07-07-2012, 11:29 AM
[cool][#0000ff]Yeah, I have experienced the DC crowd too. But the local old geezers (and young geezers) who troll for the newly planted hatchery pets in the fall are even worse. They are going slow so they are not subject to the 150 foot proximity rule. But they think it is really clever to troll right over the top of someone anchored or in a float tube. I have had them go by so close I could almost touch them with my rod. And they just stare off into space and pretend you are not even there. Several times when I have said something snarky...like "Hey, are you guys running out of lake to fish?" they get all hostile and fire back "Shut up, crybaby. You don't own the lake." As if they did.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Gotta be careful about how you handle those things. These days there are lots of wackos that do wacko things. And you never know who is "carrrying" and what it will take to set them off.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]In my younger and wilder days I employed a variety of "idiot repellent" tactics. I have been known to keep a stout rod rigged with a big lure covered with trebles...for firing at boats or skiers. Have actually hooked a few...including a jet skier that I hauled off his craft and reeled in to my tube...screaming.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have also used slingshots. I used to be quite proficent with my custom made models and could knock sparrows off the line from 50 feet or more. I used marbles to rattle off boats...and take out a windshield or two. And I (regrettably) shot a water skier in the behind as he layed over to spray me within a few feet of my tube. That got me busted and should have put me in jail. But the ranger who showed up to investigate couldn't stop laughing and took it easy on me. The boater could not explain how he got close enough for me to shoot him in the "nether regions" without violating the law. And I claimed self defense.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I lost count of the times I have bounced sinkers off boats or at least got them to stay further away to dodge my casts. The really bad part is that on most of these occasions I was all by myself in a remote part of the lake and the idiot boats were deliberately harassing me. I say it would be a case of justifiable homicide if you hit them with a surface to surface missile. Unfortunately, under today's laws, it is illegal to protect yourself and your sanity with anything but words.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Gotta be careful about how you handle those things. These days there are lots of wackos that do wacko things. And you never know who is "carrrying" and what it will take to set them off.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]In my younger and wilder days I employed a variety of "idiot repellent" tactics. I have been known to keep a stout rod rigged with a big lure covered with trebles...for firing at boats or skiers. Have actually hooked a few...including a jet skier that I hauled off his craft and reeled in to my tube...screaming.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have also used slingshots. I used to be quite proficent with my custom made models and could knock sparrows off the line from 50 feet or more. I used marbles to rattle off boats...and take out a windshield or two. And I (regrettably) shot a water skier in the behind as he layed over to spray me within a few feet of my tube. That got me busted and should have put me in jail. But the ranger who showed up to investigate couldn't stop laughing and took it easy on me. The boater could not explain how he got close enough for me to shoot him in the "nether regions" without violating the law. And I claimed self defense.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I lost count of the times I have bounced sinkers off boats or at least got them to stay further away to dodge my casts. The really bad part is that on most of these occasions I was all by myself in a remote part of the lake and the idiot boats were deliberately harassing me. I say it would be a case of justifiable homicide if you hit them with a surface to surface missile. Unfortunately, under today's laws, it is illegal to protect yourself and your sanity with anything but words.[/#0000ff]
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