed then I don't bother setting up. IMO no need to spend precious fishing time waiting for someone to leave or with grappling around with too many people for the area. I simply go and set up somewhere else... plenty of places whether on the bay, beach or river.

As for someone who comes over and bombs on my spot....well this is one heck of a loaded issue. I'll wait to see what others say.

[SmoothLures]

I'm not talking about other fishermen. I'm talking about tourists who don't know any better (or just don't care). I fish around Myrtle Beach so it's a pretty big problem.

[saltandsand]

Not really much to do about it. Consider using bright line so that it stands out on one of your rods. Set your rods apart so that you have to work between them. I don't really have a solid way to reduce this....I agree it's a pain. Worst yet is when you go to land something and they start clodding all around in the wash where you're attempting to land the fish, jumping around and screaming and scaring the fish as you're trying to get him landed.

[surfchunker]

I usually set up at the high tide mark ..... and I don't pay any attention when the tourist come walking by ... I might point to my line so they are aware of my lines but with 12' it's mostly a mute question ..... now swimmers that move with the current and keep getting into my lines is a whole different bag of crap .......

[saltandsand]

I usually set up at the high tide mark ..... and I don't pay any attention when the tourist come walking by ... I might point to my line so they are aware of my lines but with 12' it's mostly a mute question ..... now swimmers that move with the current and keep getting into my lines is a whole different bag of crap .......

Swimmers especially concern me as braid can slice someone up pretty good. As for swimmers I am usually on the beach with my kids. They know how far to stay away. So they swim adjacent to where I fish. Then if others see me telling my own kids to move over they others usually fall in line. Of course this only covers one side but that's better than none.

Braid will do some serious damage to a swimmer. G*d I hope that should never happen.

[ffemtreed]

i get more worried about swimmer getting tangled up in the braid and panicing!

[R3d]

I'm not talking about other fishermen. I'm talking about tourists who don't know any better (or just don't care). I fish around Myrtle Beach so it's a pretty big problem.

I hate fishing near or in the crowd looking over shoulder and people who crowd in on people catching fish, just drive me nuts. I'll leave

[1obxnut]

Swimmers especially concern me as braid can slice someone up pretty good. As for swimmers I am usually on the beach with my kids. They know how far to stay away. So they swim adjacent to where I fish. Then if others see me telling my own kids to move over they others usually fall in line. Of course this only covers one side but that's better than none.

Braid will do some serious damage to a swimmer. G*d I hope that should never happen.

i get more worried about swimmer getting tangled up in the braid and panicing!

Think about it! you want to go swimming either in season/off season..would common sense tell you to go swimming on a beach where there are NO lifeguards? if schnit happens, who's gonna save your monkey butt!

Whether you get bit by a shark, stung by a jellyfish, get caught in a rip tide, or get caught in some fisherpersons braided line...You're screwed!

Compare OC and DE beaches while in season: DE beaches are packed with vehicles and sun bathers..no LG's. whereas OC is also packed with people but has LG's between 9-6pm(or is it 5pm). Where would you be if you want to swim?

[Mark G]

How close do you get to the water? I hate inconsiderate people who'll walk right under your lines, getting in the way of you casting, reeling in, ect. How close is close enough to get them to go around your setup? I don't setup near people, but they'll come around without fail. :rolleyes:
I don't want all of my stuff to be where the edge of the waves are, myself included. Any ideas?


Depends on what your talking about. If I am fishing an isolated stretch and a couple come walking down the beach wetting their toes in the wash , and moving along their way, no biggee. IF someone comes along working a plugging rod and "hangs out" under my lines- that is a different situation.

[Waal]

I'm with fishinmama on this one, it's fine having people on the beach, especially the tourists, meeting others from another part of the globe is good for the mind, it alway's gives you an opportunity to talk your town, city, country up and to find out what the fishing is like at their part of the world. People will alway's be inquisitive and a fisher-person on the beach is a perfect target for sparking off a conversation for most folks. As a rule of thumb, I tend to move my tripod and rods back inline with the avancing tide instead of hogging the beach, I find it more curteous for other users. However, there are some folks who are completely disrespectful, there is a lady walks her dog at the spot where I fish, she gets out of her car and lets the dog loose (everytime). The dog runs straight for the bait bag, (everytime), i've learned to pack my bait well away. However, some poor folk further along the beach (newfolks) fall prey to the "bait-snatching-dog," everytime!! The lady shouts at the dog (everytime) I thought she would have learned by now, (it's ground-hog day). Yes, there are some real nut-crackers out there! Like the surfer who went out surfing directly in from of me last week, I had three rods going, (I was trying out the philosophy of Squalas) I tried to hit him with the cast, he soon got the message, what a numpty!

I do like dogs, but is there anything I can give the dog, so that by the time the woman and the bait-snatching-dog get home, the dog needs the toilet, again and again and again!!! ;):D

[saltandsand]

Bring a rawhide bone next time, put it on the end of your longest casting rod and give her one heck of a whirl.... yeee doggie, fetch fido, fetch... :D

[Danman]

Swimmers,surfers,and walkers have the same rights as us fisherman do. We just have to be one step ahead of em..We don't own the space we occupy while fishing..sooooooooo..we must constantly move our sand spike with the incoming or outgoing tide..

Get as close to the water and put your spike in move it accordinly.

Now I would like to vent about beach walkers that will run into your line no matter how close you are to the water..Its like they are in another world and will walk right into the line..:mad: I finally quit being a traffic cop and just watch them as the run into the line..I could go on and on but will end this..before I have a cow:--|

[saltandsand]

Maybe the better idea is I'll be as close or far from the water as are the bikinis!! To heck with the fish. :D

[surfchunker]

I was at Oak Island a fedw years ago and this one guy was surfing less than 100' of the pier and was getting all around everybodys line and it was posted no swimming or surfing within 100' of the pier ...... Stupid I tell you ...... finally one nice cast and he got into my line and left ... told the guy working there and he said what can I do ... Call the cops I said but he didn't so I did what I had to do .......

But most will cut you slack

[Freddrum]

Let the touristas see all the big toofs and then release it back to the suds. Then tell them that was only a baby.....mommas out there too. That usually cures the swimming for awhile.:D But never throw at a surfer or swimmer or water turd (jetski) unless you want to justify to yourself over your prison term that you were right. 8 ounces a lead in the cranium is more than enough to kill someone.....think it's worth it?

[Rocks&Reds]

I've never had a problem with the walkers, 10'-12' ft rod in a spike they have to be pretty tall, once in a while a swimmer, or biggest problem is boggie boarding tourist!!!! they cant doit in the first place so they just float around with the current for a half mile down the beach and then walk back..

[rattler]

Freddrum made a good point...you can't throw back...I fish at seagull and the tourons will pick up my rod for a picture...I HOLLER $20...even got it once or twice...I've seen wars between the beach and the boats at lesner...if a guy wants to throw between my bottom rods he better know what he is doing...I have never really had a problem with people just walking on the beach...if they seem to not be looking, I holler a heads up...MORONS swimming/surfing in front of me, GEEZZZZ...try to inform them of the DANGER...if they don't get it, I leave...

[Danman]

rattler: I think I'll bring my camcorder down to the beach this year and film all the people that walk into the lines:) then make a video called "beachcombers gone wild":)of course there are alot of retired couples walking the beach where I fish and they probably need new specks:rolleyes: Just kidding..I'm no young buck myself:D

[Green Cart]

You just can't sit back and relax while waiting for bites. You have to be on the watchout for swimmers, etc as mentioned above. But you gotta watch out for stupid boats coming by the beach too close to the shore. You have to start reeling in all your all lines as fast as possible because it would be too late to holler at them to move out, but at least, you can swear at them. :mad:

What can you do? :eek:

[Mark G]

You just can't sit back and relax while waiting for bites. You have to be on the watchout for swimmers, etc as mentioned above. But you gotta watch out for stupid boats coming by the beach too close to the shore. You have to start reeling in all your all lines as fast as possible because it would be too late to holler at them to move out, but at least, you can swear at them. :mad:

What can you do? :eek:


Yeah, I was fishing up in the pototmac one time and had my rods in the rod holder of my pier cart instead of a sand spike. Wouldn't you know it - a party boat cuts in close to shore, then zooms off in the other direction, caught one of my lines in the prop- before I could get to the rod the pier cart was pulled over, scattering everything and dumping my rod and reel in the sand.

I picked the rod up and the line was still taught. I was down to the bottom of the spool by the time I was able to get the line cut.

They were oblivious to the whole thing and they came back a few minutes later and docked their boat just up from me. I went over and politely let them know what happened and that they needed to take a wider path around the fishing poles. They apologized and I let it go, but was still irked about all my stuff getting dumped in the sand. :--| plus losing a full spool of line !

[Charkbait]

I usually spike just inside the wash so if they are walking down the beach I usually don't have any problems. You also need to know when to pack it in. On vacation I shark from the beach for the most part, I'll start nice and early around 6:00 and usually can claim a nice piece of beach until 10:00, if I'm doing well I'll wade out and hold one rod and no longer spike fish. People pay way more attention when you are standing out in the wash with them and a 12' pole. Also, beach a couple sharks, you'll get a nice crowd of onlookers but not many swimmers in your way...wonder why?