Dock etiquette when fishing

Talking with a guy I work with who lives on a fairly larger lake know for bass. This weekend he said the bass guys were constantly hitting his dock with lures. Annoying to say the least but knows it’s part of the ownership on a lake. His biggest comment was when people get a lure stuck in an awning that they just leave it so they can pop it out rather than tearing it. So we know the dock is the property owners not the water. So what is the correct thing to do? We all have been there Usually 2-3 times a year I’ll get stuck always try to get it off but sometimes wind etc. not easy to get in there or cause more damage hitting there dock etc. so I cut it cringing hoping a kid doesn’t find it. What are the laws? can they sue you? I would understand restitution for your mistake. What can be fun though is the ones who say you can’t fish in front of there dock honestly I’ll make a day of it as long as your not impeding there water way or there fishing they have no right another subject but annoying.

I do a fair amount of dock fishing in the summer time.

I am not a lakeshore property owner, and never will be. But I try to put myself in the shoes of them. I’d likely be pretty livid if fisherman were constantly banging lures off my property and/or getting stuck. It falls in the category of trespassing for me, and its very disrepectful too, especially if lures are getting hung up.

This is how I approach it when I’m fishing. I do not use any hard lures anymore whatsoever – no jigs, no hard plastic, etc. I only use weightless soft plastics. That way, if I bang into a post, dock, lift, etc, it makes no noise. Wacky rigged stick baits and tubes are my two preferred lures because they skip well and they don’t make any noise.

Second, if there is someone present on their dock, in their yard, etc I don’t fish that dock at all. I just go to the next one. My thoughts on this is that if they aren’t there, they can’t get upset. So I just avoid potential confrontation completely.

No one owns the water around or under their dock. Lake shore property owners need to understand that. But anglers also need to be more respectful too. One of these times a disgruntled dock owner is gonna come marching down with a 12 gauge and then there’s gonna be real trouble.

I think the majority of dock owners are generally of the friendly nature. I’ll pass one sitting out there and say good morning or they’ll ask me how the fishing is, etc. Of course I’m very careful not to actually fish that dock either, as I previously stated.

Stuck on an awning is tough. Never been in that situation but I doubt its illegal to walk on their dock to go grab it and not damage it.

How in the hell are you getting a lure caught in the canopy, learn to skip docks. Hell I taught my 5 year old how to cast around docks and not hit the canopy’s. I use 3/8-1/2 jigs, buzz baits, frogs, and other misc stuff.

If I snag the boards or poles, I will quick hop out and pop it free (Don’t want anybody to step on it), if it would be the canopy I would rather leave it.

Youbetcha wrote:

Never been in that situation but I doubt its illegal to walk on their dock to go grab it and not damage it.

100% illegal, and considered trespassing. The dock is their property.

I’m no expert. I don’t fish bass other than the occasional smallies on the river.

I do have a relative who has issues with baits being caught in his boat lift and in/around his dock up by Hayward, WI. He ended up running 2 cables that almost form a triangle out in front of his fairly long L shaped dock. One is probably 18″ off the bottom and runs between the legs of the long span of dock. The other runs diagonally from the tip of the longest piece of dock and is connected to the larger landing area of his dock closer to shore. This one is probably 3′ off the bottom in ~8′ of water. If you throw a lure anywhere in that triangle, there’s a decent chance you will hook a cable.

He’s kind of an angry guy and I asked him if it helped any, and he said not really as guys still bounce baits off his dock and lift regularly. It did give him some satisfaction of catching lures from anglers that tried to cast under his dock though. I asked him how many he would get, and he said probably 6-8 per week during the summer. You’d think they would just kind of bounce off or be easy to shake free…but my guess is guys get hooked on the cable thinking their braid won’t break, but it obviously will before the cable does if their first approach is to just ream on it.

^Clearly this probably isn’t legal and may be a bit petty, dangerous if someone jumped off his dock, etc. When I asked him the “what ifs”, he said it’s used to stabilize his dock and is a part of it, not fixed to any stakes or things beyond his own dock legs. He also feels it’s better than the people who sit on the dock and scream at anglers going by.

^Yeah if you are in the awning/canopy that is 6′ above the surface of the water, you need to reassess your tactics and skill level before going so close to peoples’ property

gimruis wrote:

100% illegal, and considered trespassing. The dock is their property.

Not in MN, if its not ag land and not posted you can access unless you are told to leave.

Youbetcha wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>gimruis wrote:</div>
100% illegal, and considered trespassing. The dock is their property.

Not in MN, if its not ag land and not posted you can access unless you are told to leave.

Boy I tell ya, if you are walking around on people’s docks, you are just ASKING for trouble. People are not going to post their private docks with “no trespassing” signs.

I hunt almost exclusively on private land and I would never even consider setting foot without verbal permission ahead of time. That includes a private dock. Respect goes a long ways here, stay off private property unless you have permission to be there.

If you can’t fish a dock without constantly getting hung up, its time to re-consider another strategy.

I fish docks all day long, I have never once been stuck on a canopy or hit it. I have tangled a few dock posts though. I just boat up and grab my lure. I have never had to get on some ones dock.
If I find a crab ass that wants to yell that I’m fishing his dock, I’ll just keep fishing the dock and smile. It’s best when they are yelling and I am landing fish. 90 percent of the time no one does or says anything besides a wave or a quick hi. I flip jigs at docks all day long. Learn to skip.
Being respectful goes along ways for both land owner and fisherman

I live on a lake and all of these things happen all the time. The best is when I watch fisherman slam their lures against the pontoon or boat sitting on the lift. Honestly people do not care about other people’s property. Watched a guy one time climb on our dock, untangle his lure and then fish from our dock under our boat lift.

If a dock owner walks out with a 12 gauge, we’ll I guess a call to the dnr and sheriff will be happening. But in my 30 years of dock fishing I’ve never seen it.

By no means advocating for accessing private land. Just stating its not illegal.

gimruis wrote:

I do a fair amount of dock fishing in the summer time.

I am not a lakeshore property owner, and never will be. But I try to put myself in the shoes of them. I’d likely be pretty livid if fisherman were constantly banging lures off my property and/or getting stuck. It falls in the category of trespassing for me, and its very disrepectful too, especially if lures are getting hung up.

This is how I approach it when I’m fishing. I do not use any hard lures anymore whatsoever – no jigs, no hard plastic, etc. I only use weightless soft plastics. That way, if I bang into a post, dock, lift, etc, it makes no noise. Wacky rigged stick baits and tubes are my two preferred lures because they skip well and they don’t make any noise.

Second, if there is someone present on their dock, in their yard, etc I don’t fish that dock at all. I just go to the next one. My thoughts on this is that if they aren’t there, they can’t get upset. So I just avoid potential confrontation completely.

No one owns the water around or under their dock. Lake shore property owners need to understand that. But anglers also need to be more respectful too. One of these times a disgruntled dock owner is gonna come marching down with a 12 gauge and then there’s gonna be real trouble.

I think the majority of dock owners are generally of the friendly nature. I’ll pass one sitting out there and say good morning or they’ll ask me how the fishing is, etc. Of course I’m very careful not to actually fish that dock either, as I previously stated.

You get my vote for Ethical Angler of the Year Award. Great attitude towards fishing and respect for others.

Youbetcha wrote:

By no means advocating for accessing private land. Just stating its not illegal.

Understood, thank you for clarifying.

I’d still rather completely avoid a potential confrontation. No dock is worth getting into an argument or hostile situation over, at least for me it isn’t.

When I get hung up, I can almost always use my bow mount to creep up there and unhook it, quite often without having to touch anything either. If you just change the angle, if often frees itself.

Its a sticky situation and there are two sides to this. Our side is generally the angler’s side. The other side is not very well represented here. Maybe someone who has lake property with docks can offer their view.

People dock fish out docks all the time because we are close to a bay. It’s annoying but I’m fine with it if they are doing it in a respectful manner. Nothing worse than hearing a jig bounce off a fiberglass boat or motor cover. I keep a rod down by the dock with a decent size jig and if someone is getting reckless I just cast back at them and wave. If kids are fishing or swimming I would hope you would skip the dock but i have had people try and fish the dock when kids are in the water.

I was crappie fishing from a relatives dock once, rod in hand, bobber out in front of me, when someone landed a spinner bait at my feet on the dock, literally missed me by a few inches. It was a young teen with his dad, and the dad half heartedly apologized, but he missed a teaching moment. Like said above, don’t fish it if someone is there, especially if they are fishing at the time.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Nothing worse than hearing a jig bounce off a fiberglass boat or motor cover.

^^^^ THIS!

I live in a small secluded bay that gets some fishing around the dock. I couldn’t care less if they fish there. The dock, lift, or pontoon aren’t made of glass so it’s not like their lure is going to break anything. At the worst it would be the tiniest of scratch that would be unnoticeable.

Personally, I’d rather have them remove the lure/hook from the dock so it’s not accidently stepped/grabbed if it’s not easily seen by me or others on the dock. As for the canopy, I’d certainly not like someone yanking on it and making the hole worse. If it’s hooked go ahead and motor your way to it and remove it carefully.

Oh, and I also dock fish for bass a lot so I certainly see the angler’s perspective as well. The best was a woman coming out to the dock to tell me that it was illegal to fish between the dock and the swimming raft. A simple “sorry, I wasn’t aware of that” and move along was all that was needed.

We like to make a game out of plinking shoreline structure, canopy 1 point, boat 1 point, dock 1 point, electronics 2 points, and misc points for other items.

I made a record setting 16points one cast on gull lake with a senko, casted into the trump flag(3pts) which then fell onto canopy(1), whipped the bait laterally to other canopy(easy point, right next to each other), dragged off into boat popping the 12″ bow fishfinder on the way down(3), popped it onto the dock(1), hopped into kayak in the water(1), then popped the floating trampoline(1) reeling in and got a 23″ largie sitting underneath(5pts). I tried snagging the ice cream cone from the homeowners kid floating in their duck raft but can’t get lucky w everything

It’s like plinko for fisherman those docks.

Deuces, haha. F their feelings, right?

Deuces wrote:

we like to make a game out of plinking shoreline structure, canopy 1 point, boat 1 point, dock 1 point, electronics 2 points, and misc points for other items.
I made a record setting 16points one cast on gull lake with a senko, casted into the trump flag(3pts) which then fell onto canopy(1), whipped the bait laterally to other canopy(easy point, right next to each other), dragged off into boat popping the 12″ bow fishfinder on the way down(3), popped it onto the dock(1), hopped into kayak in the water(1), then popped the floating trampoline(1) reeling in and got a 23″ largie sitting underneath(5pts). I tried snagging the ice cream cone from the homeowners kid floating in their duck raft but can’t get lucky w everything

That must be a high score. Well done. I am trying to add up my best score. How many points for hitting a dog in the butt hole? The homeowner called him during mid cast so I missed his forehead. I just don’t know why someone would call their dog !@#$!^@!$!##&*@% &^!&@#!. I am sure his grand kids named him.

I can understand hitting a dock by mistake. But a canopy? That is a bit off. Move closer if you need to make shorter cast to help your aim.

You fish them enough you occasionally get hung up. I treat the owner with the utmost respect. That means carefully removing my tackle. Once in a great great while I step on their dock but only with their best intentions in mind. I have a dock and that’s how I prefer to be treated.

I don’t fish docks that often these days. Just not worth the headache. far to many A-hole lakeshore owners in my opinion. I like when they try and tell you that this is a private dock and they don’t like you fishing near it. I tell them this is public water and I don’t like them putting their private dock into it. I then tell them I guess we are both not happy. If you fish docks often enough you will get hung up. Be it the Dock, the post, the cross members under the dock, the mooring lines, the prop, ect. If I can access it and get it unhooked without leaving my boat I do. If I can’t then I simply break it off and move on. Not to many options.

I honestly don’t mind if people fish our docks as long as they’re courteous. I do expect a fishing report, though.

That being said, if we’re fishing off the dock or swimming, etc, find somewhere else to fish. And if you bounce a lure off my glass boat, I’m not going to be pleased. Most people understand that, but there are always a-holes in this world.

Chances are also likely that you’re going to also get a visit from an 85-lb dog. His favorite thing to do is watch fishing. I don’t get it, but he loves it.

I enjoy fishing docks, and I treat it the same way I expect others to treat ours.

I avoid fishing docks as much as possible. I just can’t stand the people who think they own the lake, so I avoid them all together to avoid confrontation.
The fish under docks are by far the most pressured fish in the lake in most cases.
I try to find the spots that get overlooked by most guys and therefore have less pressured fish.

Seems the common practice is respect. Seems reasonable.

But dang tuma, the dog right in the butt hole, that’s a hell of a shot I don’t care who you are that’s worth 10 points at least

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Carter Johnson wrote:</div>
Never been in that situation but I doubt its illegal to walk on their dock to go grab it and not damage it.

100% illegal, and considered trespassing. The dock is their property.

not in Wisconsin, the dock is a manmade obstacle on navigable water, the lake owner may own the dock, but the water is public. in all rights, if you were to wade the shoreline you can cross the dock, and even fish the dock, as long as you don’t damage their private property. the lake owner owns to the property line on the lake side, no more. if the lake were to dry up, they don’t gain property, that belongs to the state.

I live on a 200 acre lake and got my share of free lures off our dock. I took it out a few years ago since we don’t really fish here anymore. Do I need to start a new thread about what to do when someone is parked on your private dock at the campground where you keep your RV? I wasn’t planning on fishing that weekend, so I didn’t bother to complain to the owners that someone renting one of their cabins was using my dock for their brand spanking new Ranger with a 300 on it. I was told by one of my RV neighbors that he had taken off the lower unit with a rock the next day. I know at least some of you are familiar with the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage in northern WI. It’s not a place to go ripping around on until you know it. I’ve been fishing there about 17yrs and still travel with caution.

I fish alot of docks.
If someone is on theirs, I give it a wide berth and don’t intrude.
I will pull up in my boat next to the dock and retrieve a hook while sitting in my boat -NEVER get on anyone’s dock.
I caught a canopy once – high wind, overcompensated, dumb mistake. Cut the line and moved on. Did not want to damage it anymore than I may already have.
Teach my boys the same message.