Etiquette @ Community Holes

I already know the answer, but I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on a courteous distance from other boats at community spots in dularge.
I only ask bc a guide who will go unnamed had no problem dropping F bombs in front of me and my son when apparently though we were too close.
2-3 cast lengths used to be more than courteous last I heard.

Well for your average fisherman I would say if we make our longest cast toward each other , we still should NEVER tangle lines if and only if it's calm. If it's choppy and the boats are making a bunch of noise in the water, you shouldn't get within 100 yds or more. Most fisherman dont realize that when trolling motors are cavitating, it can be heard by fish a very long way and they know exactly what is going on!! I like to anchor and be as quiet as I can, the fish will move around. Key is getting them fired up when it's your turn, you gotta work hard at trying to keep em hooked up as much as possible. Nothing works better than live bait for this. Nothing. Now for the guides, they expect more room I guess because 'they are tying to feed their family'.. No , the same rules apply for everyone! We work our tail off all week to get a little shot of fishing on the weekend! It's first come , first serve if you beat them out there, it's your spot. If he's sitting there fishing when you get there, you lost out. Wake up earlier next time!!

Must have been the same Guide that cussed my Wife and I. We anchored 300 yds away from where he was fishing, he proceeds to come directly at us wide open with his trolling motor pulls within 100' and starts that same crap. Ask me where I am from and I need to be taught some fishing etiquette and I need to leave this area because he is a guide and has a crew from out of town. I told him to pass on through but of course he wanted to lecture me so I told where to go, (I am 50 yrs old and the ONLY person that is going to lecture me will be my Mother and Father!) then things went downhill quickly with every cuss word you can think of then he invited me to meet him at the landing to settle it (the old man would have gotten hurt).
All of this on a beautiful Sat morning everyone catching fish around us and he wants to act like a complete idiot in front of his Customers.
First of all you guides are making money from a public resource you do not OWN the water nor the fish, you are not God and you damn sure do not have the right to harass other people because you have a Captains license, Now with that being said Charter boats and their crews deserve the same courtesy from boaters, I was 300 yds away but happened to in the spot he was headed too.
I have heard the last BS from a guide that thinks he owns the water, next time we will go to the bank and I will beat his A_s into submission.
To reply to the question about distance 100-150 yds. is plenty of room to give someone.

That's a shame to hear people are acting like that on the water. You would think a guide would know all about etiquette since their livelihood depends on it and building their client base if a necessity. I fish with my cousin often, who is a guide, and if there is someone in the spot we want to fish, we'll just go to another spot. Or stay at least 150-200 yards away from the other boat. I'm sorry to hear about all the bad experiences. Hopefully these people will learn a lesson at some point.

Never had a problem while fishing YET I don't need their help catching fish But as a camp owner on Dularge for 25 Yrs My issue is Guides want all boaters to slow down ( NO WAKE ZONE) in front of their camps/docks But none of them ever slow for boats tied up at camps. They should respect boats at docks as they ask

Never had a problem while fishing YET I don't need their help catching fish But as a camp owner on Dularge for 25 Yrs My issue is Guides want all boaters to slow down ( NO WAKE ZONE) in front of their camps/docks But none of them ever slow for boats tied up at camps. They should respect boats at docks as they ask

One of the reasons its so crowded at some of these spots is because of guides. They cant help themselves from bragging and showing their catches. They are booked up solid through the summer and still post every fish they catch. There is no info on their post to help the average fisherman on there, they just want their lil moment in the light. But, when 80 boats show up at these holes on Saturday, all hell breaks loose! Everyone wants to catch 100 speckled trout!! Dularge/ Dulac used to be a little gem, but certain people have commercialized it and took the 'relaxation' out of it for many...

FYI from LDWF.
Harassment of persons lawfully fishing brings a up to a $750 fine and 90 days in jail. The harassment of persons lawfully fishing regulation provides that it is unlawful to disturb any hunter, trapper, or fisherman who is engaged in the lawful taking of a wild animal or who is engaged in the process of taking, with intent to dissuade or otherwise prevent the taking, or to prevent such person’s enjoyment of the outdoors, the release states.
Just sayn'

You should probably disclose what guide you're referring to. Like I've always said, hunting & fishing brings the asshole out in a whole lotta folks. It's a shame we have to deal with road rage, you killed my deer rage, and now you in my spot rage. What's the world coming to??

It's not just guides that can be asses!

Twice in the last month, I have had boats pull up to within 50 yards of where I was catching fish. I asked one of them if he wanted to get in my boat with us! He got the message and backed off a little. Neither of these boats were guides, just other fisherman that saw me catching fish and tried to move in.

If they would have waited out at a comfortable distance, I would have waved them over to take my spot, once I was done. People need to be respectful of others and have some manners on the water.

Take a pic of the offending boat(s) and post accordingly!!! John Castelluccio, Jr.

Yea that burns me up!!! I come to realize that a lot of these people are just too stupid to know they are messing things up. They think that these fish in 6 feet of water don't hear their 109 Lb trolling motor on high pulling there 4000 lb boat up the wind and waves. A fish can hear a shrimp pop on the surface at 50 yards !!! They just not smart enough to think of things like this. Most veterans know to use the wind to drift into an area nice and quiet it works wonders!! lol

Ya I bet it was an absolute disaster!

I'm probably going to regret even commenting here but thought I might have some small amount of input. It seems to me the problem is one or two weekenders or a guide end up screwing things up for a bunch of folks. I'm glad to hear some folks think 150 yds is close enough. Although I can't say I will always be that far away, I can say I will not be able to reach your lines unless you invite me in closer. Several weeks ago I counted 47 boats at a hotspot with many very close together but working with each other to fish but not cross each other. Then one guy comes right between everyone trolls right thru where 6 or 7 boats are casting. I really don't know if he was that bold or oblivious to any sort of courtesy. I had boats on both sides of me which politely asked if they could slide back a little. It all worked out, plenty of fish for everybody. I'm not sure who ROBL was referring to but the guides I work with 'DO' slow down for boats tied up. Not if their 100yds away but we try to do what we want people to do around our boats. This will bring many comments but I have been on both ends and know how frustrating it is. That's when your buddy is mauling them, and calls you over while an onlooker has been biding his time politely not crowding you till you finish. As I said, been on both sides, but that's a tough one. Tight lines and calm seas, Capt. Ricky Brondum

fishing within distance i don't think is what really gets the guides riled up more so than the bent pole pattern.

Thats what really irritates me. People look for bent poles and piles of boats then pull up. I'm sorry but thats not finding fish.

The best advice for fishing a community hole is.....DON'T! If there are a lot of boats, you probably will not catch fish anyway (they will be spooked) and there will be too many idiots frustrating you. Also, just because there are a lot of boats,it doesn't mean anyone is catching - it's just an absurd domino effect where people think fish are being caught, which attracts more boats, etc.

I fish Hopedale, and it doesn't take much effort to avoid crowds, especially if you go east through Bakers Canal or in the Bayou Bernard Marsh. There are plenty of fish in those areas. Delacroix, Empire, etc. have places of sanctuary off the beaten path, too.

Great info here! Thanks so much for the civil exchange of ideas and opinions. We must have all voted for Trump!!!

I have a guide in leeville actually bounce his bait off my motor cowl while i was on anchor with my grandchild and his 4 asian clients looked on in disbelief , in the old days he would have paid the price.

Not bashing guides at all!
And I'm not gonna call this one by name unless it's an ongoing problem. Dularge is specific enough and I'm sure he's aware of this post now cause he was smacking his gums on the vhf to other guides I fished with.
It was a tough day of fishing after the storm and he wasn't ripping lips and probably frustrated.
My point is, no one should expect a 100yd buffer at some of the popular public holes on the weekend.
Everyone was creeping around trying to get a bite including him.

I live and fish by the golden rule(do unto others...)
If everyone did that we'd all be a lot better.

I'll be down on the DU fishing with the family this weekend. Hopefully everyone has a great 4th of July weekend and there won't be any problems. Good luck fishing to all!

Unfortunately what use to be a great family pass time has been tarnished by the influx of greedy guides who have no regard for anyone who they deem a threat to their business.Maybe some of you need reminding,you don't own public waterways and just because you're being paid doesn't mean you have more right the anyone else.

As John C said above to take a pic of offending boat- EVERYONE now has a video recorder in their back pocket. Use It. Post it. That should do it.
I purposely seek out those non popular spots but had a run in w/a guide from Buras once. He's dead now so wont name him.Great reporter here,terrible manners on the water.
Ive also had a guide in Venice signal me over to his spot when he left. It works both ways, some are nasty, MOST are good people.

No one asked my opinion but I support LOWER LIMITS on guide boats to ~ 50+-% or like 15 fish/customer.Guides know how/when/where to hammer the fish and thats ok to earn a living, but why hammer the resource for HIS benefit. If the fish belong to all of us we share the resource and its future. We get into what supports the escapement rate /etc. by LaWLF who are not always correct.Each year we see more pressure from more fisher-people.
Just my opinion and I know it stinks,so carry on.

Well I don't know about making different limits JUST for charters, BUT when a charter is taken and there are 3 Paying customers and the boat rolls in with 100 trout you can bet the bank that the Capt. DID NOT catch his own 25. This adds up to a bunch of illegal fish over a year!!!

John C has the best idea,and I did not bother reading each and every reply for obvious reasons but read enough!Here is my 0.02,for what that is worth-there are plenty of fish out there and a reasonable distance,in my estimation,is at least 1.5 -2 cast lengths away.I toss a baitcaster and can make some very long casts,so I typically err on the longer side,at least 2 cast lengths away.That said,I typically avoid crowds as I rarely fish on week ends,unless that is the only time available for me to fish.Me and a buddy had a fellow fisher in SW Lake P give us some grief,trying to insinuate that he was hammering specks til some 'a..holes' showed up and funny part is he was not catching a thing as we started catching some very nice specks and I paid particular attention to our distance and the fact that we extremely quietly used my buddy's I-Pilot to carefully get to where we thought specks would be holding(shell pads adjacent to creosote pilings from small SW Lady P platform).I watched his disbelief and we tossed a few of his own words his way,especially me when I lost a solid 2 lb speck,trying to hoist it aboard and it bounced off the gunwale of my buddy's fine Key West bayboat.I owe the guides a tremendous amount of gratitude as I learned a tremendous amount from them when I was in a Industry when we could entertain clients via guided fishing/hunting trips.When I first started fishing with these guides,probably over 20 years ago,I was a neophyte with soft plastics and now toss exclusively fine baitcasters mated up with 100% soft plastics and catch my fair share.Guides do not 'own' the water any more than the regular fishermen,just give everyone a reasonable distance,approach extremely quietly,and refrain from vulgarity,if possible.The guy I referred to ended up leaving the spot we hammered fish on and we cared not one iota!In fact,two guys showed up,using dead shrimp(reasonable fishing'insurance')and I saw one of them nab a beautiful red,not too long after I nabbed a fine 22 inch specimen,on Berkeley Gulp,Swimming Mullet,Chartreuse.I might actually know Captain Tommy Pellegrin,if he grew up in Kenner,and I would love to know if he did in fact grow up in Kenner.Sounds like he is a very decent guy,offering free rides for those under 12!!!Way to go,Cap!Good to hear some guides out there eager to introduce the younger generation to what most of us have a passion for.Now to fishing-probably gonna wait til next week to chase some fish due to all the rain and disturbed water,at least in my fishing haunts!!!

Mandevillian

which is why I never post fishing spots on the internet............ Delacroix is the worst with over crowding due to online paid posters

I do tend to agree that posting exact spots not exactly wise idea and I tend to post somewhat generic spots,never giving the exact Piling number where I caught nice reds(let folks search a little bit)!!Fishing during week solves many over-crowding situations,though not always!!There is a fellow on another site that cracks me up as he posts his exact spots in Delacroix and a former fishing mentor of mine used to joke with this guy saying do not complain when ya favorite Delly-Croix spots loaded up with fishers as ya keep giving them exact,about GPS co-ordinates,of where ya found fish!!!Never gonna do dat,just give generic locations!!!

Mandevillian

Obviously not all guides are villians but the problem is anytime $$$$ is involved it tends to change some people Native Louisianians who have spent their lives fishing with their families are being pushed out by guides who are in it for the money.Any of you who actually believe you have rights to a spot simply because you have a tourist customer is grossly mistaken.

Right on,Frederick!!I had a guide get way too close to me when I was fishing the Causeway quite a few years ago and his customers looked a tad embarrassed while I was unhooking a doormat flounder and I gave him what I call the 'A-hole' look and not quite sure if this particular guide paid one iota of attention to me.Just because someone is carrying fare-paying customers does not relieve the captain of reasonable fishing etiquette!!!Whenever I fish week ends(rarely)I try to find the most remote spot available and also launch extremely early for two reasons-get away from crowds,hopefully,and get on fish right away and get headed back while others are just getting underway,though that rarely happens!!!

Mandevillian

Some great comments by all. The 'over the top' comments have been deleted. I'm glad to see for the most part the conversation was civil.

Obviously all of us (guides and fishermen) can all use a bit of courtesy and etiquette training at times. I've been guilty of 'getting a bit too close' at times too. It happens when the bite is on and the fever is hot. Let's try and be sure to have lots of fun this summer and make good memories!

I've locked the post down so we can all move on, go fish and share some more great posts. Thanks