Bottom Fishermen

Do you guys have problems with bottom fishermen like we do down here? 8 of us lined up below the dam jigging walleye from the bank. All throwing upriver at a 45 and jigging until in front of us and then throwing again. Then two hillbillies walk upriver of everyone, toss out stinkbait on a 1/8oz weight as far as they can. Of course the lines drift right down river not even hitting bottom and across all 8 of our lines. Then they crank them in and untangles all of our lines and throw right back out there again to the same spot. All 8 of us packed up and left.

Amazing to me how disrespectful some bottom fishermen are. Ruined 8 guy’s day on such a nice day to be out jigging.

Rant over. Sorry if I offended any catfishermen.. most of you are good guys.

I am gonna guess Iowa City?? Used to be from down that way

You call them ‘hillbillies’, I would call them ‘wise’.
You’re the ones who packed up and left, leaving the area to them.

I should have went back and seen if they caught anything drifting their stinkbait half way down in the tailwaters.

Did you speak your mind to them? If not I would find this a bit passive aggresive. Sometimes just a courteous “What the ell are you doing buddy” will get their attention to the fact they are being D-bags and they move. I have run into some of those guys myself up this away(even more fun when they don’t speak your language) and what you did by leaving is exactly what they wanted you to do. Maybe a lil aggresive on my part all over some fish but there is principle involved here and I wouldn’t let them “stink” all over you next time.

Carry a 40. cal and have it in clear sight.
Maybe that would help…

That’s almost as bad as the walleye guys that parked on top of my Dad and I last year. We were shore fishing and they came and anchored less than 30 yds out from us. They didn’t even get the hint when my 3 oz no-roll and stink bait splashed down 5 feet from their boat. It happens every year and I think the jig pitchers fishing for my bait are every bit as guilty as the bottom fishermen chasing the grown up fish of substantial girth.

One of the many reasons why I fish braid I carry a scissors for Kevlar and cut the rats nest off of my line. However, I never act like I own the place and bank fishing needs to have some common sense, fare ethics, and some reasonable patience.
But the argument can be made for many circumstances when people are not fishing the same as you. 5 boats drifting a stretch of of river and one anchors in the middle of the run, your creeping upstream dragging jigs and 3 boats move over and drift down into you……and the guy that would be better off fishing from the back of my boat instead of in my livewell.

Had a guy in a boat come in to where I was fishing yesterday also. He came 20 feet CLOSER than where I was throwing, literally 15 feet from the bank right in front of me. I gave him 5 casts (flips really) within a foot of his boat right next to his line and he got the idea and moved. The 6th was going to catch the nice frabill he had sitting up against the side of the boat. Whole freaking mississippi river (he was the only boat below the dam) and he has to fish 15 feet from me where I was throwing.

Why do people have to be jerks on the water? I don’t understand it. The guy in the boat could have fished 20 feet downstream, upstream, or out further and been fine. The bank fisherman could have stood 30 feet more downriver and fished how he wanted below all of us. I guess people think all the fish are where I am throwing.