Lord please give me more patients!

At Barren River, the lake is still over summer pool so the distance between the shoreline and the turn around is a little tight. Normally you can have 3-4 boats coming and going at the same time but the lake is high enough now that 1 to 2 is the most you can have on the ramp and that's a squeeze. On Wednesday I pulled into the State ramp parking lot and got out and readied my boat to launch. Being by myself I have a rope that has a hook on one end that gets attached the the eye on the boat and a loop on the other that goes around the hitch so when I back in, the boat slides off and when I pull up the rope beaches the boat. I can then get out, remove the rope and park my car without making others wait on me. Now that I've readied my boat in the parking lot, I get back in my car and start to pull into the ramp and here comes a white van pulling a Pro Craft and pulls straight down onto the ramp, into the turn around and back down to the waters edge in front of me. As I sit and watch as 3 people get out and start unpacking gear and ready the boat to launch I begin to fume. When they had the last kink out of the anchor rope, launched and pulled up the ramp there were 3 more cars behind me waiting in line. With the growing popularity of fishing we need to be more respectful of others. READY YOUR BOATS IN THE PARKING LOT FOLKS! :banghead It seems this happens nearly every time we have a decent day to fish this happens and just wanted to get this off my chest. Please be respectful of others.

Sad thing is most of those types tend to reproduce.

Those here who know me know I can take such times to express my displeasure with such actions. Standing silent just gives them the message that you don't disagree with their tactics. You're a better man than me Russ. I would have been nose-to-nose with somebody. Did they know better? I would say they did but some folks just think they can bully their way thru life.

A few years ago I took my Dad out early one morning for a leisurely crappie trip on Buckhorn Bay on KY lake. We had fished till mid-morning and when the lake lice started stirring, we decided to put the boat on the trailer. I pulled Dad up to the courtesy dock so he could back the trailer in for me. He prefers this to loading the boat on the trailer with me in the truck. He walked up to the truck and started to back out of the parking spot when a truck almost ran over him when it came racing into the parking area with a huge bass boat attached.

The bass rig them proceeded to block both lanes of the ramp while they got all their gear situated. To add insult to injury, the bass guys were joined by another truck that was loaded down with brush and stake buckets. The 4 of them then proceeded to unload the contents of the 2nd truck right onto the middle of the ramp, effectively blocking access for several folks wanting to put in and take out.

Before long there was almost a physical confrontation between the bass guys and an elderly gent who took great offense to this fiasco. Dad and I had already said our piece and let the ramp blockers know what we thought but they also ended up hearing it from most everybody within earshot. It meant nothing to them. Their time was much more valuable than ours. Sadly, this situation couldn't be blamed on OOSers or newbies. These were locals who knew better but didn't care.

The good thing about KY Lake and Barkley is that there's so many ramps to choose from, you can generally find a ramp that's "slow". On smaller lakes you simply don't have that luxury and all heck can break loose when running into these idiots.

What I've noticed to be a very real problem down at LBL is the bass fishermen clearly have a HUGE sense of entitlement to the water. For example, I was fishing in Little Nichols bay, right next to the canal that connects ky and barkley. I had just caught a really big shellcracker and I'm thinking it's about to get good when all of a sudden this bass boat eases within 7 feet of our boat and proceeds to fan cast the area.....I was flabbergasted!! He chatted about how his daddy had a marina in the 70's and he now lives in Paducah but fishes for bass on a regular basis. I was blown away, it was surreal to be honest.

doesn't matter how many ramps are on KY lake or any other one, there are always plenty of jerks that will do things like all of the above. When it gets warmer and the skiers come it only gets worse.

It is a sign of the times my friends, respect has seem to gone out the window. It is just not the boat ramps, it is on the water, why do you need to encroach on me while I'm fishing from my boat? If can smack you with a seven foot rod, you are too close!!!

This gives me pause to ponder just another reason I'm glad I graduated to the healthier side of fishing (for me). Rather than raise the blood pressure (which I was just
diagnosed with along with GERD), my kayak is less stressful and I'm able to calm down faster from encounters while paddling along draggin' my crank bait. Of course,
the blood pressure comes up a little when the pole bends, but it's the good kind of stress. Right?

Stupid people do stupid things. :hatchet:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mrdux

Sad thing is most of those types tend to reproduce.

Those here who know me know I can take such times to express my displeasure with such actions. Standing silent just gives them the message that you don't disagree with their tactics. You're a better man than me Russ. I would have been nose-to-nose with somebody. Did they know better? I would say they did but some folks just think they can bully their way thru life.

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I like the way you think! My son tells me I,am gonna get my arse kicked one of these days. They better pack a lunch.

You needed a bad co with you Russ

I will admit I have been guilty of doing that. That is until my fishing partner (my brother) jumped in my truck and left me standing on the ramp when I got out to move things from the truck to the boat. He knows that the first thing I do is remove the transom straps so as soon as I cleared the back of the truck he pulled off. Lesson learned.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by buffalo13

You needed a bad co with you Russ

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He got a late start, bless his heart.:biggrin

Same thing happened to me at the state dock on Saturday, Russ. 3 trucks waiting on one boat to get organized on the ramp... I wasn't happy.