moral advice needed, you be the judge

so I went to my permanent to fish saturday, poor idea, I had to take a few deep breaths count backwards from ten and ask a guy to move so I could open the door, there was one portable about six inches from one wall and the 80 yr old doorman, if even one more hole was drilled around it I’m pretty sure my shack would be on the bottom, now the situation is I can either move my shack a measured distance and drag it back to its location (directly over a crib) every time I fish there or…, I had a brainstorm last night and thought that a few five gallon buckets of sand and gravel in the slush around it camouflaged under a fresh coat of snow might deter the offending moochers or at least limit their ability to penetrate the ice, those two aren’t the only ones either they just happen to be the straw that broke the camel’s back, I’ll have to warn the guy that showed my that string of cribs (he showed me where to drop the shack and can fish it anytime), question is ” is this retribution too extreme or not, feel free to share some moral advice, next time I’ll post some pictures of this B.S. if I can remember, on a positive not I changed gears and ended the afternoon putting an open water beatdown on eyes from shore on an open chunk of river nearby and brought home a nice fat 18 incher as a dinner guest

Hip Hop music and a boom box will cure the problem. Bring ear plugs or muffs for yourself.

Why do you think you should have private personal use of a public fish crib? While blocking the door is a little overboard I would think you should expect to have others sharing the crib. Don’t be a fish hog. Maybe you could make some new fishing buddies or have a little socializing with your neughbors

Gotta agree with dog here. Public waters man. That being said, the sand idea sounds intriguing. I can guarantee you that if you do go that route, your shack will end up the victim.

Placing a permanent over a crib is asking for problems.

Kinda agree with both of these last two statements. Never heard of sanding around a house to keep people away. It would keep the smart ones away. Dumb would be buying blades. Maybe you could set up a blade sharpening at the fish house.

What I do in situations like this is pull out my camera and start video taping me talking about them while filming how close they are. I talk in a very matter of fact tone making sure to wave at them if they make camera-eye contact while I’m doing it, as well as making a mention of youtube somewhere in the bit. Very seldom do I see the same group that close to me again. It’s a very passive aggressive approach, but it works for me.

I’d have to equate ice fishing to being a strong swimmer in a pool full of people drowning, before long you’re getting drug under by the masses of the clueless, everytime I hear “hey hes catching em lets go over there” I just cringe, if I’m going to fish near someone I’ll ask if they don’t mind and even then I’ll keep my distance, and if someone shows me something cool I’ll return the favor and show them at least a couple really good spots in return, I know I shouldn’t be as ticked off but no matter what I do I get mobbed by a bunch of loonies, by the way the gentleman in the shack informed me that he’d been fishing those cribs for 30 years, that would be cool and I’d gladly fish with him, except those cribs haven’t been there for more than 15 years, and nobody has fished them all year other than myself and one other guy, best part is a guy from my hometown found my shack and now the word around town is “they’re hammering the gills by that black shack on the east end”

thanks for the input guys, between that and a little venting I think I’m just gunna pull the shack and set up somewhere else, other than quick trips before work during the week I don’t usually go there, it was kinda limiting my creativity a bit and I have a lot of water I’ve been neglecting that needs to get worked

if you thought the sand was crafty I take a pretty good size group of guys deer hunting every opener in a good size tract of county forest, I make a bunch of ground blinds and flag the trails, on the weekend before the opener I walk all the guys in and show them there stands, after a couple years of them seeing guys wander down the flagged trails I came up with a particularly devious plan and flagged very obvious trails looping through the bedding areas and clearcuts around the stands, that year most of our guys saw significantly more deer and in the snow following these bluff trails were sets of very humanoid tracks aimlessly wandering

What makes it right to park a perm on top of a public fish crib and claim it as your own? That is the moral issue here… IMO

Quote:

---

Gotta agree with dog here. Public waters man. That being said, the sand idea sounds intriguing. I can guarantee you that if you do go that route, your shack will end up the victim.

---

I second this.. Your shack will be a bonfire if you park it on a public fish crib and then put sand all around it… a heck of a d!ck move.

My Grandson saw the marker buoys in the boat and asked what they were for. After explaining that they were used to mark a spot, he suggested we drop one on our ‘secret spot” so we could find it again. I pointed out if I did that, then everybody would know where our secret spot was. He thought about that for a few minutes and then pointed at the other side of the lake, and said “Hey Grandpa lets put that marker WAY over there so everyone thinks that’s where our spot is”.

The boy has great instincts

Rootski

I was more or less venting, my point being that there was literally nobody within 1/4 mile of where I was fishing and now there is somewhere between 50-75 holes frozen over within 4 ft of my shack and none on the other 3 cribs in the string (all about 25-36 paces apart), cant tell me they have any clue whats down there, I think you have to admit that would be frustrating, as for the sand its not happening and Im pulling the shack, they can fight over whats left, and whats so different about putting a perm on a crib vs, sharp channel break, rockpile etc…, essentially you are claiming a 4*8 piece of real estate but does that mean you have to put it somewhere away from all structure as to not hamper fishing

Quote:

---

What makes it right to park a perm on top of a public fish crib and claim it as your own? That is the moral issue here… IMO

---

I don’t see him claiming it as his own, but he was there first so what gives anybody else the right to fish in front of his door? I haven’t lived in WI for 5 years now so I don’t recall what their distance rules are in regards to fish houses but here in MN a fish house can’t be set up within 10 feet of another. From what he claims he couldn’t even get into the front door so in MN that would have been illegal.

Nobody has the right to claim a spot as their own, just the same as nobody has the right to encroach into another fisherman’s location if they have already setup there. It doesn’t matter if it’s winter or summer if somebody got there first they have right to it until they move. If you really wanted that spot you should have been there earlier. I see it all the time on some local lakes, it is usually a race to the best spot at first ice. What gives the guy who slept in more right to a spot than the guy who got to the lake early?

Photos would give us a little better picture.

As far as I know, there aren’t any laws against putting a perm on a fish crib. There are laws in mn about how close you can put a perm to another perm though. (10′)

Although, if you decide to park on a crib, I certainly wouldn’t be surprised about what happened.

I personally have different levels of tolerance in different situations. On LOTW, there is ansolutely no reason someone needs to come within 50 yds of you, on the other hand, on the Rainy River I can expect other boats to come within 20′ of me.

Common sense really isn’t all that common.

Imagine going out for an entire weekend and finding an unocupied perm over a productive area. I wonder if during open water season I could anchor my boat on a hotspot and just leave it there morning noon and night day after day and maybe fish there ferrying out with another boat 2 -3 days a month. For me personally I stay well clear of other fishermen…but not their vacant equipment. If I come across a perm with a locked exterior and no sign of activety I will if I want set up as close as I want without touching it.

Quote:

---

a perm on a crib vs, sharp channel break, rockpile etc…, essentially you are claiming a 4*8 piece of real estate but does that mean you have to put it somewhere away from all structure as to not hamper fishing

---

X2 That is the nature of ice fishing with permanent shacks, like it or not. No different really than anchoring on a spot during the summer, you’ve essentially claimed a spot. First come first served.

Quote:

---

I don’t see him claiming it as his own

---

He’s about to throw sand all around his perm so nobody else can fish around him on the fish crib.

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

a perm on a crib vs, sharp channel break, rockpile etc…, essentially you are claiming a 4*8 piece of real estate but does that mean you have to put it somewhere away from all structure as to not hamper fishing

---

X2 That is the nature of ice fishing with permanent shacks, like it or not. No different really than anchoring on a spot during the summer, you’ve essentially claimed a spot. First come first served.

---

Yeah, if you anchored your boat there all year. If you are anchoring on a spot, it would be like fishing with a portable. Once you leave its open to someone else to enjoy. When you have a perm there, you are claiming it for the season even when you are not fishing.

This kind of crap goes on on the main body of water that I fish. I have a friend that has a perm up every year. Every year someone takes a dump on his hitch drills holes in front of his door and all around.

It is my belief that no one owns any certain spot on the lake so I think these people are the idiots for taking it this far. My friend has stated that he is going to put pee gravel around his shack ( wonder where this will lead to).

I know it is a big hassle But I think if it is going to be a on going problem every body should have to remove there shack while not fishing it. That way everybody has the opportunity to fish a spot (early bird gets the worm).

I do have compassion for anyone who has to put up with idiots that have no moral compass on the ice. These guys that would set up in front of your door are in the wrong and odds are do not know how to find spots on there own. But the sand is taking it to far and you have let them drag you down to there level.

Quote:

---

He’s about to throw sand all around his perm so nobody else can fish around him on the fish crib.

---

While I agree sanding the ice is a little drastic having “50-75 holes frozen over within 4 ft of my shack” may rattle yours and many other people’s nerves as well.

Quote:

---

Nobody has the right to claim a spot as their own, just the same as nobody has the right to encroach into another fisherman’s location if they have already setup there. It doesn’t matter if it’s winter or summer if somebody got there first they have right to it until they move. If you really wanted that spot you should have been there earlier. I see it all the time on some local lakes, it is usually a race to the best spot at first ice. What gives the guy who slept in more right to a spot than the guy who got to the lake early?

---

That’s just it.. nobody can be there “earlier” if there is a perm parked on top of it… but they made the best of it and drilled around it to still fish the crib some jerk was trying to claim for himself.

Its not right for them to drill right next to your perm, but IMO its not right to park a perm on a fish crib either. Now if this was brush you sank out in the middle of nowhere, then that is a totally different story! But a public fish crib is for the public to use, not for one person to claim with a perm and drive everyone else away with sand.

Trust me, if someone parked a perm on top of a fish crib around here there would be a big pile of ashes. Not from me, but from others.

dude I even replied to your post and said that I was venting and that I’m pulling out of there what’s your beef, I wouldn’t have had such a problem with it either if I didn’t have to ask the guy to move to open the door, by the way he immediately plopped back down and later I had to warn him that I was coming out so I didn’t whack him with the door, that is ridiculous anywhere, I’ll take some pics of the holes later this week when I go to move it if you don’t believe me

I guess you could relate this to buying a big houseboat and anchoring it on top of a nice reef in any of the MN lakes for open water season. I would imagine you’d have plenty of guys casting up to it, trolling around it or anchoring behind it on a windy day. I’m a portable guy myself, but in my book I have every right to fish a hot spot as anyone else. I am the type of person that respects space but I understand some people’s frustrations.

This is a crazy idea, but what about requiring guys with skid houses to move them every week of 2?

Why not draw a map, put it on your door and put out markers where the other cribs are.

I can see your point, but also on the other hand if a permanent fish house is sitting there unoccupied, I see no reason a guy can’t fish around it.

Personally, I avoid shanty towns…probably why I have such poor luck ice fishing.

same lake last year I was fishing a slough alone and 5 guys from milwaukee pulled in and drilled so close to one of my tip ups the chips from their auger knocked my flag up, they even started jigging in my open holes (within 20 ft of me) later a guy who was watching one day the week prior showed up and they all thanked him for showing them such a great spot, I’m not gunna get in a scrap with people over fish but I’m burnt out on having to move on everytime I get mobbed

I wonder if when filming an IDO episode other fishermen start swarming James and Joel when they start pulling hogs out of the ice.

Imagine some guy in carharts and an old army surplus jacket in the near background jumping one of their unoccupied holes and then seeing some big burly bodygaurd production crew member bouncing him out of there.

OK, that’s ridiculous and rude. I guess we can start to see where you are coming from. Last Saturday I was ticked when a truck drove within 20 yards of my portable.

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

Nobody has the right to claim a spot as their own, just the same as nobody has the right to encroach into another fisherman’s location if they have already setup there. It doesn’t matter if it’s winter or summer if somebody got there first they have right to it until they move. If you really wanted that spot you should have been there earlier. I see it all the time on some local lakes, it is usually a race to the best spot at first ice. What gives the guy who slept in more right to a spot than the guy who got to the lake early?

---

That’s just it.. nobody can be there “earlier” if there is a perm parked on top of it… but they made the best of it and drilled around it to still fish the crib some jerk was trying to claim for himself.

Its not right for them to drill right next to your perm, but IMO its not right to park a perm on a fish crib either. Now if this was brush you sank out in the middle of nowhere, then that is a totally different story! But a public fish crib is for the public to use, not for one person to claim with a perm and drive everyone else away with sand.

Trust me, if someone parked a perm on top of a fish crib around here there would be a big pile of ashes. Not from me, but from others.

---

What’s just it? He got there EARLIER, it doesn’t matter if it’s 5 seconds, 5 minutes, 5 hours, 5 days, 5 weeks, 5 months, or 5 years, he was there first. He shouldn’t have to move out of the way because somebody else who got there late wants to fish it.

And so it’s alright for someone to burn down a fish house that was placed legally, but not alright to throw a little sand on the ice?