Trotlines!!!! A trollers worse nighmare!!
I took a high school buddy of mine who recently lost his brother and has had some issues in his life. We have fished together a lot in the past, just not been able to hook up recently. We both set aside a few hours to go this morning.
We got out at daylight and found the lake real choppy from a stiff south wind. We motored to the south end of the area I normally start in and on the way found the ledge to be covered up with jugs from trotlines. My only hope for a decent day was that the jugs were holding the lines just above the bottom.
We got all our gear out and started catching fish immediately. Then we hit the 1st of about 5 trotlines. My hope for them to be deep was dashed when I found out the floats were holding the lines about 5 feet deep in 20 feet of water.
I know the guy who put them out was probably just some guy who was trying to make a couple of bucks and has as much right to be out there as I do but by setting the lines that high up in the water column, he was effectively blocking anybody else from fishing the way we have fished that area for years.
We ended up calling it a day at around 9 with 14 GOOD keepers and about a half dozen fewer Bandits than I started with. I thought seriously about approaching the guy as he was running his lines and tell him I'd give him $2 each for my baits back off his lines. We did raise one line that we lost 4 baits in and got a couple of them back before we put it back exactly as we found it.
I'll bet the guy felt like a kid on Christmas morning when he found all the goodies we had left him.
