Ice Fishing Etiquette?

Here’s a question for you guys. I was out this weekend searching some new areas for panfish. It was a large lake and there wasn’t another person within a mile of me. I drill a line of holes looking for fish. After I located some fish I set up the house. My plan was at sunset to hole hop that string of holes (maybe 12 holes). I got my son set up in the house and I hear a wheeler drive up… I think nothing of it. I step out of the house to hole hop and two guys are kicking the slush away from the holes I drilled…

I know this can be a grey area. For example if it’s a busy area and there are old holes, fish away! Even fresh holes in a populated area… ya go ahead, right? I think that’s a fairly standard practice, but how about fresh holes next to someone all alone??

I wasn’t going to say anything, but I made the comment that I hadn’t even checked those holes yet and he barked back at me, “IT’S A PUBLIC LAKE!” I said “yes but it’d be nice if you asked first I guess. I would have said yes.” He just put his head down and kept fishing.

Maybe I’m the one that’s wrong? If so can I just follow a guy with an auger and fish behind him?

It was all good and everyone caught plenty of fish. I just felt this was pretty questionable etiquette on their part. At the end of the day it’s all about enjoying the outdoors, but being a nice guy should be part of that, shouldn’t it? Thoughts?

I completely agree with you, some people are leeches and/or lazy. Maybe it was a spot they fish all the time, but more than likely they saw someone fishing with a house setup and thought lets go try by them and saw holes drilled and thought even better I don’t have to drill my own hole.

I am absolutely amazed at the people that use the it’s a public lake argument. It’s not about the law, it’s about being considerate to other people. I have gone to plan b and c plenty of times when someone has been setup on plan A. I live in ND and the law here is 50ft from a person in a house instead of the 10 ft MN law. I absolutely can not imagine pulling up right next to someone I don’t know and drilling a hole 10 ft away.

Totally agree with you Joe. I had two different groups setup within 10 feet of me, closer than the prospecting holes I drilled, this winter on ML. It’s not even about the law imo, but just being considerate and putting yourself in the other person’s shoes.

Joe Scegura wrote:

I know this can be a grey area. For example if it’s a busy area and there are old holes, fish away! Even fresh holes in a populated area… ya go ahead, right? I think that’s a fairly standard practice, but how about fresh holes next to someone all alone??

Wrong…at least for me. I always figured…if I didn’t drill the hole, I got no business fishing it.

Perhaps it’s because I typically set up well away from others. Even the few times I’ve been in areas where more people are concentrated, I would still not just drop a line down a hole I or someone in my group didn’t drill.

Edit: Just want to make sure I’m not being misunderstood. My point is I think the guy in Joe’s scenario was way out of line. Bad enough he crowded Joe in a seemingly remote area, but should’a/could’a drilled his own damn holes at least.

I’m with you Joe.

Also agree, I’ve had this happen to me numerous times. I drilled holes around my truck and it was obvious that they were fresh as there were only my footprints leading to them to the next hole. a vehicle pulled up and two guys jump out and park within 20 feet of my truck and started fishing in the holes. I mentioned to them that I didn’t drill the holes for them. One of the guys goes to his truck and retrieves an auger and starts drilling holes inside of the area I drilled. I shook my head, packed up and left. Not worth it.

As a side note, the ND 50 foot rule only applies to setting up another shack (portable or permanent) next to another shack. The same 10 foot rule applies to fishing near a shack as MN if you are outside of a shack.

Know how you feel Joe. Earlier this winter 3 of us are fishing a spot and probably have 20 holes drilled. 3 guys show up. Between myself and my brother there is 1 other hole. We are maybe 25 feet apart. This dude drills 3 holes between us and proceeds to fish his 3 holes and our spare. I don’t get it how some people are just plain rude or are they that ignorant? We packed up and moved.

I was on the otherside of a deal like this. Fished away from a group of houses by 150 yrds on a friday and sunday night. so monday had a couple buddies wanna catch a few fish so went to the lake and to my surprise one of the wheelhouses moved to within 20 ft of the holes i was fishing. i had fished this same area 10 other times this yr. So I pulled up and drilled about 40 ft from his house. He proceeded to come out and rev up his truck and yell at my buddies that the fish are biting all over the lake just not there. My thought was then, why did you move over where he saw me catching fish if they are biting everywhere. At first i felt kinda bad but now not so much. Maybe i’m just a ahole. tuesday when i went back he was still there so i went to a different lake.

I most enjoy my outdoor experience away from the crowd. I grew up on a farm in small town MN.

A majority of folks today grow up in cities, elbow to elbow.

I believe these vastly different environments shape the allowable space limits and when 2 vastly different styles meet, BOOM!

Intrusion on MY space (angler who prefers space) versus why the anger (city upbringing)…

Symptom of our growing population combined by the never ending promotional push?

Hopefully as a society we can learn to meet in the middle, exercise tolerance as well as educate better.

Nice to read you all enjoyed the day and everyone caught fish.

I had a friend fishing the Alec area a few weeks ago that set his rod down by his hole to grab something from his truck. Someone started fishing the hole. I believe his depth finder was even there as well.
DT

Public water?

Double post, sorry.

Nope, you’re totally right. That guy is a total dink. I likely wouldn’t have been as friendly as you were.

You NEVER crowd in a guy and fish his holes. I won’t even ask.

There are exceptions, of course. Some lakes have very few spots that produce, and numerous people know about and fish those areas. For example, there is a lake where at one time some public entity sunk a load of old xmas trees for structure/habitat (this was years and years ago). Everyone within 50 miles knows about it and fishes it regularly. Obviously, you don’t Swiss cheese a few acres and hoard the area with numerous other people poking around trying to get in there. But, you’re nowhere near that type of thing.

Some people coast through like and don’t even realize that other people exist independently of them. I’m sure the guy takes it beyond fishing. He’s the guy standing awkwardly close to you in the checkout line at the grocery store while you’re swiping your card and typing your pin. He’s the guy who sits on your barstool with you coat draped over the back when you get up to pee.

But, if you were to do the same thing to him he would fly off the handle. A true intellectual lightweight and social incompetent.

Joe Scegura wrote:

I wasn’t going to say anything, but I made the comment that I hadn’t even checked those holes yet and he barked back at me, “IT’S A PUBLIC LAKE!” I said “yes but it’d be nice if you asked first I guess. I would have said yes.” He just put his head down and kept fishing.

I think this is where a little communication and kindness does the job. I can’t really picture myself trying out fresh holes right by your location, but if you you would’ve said you hadn’t even checked those holes yet to me I probably would’ve humbly said “oh sorry about that” and moved on.

But like Andy Cox said, I also probably wouldn’t have bothered trying someone else’s drilled holes.

Hard water or soft it seems it’s always a walleye crowding you fishing your holes or trolling by cutting your line.

catnip wrote:

Hard water or soft it seems it’s always a walleye crowding you fishing your holes or trolling by cutting your line.

I disagree. Walleye fisherman seem more tolerant of fisherman being close. Bass anglers you had better not get too close. Saw 2 bass tourney anglers go to shore and have a fist fight over a spot on the river once. Funniest thing I ever saw fishing.

Im sorry Joe, was that you???
JK, i generally fish far away from others. 2 weeks ago i was on osakis and had a nearly identical story. I drilled 10 holes about 200 feet from the closest guys. After i fished those 10, i fired up the auger to drill 20 more. I was about 16-17 holes into my 20 when a truck pulled up and a guy started fishing my new holes, while i was still drilling!!!! I finished my new holes and started fishing, after trying 5, i asked him if he was getting any. He said, “f#*$ no! This spot is horse s#!$”. I thought, nobody waved you over. I picked up and left. Im sure we could all write a book about this stuff.

You are 100% correct IMO. I would honestly like to publish an ice fishing etiquette manual that is mandatory to read before you purchase your license. The first statement would read: pick up your damned trash you filthy animals. The second statement would read: if you do not drill the hole, you have no right to fish in it while the person is within say 20 feet, the exception would be late ice obviously when there are tons of old holes. Third statement would read: don’t be an a-hole, use common sense. How would you like it if the other person did the same to you? Empathy people. There would be many many more, but I digress.

A related instance I had an area earlier this year fishing with two friends with tip downs etc. and we covered an area of 35 ft by 35 feet with swiss cheese of holes in the middle to hole hop. The area by the way is very large plenty of space to go around. We got out there early to set up before light. Jack wagon drives up to us 2 hours after light and says in a really a-hole voice, “hey I’ve never seen you hear before, next time you come out here save me some room, that’s right where I fish.” Talk about a real dink.

Another rude instance and reason I hate fishing cribs in WI, evidently anglers with permanents on a local lake are pushing slush in their “crib holes” surrounding an area around their permanents, and placing a layer of granite rocks just below the slush layer to ruin auger blades of any anglers that attempt to drill in holes around their permanents. Now beyond being inconsiderate, this one really frustrates me, just because if you are not there you do not own the immediate area surrounding your permanent. Plus you are potentially causing major damage to others property, and mostly people who hold no ill will toward the permanent owner. Thoughts?

Rustbelt wrote:

I was on the otherside of a deal like this. Fished away from a group of houses by 150 yrds on a friday and sunday night. so monday had a couple buddies wanna catch a few fish so went to the lake and to my surprise one of the wheelhouses moved to within 20 ft of the holes i was fishing. i had fished this same area 10 other times this yr. So I pulled up and drilled about 40 ft from his house. He proceeded to come out and rev up his truck and yell at my buddies that the fish are biting all over the lake just not there. My thought was then, why did you move over where he saw me catching fish if they are biting everywhere. At first i felt kinda bad but now not so much. Maybe i’m just a ahole. tuesday when i went back he was still there so i went to a different lake.

I don’t think you did anything wrong at all. Wheel houses don’t own the lake. You were an acceptable distance away for sure. I think there needs to be a level of acceptance from the anglers already fishing. If people are trying to be courteous that’s really all we can expect.

I really didn’t mean to start a “you’re fishing too close to me thread.” Because when you’re ice fishing you are bound to get close to people at some point. There are only so many spots on a lake and most spots have room for more than one person.

I just think politely talking to the people you can really figure out a lot. I have come into areas I wanted to fish and even though I didn’t have to, I have asked the people already there if where I’m fishing is okay with them. Or if I should use the holes that are already here or drill more. Most of the time people are really nice. If they are not nice I don’t think I really want to fish in that area anyhow and just move on.

Starting a dialogue like that is just a friendly thing to do when you’re going to be fishing near someone. Showing up like you own the place is probably never a great way to start.

Heres one more quick story.

I had the exact opposite situation of my original post happen a couple days earlier. I get out to a spot start drilling holes and a guy on a four-wheel drives up. He was very kind and explained he been fishing in this area. I told him feel free to drill wherever you’d like. Once we found the fish I offered for him to come over and fish right next to us even though I was guiding. He was a very nice guy and said no no he could never do that. And he moved on to a different area. This guy was the definition of courteous. I truly would have been happy for him to pull up a bucket next to us and catch them as well.

It’s really all about attitude and we need to remember everyone’s just out to have a good time.

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I would of started up my auger and drilled some holes around him and see how he would react.

In okaboji iowa. when the panfish bite is on. everybody is withing ten feet of each other. over 100 houses, one day i was hole hopping there and i dropped my line down a hole and a guy came up to me and said he had just drilled that hole and he asked if he could fish it. I gladly agreed and left him to his fish and i fished in a different spot. It all comes down to communication in the end. If someone doesnt want to act like an A hole about it. Ill gladly reason with them. theres plenty of fish in the lake. No need to hoard one another

bigcrappie wrote:

I would of started up my auger and drilled some holes around him and see how he would react.

Than set a tip up on one side of him and you jigging on the other side of him… Things would have gotten out of hand shortly. But it’s a public lake.

I see it a lot on the Mississippi backwaters when the perch are biting. That is the ONLY time I don’t get frustrated with this type of scenario. Generally the perch move in shallow when the temps warm up, so the holes don’t completely freeze. I would say almost half of the anglers that fish the community backwater spots don’t even bring an auger with. The first couple times I experienced it, I was pretty mad. After a while, I noticed most were all locals that see ice fishing as a community and social event. I’m not much of a conversationalist when I’m fishing, but during those times of the year, it’s fun listening to the locals tell me about the area and how long they’ve been fishing it. Heck, most of them don’t even bring a fish finder…just a cheap rod, some bait and a bucket…I can’t even begin to imagine how many times I’ve heard the “what depth are you finding over there?” comment.

Any other area or time of the year, we share the same sentiment for sure. It happens ALL the time around the Mankato area lakes. It’s usually not even worth packing up and moving, as someone will surely follow…

404 ERROR wrote:

Generally the perch move in shallow when the temps warm up, so the holes don’t completely freeze. I would say almost half of the anglers that fish the community backwater spots don’t even bring an auger with.

This happens all of the time here too and I have no problem with it at all. This is a perfect example of “its a public lake” would apply. These are generally spots with a number of anglers in one location. No one has the right to be upset about someone fishing “their” old holes from the day before.

404 ERROR wrote:

After a while, I noticed most were all locals that see fishing as a community and social event. I’m not much of a conversationalist when I’m fishing, but during those times of the year, it’s fun listening to the locals tell me about the area and how long they’ve been fishing it. Heck, most of them don’t even bring a fish finder…just a cheap rod, some bait and a bucket…I can’t even begin to imagine how many times I’ve heard the “what depth are you finding over there?” comment.

This here scenario is certainly one that can get overlooked or forgotten as part of the fishing pastime that can make an outing so enjoyable. Perhaps the focus on catching fish for some of us, shifts part of the intent of the day away from the other forms of enjoyment.

I remember a couple years ago when on an annual outing with guys from my church, our group was setup off on our own. There were plenty of folks out there but pretty much spread out. We were doing pretty well catching panfish and noticed an older fellow edging himself closer and closer until he was sitting right amongst our group. At first we thought he was there to catch some of the fish we were, but it didn’t take long for us to determine he was really there because he just wanted to visit. He would ask questions and tell stories, and catching fish seemed secondary for him.
When we packed up to leave he did too, and followed us back to the landing…continuing to chat with us until we drove off.

I thought about that old fellow later, and how he wasn’t there to move in on someone else’s spot…he just wanted some friends to hang out with.

I would never have the stones to fish someone else’s hole if they are there. Takes a crap ton of nerve and very little common courtesy, which is NOT very common any more.

Like Randy’s “world I woke up to” post, there’s lots of jerks out there that come in every shape and size. I just find it’s a lot easier to be thoughtful and courteous to the people around me, makes my little corner of the world a nicer place to live in.

That said, I’d have no problem fishing someone’s holes while they’re still fishing them as long as I’ve either asked first or have been invited to do so. Tight lines everyone.

zooks wrote:

Like Randy’s “world I woke up to” post, there’s lots of jerks out there that come in every shape and size. I just find it’s a lot easier to be thoughtful and courteous to the people around me, makes my little corner of the world a nicer place to live in.

I agree 100%

Funny! I was thinking about his thread too.