Fishermen have always been mostly nice, polite considerate folks. There have always been the exceptions, but they were fairly rare and were shunned by most. 

Unfortunately, the huge influx of young tournament fishermen due to the popularity of high school tournaments has produced way too many out there that have no concept of courtesy, rules or safety. And its not just the kids, the adults driving the boats are even worse.

    I always supported youth tournaments, starting a youth tournament club through the Flint River Bass Club  and the Spalding County Sportsman Club. The Flint/Spalding Youth Club was successful, winning the state championship twice. But we emphasized courtesy and safety to them.

    My support changed at a Sportsman Club tournament three years ago at Guntersville. That huge lake is very shallow with thousands of acres of grass beds that have narrow boat channels marked through them. Twice in practice I was run out of those channels by adult “boat captains” driving for high school fishermen.

They did not know or care that the law says boats stay to the right when meeting an oncoming boat, just like in a car. If I had not gone out in the grass to my right they would have hit me.

    More madding but less dangerous, the next day in the tournament I was sitting a short cast off a point with a grassbed on it and had just caught a keeper bass. I was about 50 feet from the edge of the grass and the bank was not far behind the grass. The whole creek was behind me, hundreds of acres of open water. Unfortunately, the boat ramp was down the bank about 300 yards from me.

    I heard a boat out in open water past the point toward the main lake and, due to my experience the day before, looked up.  It was a high school team, two kids in their cute little jerseys, with an adult in the same cute little jersey driving the boat.

    They came off plane about 150 yards from me and I thought they were nice, not making a big wake to hit me while I fished. But then I saw how they were idling, headed right between me and the bank. It would have been even closer for them to go behind me to the ramp, but no, they had to mess up my fishing.

    All three kind of raised their hands in a little wave, but when I took out my phone and started videoing them, they all three looked the other way and would not look back. They kept that pose as they idled through the grass I was fishing.

    That was in a 200 boat Alabama Federation Youth tournament. When I got home I contacted the state tournament director about the courtesy and safety issues. His response was basically they were too big and busy to worry about safety and courtesy. And he said 90 percent of his captains were safe.

    So based on his admission, about 20 boats in his tournament were running around dangerously on a crowded lake.  I am afraid you will read more and more about boating “accidents” that are not really accidents.

    Boat ramps produce good examples of folks not knowing what they are doing and not caring they are blocking the ramp for others.  In my club we can launch 10 boats in less than 15 minutes in the morning and load them up in about 20 minutes in the afternoon.

For years we made fun of those that launched a boat just a few times a year, doing stupid stuff at the ramp. You can watch many videos of that kind of thing online.

    But those that are just stupid or mean that block the ramp for a long time while others are waiting to use it are really the problem. Last month at Lanier I saw a good example of this, and again it was an adult with kids “practicing” for an upcoming tournament.

    The adult pulled in, backed down the ramp then he and three kids got out of the truck. They started getting tackle, coolers, snacks and other stuff out of the truck and putting it in the boat.

    Folks with any sense do that in the parking lot, getting the boat ready then quickly launching it. These folks took about 20 minutes getting their boat ready blocking the ramp before finally getting their boat in the water.

    Even after getting the boat tied up to the dock and parking the truck, the adult walked from the boat to the truck twice getting stuff they forgot before they finally left.

    I wish we could bring back courtesy and sense in many things but none more than fishing.