FloridaAngler

Thx to all who wrote replies I was able to understand! It makes sense that on a 100 acre lake I'm probably not going to be able to catch enough bass to make a difference one way or another, so I guess I'll just keep feeding the bait fish and let Mother Nature do her thing.

I live on a private spring-fed lake (approx 100 acres) in central Florida which is rarely fished. I'm a novice fisherman and don't fish the lake much myself, either, but when I do, most of the bass I catch are in the 1-2lb range. I've read that if you want to increase the health & size of the bass in the pond, it's important to remove a certain percentage of small bass every year in order to decrease the food competition & grow larger bass. Does this hold true for larger natural lakes? I would think that nature would pretty much keep things in check, but maybe that's not the case. Also, regarding shiner's & bait fish: A few times a day I walk to the same spot at the edge of the lake and will throw out a handful of floating fish food--and when I do a feeding frenzy takes place. When I fish for bait fish, I commonly catch 10"+ Golden shiners--are they too big for the average 2lb-4lb bass to eat, and if so, should I intentionally remove them from the lake as well? Thanks!

I’m dealing with a frustrating situation and am seeking feedback and advice from this forum regarding A) whether my frustration and annoyance is justified or not, and if it is, what (if anything) I can do about it. Here’s the situation: I live on a medium-size (100 acre) private lake in a very rural area in Florida; there is no public access to the lake. There are about 10 homes on the lake, the remainder of the shoreline (approximately 50%) is wooded and undeveloped. I own about 13 acres on the lake. My house sits in the middle of this 13 acres on about 3 cleared acres, so to the immediate right and left of the cleared area where my house sits is 5 acres of undeveloped shoreline. In the middle of 2020 a middle age couple moved into a house across the lake. Occasionally I would see them out cruising or fishing, but I never met them, and otherwise had no interaction with them. About two weeks ago I was inside my house watching TV or whatever when I heard my two outdoor dogs barking non-stop and going crazy. I stepped outside to see what they were barking at, and I see that he is in his boat a few feet from my dock, fishing under and around it. I walked down to the dock, introduced myself, asked him how the fishing was, apologize if my dogs were scaring the fish, and told him I’ll take them inside while he’s out fishing. So that’s what I did, end of story. Fast-forward two weeks: I guess the cleared 3 acres that my house sits on-and specifically the area around my doc--is the most productive fishing on the lake, because for the past 4-5 nights he motors over here around 5PM (and a couple of times in the morning), and spends on average 45-60 minutes fishing directly in front of my house. And he’s not 50 feet from the shore-- he uses his trolling motor and spends the entire time right along the weed line, about 10 feet from the shoreline. Each time he does this my dogs go nuts, running up and down the shoreline, barking incessantly. The first few days this happened I called my dogs inside. But understand that these are outdoor dogs, and normally I don’t let them inside. They’re big and dirty, they shed all over, I have occasional allergies, etc. So after the first few days of this I stopped calling the dogs inside and simply let them stay out there barking at the guy, assuming that he would find their barking annoying--or hopefully realize that his fishing right in front of my property was interfering with his neighbors peace and quiet--and he would leave and go fish elsewhere. But I was wrong, he just stays there for however long he wants and fishes. So yesterday I came home from a long day at work and layed down for a nap. Fifteen minutes later I hear the dogs barking like mad, and right away I know that this guy is out there fishing again. I tried to ignore the mayhem but no dice, I couldn’t go back to sleep with all the barking. So I get up and start to read a book, but I can’t concentrate due to the barking. I sit there for another 10 minutes, getting increasingly irritated, hoping he goes away, but he doesn’t, so I reluctantly walk outside to talk to the guy. Normally I’m pretty non-confrontational, and don’t enjoy interactions like this. I walk outside, say hello, he says “Hi, how are you?”, to which I reply, “Well, I was doing better before my dogs started barking, which woke me up from my nap.” I was expecting him to say something like “Oh, sorry about that.” but instead he says “Yea, your dogs really get excited when I fish here.” So I say to him “I’m curious--is the fishing right here a lot better than elsewhere around the lake?” and he says “Yea, sometimes. The other day I caught a dozen bass around your dock.” I tried to drop a few subtle hints that I found his fishing disruptive to the peaceful enjoyment of my property, but he never took the bait (pun intended), so eventually I said to him “Look, here’s the deal: “I know I don’t own the lake, and I understand you have a right to fish it. And I wouldn’t mind if you came over here and fished occasionally, or if you slowly trolled past our property, fished for 15 minutes or so, and then moved along and fished the rest of the lake. But for the past week you’ve been coming here every afternoon, and you basically just park yourself directly in front of our house for as long as you want. Quite frankly, I think it’s a little disrespectful, and it’s disrupting enjoyment of our property. Would you mind not fishing here so much and fish somewhere else around the lake? There are thousands of feet of undeveloped shoreline all around the lake where your fishing wouldn’t bother anyone.” His reply basically boiled down to “I can fish wherever I want on this lake. I’m not making any noise or or on your property, and if your dogs barking bothers you, you can take them inside.” Realizing that I wasn’t going to get anywhere with this guy by discussing the situation further, I said (sarcastically) “Well I really appreciate you being such a considerate neighbor” and walked back inside my house. I left the dogs outside barking, he continued to fish along my shoreline for another 20 minutes or so, and eventually he left. Let me reiterate--I understand that LEGALLY he has the right to fish anywhere on the lake he wants to fish, including along my shoreline and around & under my dock. I get that. However, imho, just because a person has the “right” to do something doesn’t necessarily mean that they should do it. For example, a person has the right to install a super-loud stereo system in their car and drive around with their windows down blaring bass-thumping music, but that doesn’t mean that they should. Most reasonable people consider people like that jerks. I go out of my way to be considerate of my neighbors around the lake. We bought this property 20+ years ago when there weren't any other houses on the lake. I built a gun range, and for years I practiced with a variety of handguns and rifles a few times a month. However, as more people built houses on the lake I realized that firing off guns on my property (which is my right!) was probably disturbing some if not all of my neighbors, so a few years ago I started driving 40 miles round-trip to practice at a state-owned rifle range. Whenever I circumnavigate the lake in my kayak, I make a point of kayaking out into the lake a bit whenever I pass a neighbors property so that I don’t infringe upon their privacy. I never fish directly in front of anyone’s house or property. I’m not trying to make myself out as some sort of saint, but I do go out of my way to be a thoughtful, considerate neighbor. So forum members, please tell me--is my annoyance justified or not? Or do I sound like an old man screaming at the neighborhood kids to “Get off my lawn!!? And regardless of whether you agree with me or not, is there anything I can do legally to try and put a stop to his actions? What would you do if you were in my situation? I’ve done a little internet research, and it’s my understanding that legally I can’t do anything that interferes with someone legally fishing or hunting. Assuming he continues to fish here on a daily basis, can I: Get in my kayak and repeatedly paddle up down the length of my shoreline, paddling noisily, accidentally “bumping” the side of the kayak with me oar? Would that be interpreted as interfering with his legal right to fish? Whenever he comes over here to fish, get on my pontoon boat or jetski and motor up and down the length of the property, throwing up a wake and making as much noise as possible? Buy a $50 remote-controlled boat and just use it to zip along wherever he is fishing, doing circles around his boat, etc? Sit on my dock in the nude playing bongos while blaring death-metal or hardcore rap music at high volume on a portable stereo system? (I don't like this option very much as it would likely annoy others on the lake.) Invite members of this forum to come fish a rarely fished private lake, with the stipulation that they spend at least a few hours fishing directly in front of his house!?!?! I’ve read a number of posts on this forum and other similar fishing forums, and watched several youtube videos, discussing or documenting this exact same situation, i.e., a property owner who objects to a person fishing directly in front of their property. Almost uniformly the video portrays the property owner as a jack#%&, and the person fishing as a good guy just exercising his God-given rights and enjoying the great outdoors. Rarely if ever is there any discussion or consideration as to whether or not a person would find strangers fishing basically in their front/back yard as annoying and as an invasion of privacy. Sorry for writing such a lengthy post, but I wanted to describe the situation as clearly as I could. Thanks to any and all who take the time to reply with their take on the situation and (hopefully) helpful suggestions.