With all the theft these days there is a courteously buffer of distance which allows us to throughly fish the dock, and not give the owner reason to have concern of their property, and definitely prevent an irate property owner from pouring gas on you. We owned a fish camp, for 10 years, when I was growing up. There is a distance when fishing other peoples docks that might not be illegal but is disrespectful. I believe if certain considerations are taken when around lakefront owners property there would be far less of these type of cases.