# Rockport 11/19/19 Just when you think you've seen it all



## pocjetty (Sep 12, 2014)

First, I've just been crushing the trout the last few days. Smaller 13"-15" dinks have been so think they've just been a nuisance. But I've also stumbled up on some groups of really nice fish. I was using a suspending MiroLure, white with silver flash. Once I got the retrieve pattern worked out, it was non-stop action. I caught my limit and released a lot of fish, and moved to scout around a bit. At the next spot, I caught a few fish with the same retrieve, but it was pretty slow. I almost left, but decided to put on a 3/8 oz. jig head and a Norton Sand Eel (that manila envelope color I love), and things just went haywire. Let it fall all the way to the bottom, then give a series of really tiny bumps - just enough to get it off the bottom and moving. Repeat. Give it the occasional slightly bigger twitch. It was nice fish after nice fish, until I literally got tired of catching fish.

We've all had our share of potlickers. But these last few days there have been a lot of people who appear to be doing nothing but running around looking for someone with a bent pole. They pull up too close, slam a few things around, toss out the big anchor and start slinging the live shrimp under a cork. (We've all seen it.) I've just been wading down the shoreline and turning my back on them. Mostly they aren't catching much, even on live shrimp, and after a while they crank up and leave.

Today, though, was something special. I had a boat roll up on me and disgorge three waders who spread out behind me, just out of casting distance. I was catching fish on pretty much every cast. I don't know what they were doing, but they weren't catching much of anything. Every time I landed a fish, they crept in a little closer. I started wading away from them, and they followed. I'm still cranking fish, and they're still scratching their... something. Then one of them decided to wade between me and the shore so he could try to get ahead of me. I guess he figured I was heading toward the fish, and he wanted to get there first.

Now we're a ways from their boat (the four of us), and another boat comes up, between me and the first boat, but a little farther from shore. He sets the Power Pole, and they start slinging bait. I start moving away from him, and the wader thinks I'm trying to prevent him from getting ahead of me, and starts double-timing it. I can hear the guys on the boat jabbering about me catching fish after fish. It's a party.

As I get some separation from the new boat, I guess he decides that the fish have moved with me or something. He cranks up his engine and begins to putt the same direction I'm going until he gets pretty close, and shuts it down. I kept wading, and he cranks it up again. So now I've got a wader who is out in front of me and working to stay that way, and a guy literally following me in his boat. The other two waders are trailing behind, but not giving up.

At that point, I had lost contact with the bigger fish I had been on, but the dinks are eating me alive. I'm reeling in fish on every cast, and if one gets off another takes its place. And the really crazy part is that these jackrabbits around me aren't catching much of anything. And I can tell that they all still think that the reason I'm catching and they aren't is _where_ I'm fishing, and not how I'm fishing. If they can just get where I am, the magic will happen. Not one of them (apparently) can figure out that they are fishing exactly where I was fishing when they saw me reeling them in. And I realized - even though I'm catching lots of fish, this is not fun for me.

I turned around and started the long walk back to leave, kind of hoping that I might get past them and fish a bit more back toward where I started. And I see that a kayak has joined the parade a little farther back. And as I get in the middle of the pack... they want to chat. And I start having visions of yanking the guy out of his boat, commandeering it, and using it to run over all of them. (This is not a healthy way to spend your day.) I explained that I go fishing specifically to avoid people like them, and they just looked confused that I would say such a thing. I walked up to the shore, so I could make better time on dry land, and called it a day.

I can't really complain. It was a beautiful day. They water is cool, but not brain-freeze cold. It was clear, but not gin-clear. And the fish were plentiful and hungry. I've been fishing a long time, and seen my share of potlickers. But I've never seen a display like what I saw today. They weren't bad people, I guess. Just utterly oblivious. I'm supposed to take a friend tomorrow, and I'm really hoping they don't find me.

One thing was really fun to see, and worth telling. Fishing with that suspending MiroLure, if you miss a hookset you will yank the lure up to the surface. Several times that happened, and because the water was pretty clear and calm, I could actually see 2,3,4 different fish flashing across the surface and fighting for the privilege of delivering the death blow. A couple of times, while the smaller fish were batting it around, a much bigger fish rushed in an swallowed it.


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## mccain (Oct 20, 2006)

potlicking is not one of mankind's better attributes. it's filed in the 7 deadly sins btw envy and greed. sometimes it's hard to avoid if everywhere is crowded with fishermen but we all must avoid the urge to purposely potlick. good to hear you've been on the fish


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## WillieT (Aug 25, 2010)

Sorry that happened. It sounds like it could have been a great day except for the morons. Maybe they just didnâ€™t know better.


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## fish4food (Feb 11, 2011)

Glad they didnâ€™t turn the bite off for you. 

If thereâ€™s one thing I canâ€™t stand itâ€™s a potlicker!


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## karstopo (Jun 29, 2009)

Canâ€™t even be safe from the aggressive potlickers on a Tuesday in November. A friend of mine used to fight the fish with the rod horizontal and just underwater to not attract attention from passing boats, maybe thatâ€™s worth a shot.


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## pocjetty (Sep 12, 2014)

karstopo said:


> Canâ€™t even be safe from the aggressive potlickers on a Tuesday in November. A friend of mine used to fight the fish with the rod horizontal and just underwater to not attract attention from passing boats, maybe thatâ€™s worth a shot.


Probably not a bad idea. There's no doubt that's what attracted them. I didn't mean to just tell a potlicker story. Everybody has their share, and it's sort of like telling stories about some bonehead in traffic.

That deal yesterday was sort of comical. In fact, there was a point where I turned around and thought, "If I made a video of this, nobody would believe that it wasn't staged." The guy following me in the boat didn't even have a trolling motor. He cranked up his outboard a couple of times (just to keep close). Then he just gave up and left his engine idling so he could move without delay. The waders following me were trying to act casual, like it was a coincidence. When I would turn around to look towards them, they would look up in the air or turn around to look behind them. And the guy double-timing it to get ahead of me appeared to be afraid to get more than about mid-thigh deep. It was like some kind of Monty Python sketch.

Does it affect the fishing? I don't know about the rest of you, but for me a wade down a shoreline is not a linear experience. Sometimes I'll go back and cover an area again - especially when I change something about my retrieve that starts working. I often turn and fire a few casts behind me, especially if I see some sign of bait activity. I really do like to have a little room to operate. Yesterday there was no chance of that.

No, those guys didn't ruin the day for me. That shoreline was so loaded with fish, and you don't get too many days like that - you can't afford to waste one. It was just one of the weirdest experiences. It was sort of like being a golfer and having a gallery follow you. I confess, though, that when I started walking back and they wanted to chat, I got a little twisty.

I was fishing an area with a lot of shell. There were some mud/shell sections, but also some that was pretty heavy shell bottom. Bumping bottom with the jig meant snagging sometimes. (Any kind of faster retrieve got hardly any bites at all.) The bigger fish mostly felt like shell snags. They didn't slam the bait, so much as they inhaled it, and then they were suddenly a heavy weight on the line. After I set the hook, though, they lit up. Lots of topwater and aerial displays. I like those days when the fish are plentiful, and you can just let 'em show off without having to worry that you might lose a few of them.


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## Csafisher (Nov 16, 2010)

Well Iâ€™m glad it didnâ€™t ruin your day. It wouldâ€™ve really upset me being that close


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## Jerry713 (Nov 6, 2019)

Man that's frustrating! I do think keeping the rod tip down helps some but in your case POC seems like they were hell bent on following you.


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## karstopo (Jun 29, 2009)

pocjetty said:


> I didn't mean to just tell a potlicker story. Everybody has their share,


No, I appreciate a good story with details on the depths that potlickers will sink and the heights of their brazen antics if only to demonstrate that respectful and considerate fishermen donâ€™t suffer outrageous pot lickers alone. Itâ€™s good to understand the exact nature of the beast just to be prepared for the next encounter. Thanks for the report about the potlickers and about the fish, I enjoyed both.


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## c hook (Jul 6, 2016)

*lmao*

i don't mean to laugh but this is the norm these days. the whole world has moved here, they have money and fancy boats, but are clueless. typically when i see a ten story skyscraper ripping by at mach five with music and burner bar lights, it's a tale tell sign. the fancier and pricier the boat, the more clueless they are. i frankly have given up on the nonsense, there is a jackass born every minute. welcome to my world. :texasflag


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## Puddle_Jumper (Jun 30, 2014)

well again.. i loved your story but I have to admit... I did laugh...Awesome that your were on fish even though you had a parade following and all around you! I admire you for keeping your cool !!! Thanks again for sharing


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## Muddskipper (Dec 29, 2004)

I know taking pics of them and their boats to shame them HERE on 2Cool doesn't work

Sounds like you did the best thing - I hate it as well, especially on week days


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## beijingtexan (Nov 10, 2019)

A lifetime ago, my grandfather would gig a flounder and then stand there smoking a cigarette until the audience got bored and left. We all knew that no matter how full the cooler was the answer was â€œweâ€™re not seeing them here tonightâ€.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## Aggieangler (May 28, 2004)

LMAO...literally, at reading this. Especially the part where you thought, "You can't make this **** up!!!!"


You know...I had something similar happen, and I also didn't think anyone would believe it. I had 3 guys wade across a flat in South Bay to get to me, as I was catching redfish, after my trout limit (then 10), was on my stringer. The first guy that waded my way at least had the decency to walk behind me when he passed, but he was so **** close he had to step over my laden stringer. Then 2 other guys are coming on his tails, and finally, their buddy, barefoot, is pushing their flats boat all by himself into our knee deep water. He was about 6 foot 8, and wearing shorts, wading, in 28 degree weather.

We had a thread on here about it, as wading_fool and bevo34 were with me and took pics of it. I was utterly in shock at what they thought was OK to do. I'm looking back at wading_fool and bevo34, and they are laughing their butts off, as they already had their redfish limit done, so were waiting on my slow *** in the boat.


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## EastTexasRancher (Jun 21, 2019)

We had something similar happen to us down there on the barrier islands off Estes Flats last July. The trout bite had slowed, and we started throwing at gar rolling in the cut. We both hooked up and I noticed a boat idling in. I told my buddy to work the gar but keep them played out.

The crayon shirts were out of the boat and working toward us in a hurry. It was fun watching them fan out around us, then realize what we were hooked up on. They thought we had reds ....ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚


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## 4 Ever-Fish N (Jun 10, 2006)

pocjetty, that is a really a sad string of events you endured. Maybe more good fishermen should carry a GoPro to record and share just how stupid other people can be. You have a great attitude after dealing with idiots like this.


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## blackjack runner (Feb 24, 2015)

Great to see you posting again POC. I always enjoy your fishing insight. It is sad that we get in the water to get away from others, only to find yourself surrounded with what you were attempting to get away from. 

Great story and a friendly reminder of how to act like an adult when provoked by children.


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## ccketchum (Oct 18, 2010)

thanks for sharing . there's some good info in that post if you read it carefully . 
i guess it's the same everywhere as far as potlicking goes . the ones that really bother me are the ones that cruise by with their boats on half plane . i had a spot i lucked up on in gbay and caught a few fish . folks saw i was catching and here they come . that spot hasn't been vacated since . hope your spot doesn't suddenly get crowded . 
i do fight fish with my rod held down in the water . except when wading . seems to help .


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## pocjetty (Sep 12, 2014)

blackjack runner said:


> Great to see you posting again POC. I always enjoy your fishing insight. It is sad that we get in the water to get away from others, only to find yourself surrounded with what you were attempting to get away from.
> 
> Great story and a friendly reminder of how to act like an adult when provoked by children.


Heh. I'm not so sure whether I've matured, or just growing old.

Fred Gwynne (Herman Munster) said, "Sometimes I think there's a battle going on between light and dark, and the dark has one more spear." But the older I get the more I realize that the cretins aren't being hostile to me so much as they're just unaware of anyone but themselves. Yelling at them is as useful as going out in a field and yelling at cows. They just stare at you and keep chewing.

Today was one of those breathless warm fall mornings. Just beautiful. When the water is that still, and the water that clear, the fish are usually less active. That's how it was, but I still caught about a dozen, and had five that kept. The same sand eel jiggled across the bottom, over shell and shell/mud. Nothing remarkable, but I saw something really cool this afternoon.

I walked out on the rocks on Fulton Beach Road mid-afternoon. Like I said, it was calm, and the water was incredible clear green. There were bait fish everywhere, and schools of sheepshead moving around. It was fun just to watch. But the first hint of breeze from the cold front hit - and I mean just a whisper of breeze. I don't know if I looked up or what, because I don't have any memory of seeing any fish swimming away. But instantly the whole shoreline was just empty. Not a hint of life anywhere.

I'm assuming it was a pressure increase, but the amazing thing was that everything felt it at the same instant, and they reacted all at once like flipping a light switch. I have to think there were trout feasting in that mass exodus moment. It also made me wonder if it's always that instantaneous, or if that last big cold front has them on a hair trigger to get to deeper water. I've never had the chance before to observe it that way.


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## bigfishtx (Jul 17, 2007)

Your story is pretty much why I have quit fishing at the coast.


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## EastTexasRancher (Jun 21, 2019)

bigfishtx said:


> Your story is pretty much why I have quit fishing at the coast.


Well, Iâ€™m as guilty as anyone when it comes to complaining, then I saw someone last weekend stop, hook up, and go out of their way to tow someone back to a marina.

There are some jackwagons for sure, but then once in a while, humanity shines.


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## impulse (Mar 17, 2010)

Man, you guys would hate fishing salmon on the Russian River under combat conditions...

The OP's sounds like a genuine potlicking story, but I've also seen it go the other way. 

When someone stakes out the only fishable water within 5 miles, then gets all hacked off when someone else comes along- because that's the only place they can fish.

Or when someone happens to be closest to the only working flock of birds, then thinks that's their personal bonanza and everyone else can go pound sand.

Or "finds" a point that all the locals know about, not realizing that someone was there 5 minutes ago, and someone else is going to be there in 5 minutes, and 5 minutes behind that one. The locals know they have to share that spot. That's just part of fishing.

Or my personal favorite, when I'm slowly working a 500 yard bank and someone Evinrudes up 100 yards in front of me and gets all hacked off when I continue my slow drift right past them.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Sounds like some good experience to prepare for fishing below the Lake Livingston dam.
Come on up and get the final training session, lol!
I did literally laugh out loud at the post, good story, but I hope you find fishing peace.


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## pocjetty (Sep 12, 2014)

shadslinger said:


> Sounds like some good experience to prepare for fishing below the Lake Livingston dam.
> Come on up and get the final training session, lol!
> I did literally laugh out loud at the post, good story, but I hope you find fishing peace.


LOL. "Things aren't the way they used to be." People have been whining about that since there have been people. Things are never the way they used to be - I get that. I caught a lot of fish that day. If I hadn't been catching anything, nobody would have been following me. I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have been a real improvement. I'm doing okay with fishing peace.

But sometimes. Sometimes I just want to say, "Tell you what, buddy... you pick an area where you _don't_ want to fish, and I'll go there."

I would say that I've turned into an old curmudgeon, but the truth is I was a young curmudgeon too.


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## redfisharmy (Aug 1, 2004)

Unfortunately its not just the inexperienced. As I have gotten older I have started kayaking a lot more than wading. I love sight casting to reds in super shallow water. I normally head straight to the marsh, but when the wind is right I sometimes hit grassy bay shorelines that can hold a lot of fish. The past few times the exact same thing happened in the exact same place. After making sure there are no other boats fishing the shoreline, I anchor 100 yards from the shore, launch my kayak, and start paddling down the shoreline looking for fish. After about 15 min. I hear his boat; a guide with a flyrodder on the front of his poling skiff. He runs a few hundred yards past me, shuts down, then poles to the same shoreline, and starts poling in the same direction I am going. Anyone that wades, kayaks, or poles down a super shallow shoreline knows it is important to be the first one down that shore. I always see a lot more fish on the first pass than I do on my way back to the boat. I said a few comments to this guy, not yelling, but just loud enough that maybe he will get the hint. Then he turns his boat back in my direction, I think he has seen the error of his ways, and is going to go past me and fish in the other direction. I start paddling faster to get past him, then I realize he has turned because he has seen a fish. As I get close to him, he starts talking to me and points to a fish and offers me to cast to it. I ask him which direction he is going, and he points in the direction I am headed and said he is going to fish the entire shoreline. I kept my cool, I didn't say anything mainly because of his client, and I gave up and paddled back to my boat and headed to the marsh. He won that day. As mentioned, this guide has done this to me on numerous occasions. I guess he feels like he owns the shoreline because he is a guide and has a paying customer up front. I know guys in poling skiffs, and especially tower boats, do not have respect for kayakers, but we have just a much right to be there and I NEVER pull ahead of someone working down a shoreline. I wish they would give me the same respect. If he does this again I am going to take some photos of this guy and make him famous.


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## karstopo (Jun 29, 2009)

redfisharmy said:


> Unfortunately its not just the inexperienced. As I have gotten older I have started kayaking a lot more than wading. I love sight casting to reds in super shallow water. I normally head straight to the marsh, but when the wind is right I sometimes hit grassy bay shorelines that can hold a lot of fish. The past few times the exact same thing happened in the exact same place. After making sure there are no other boats fishing the shoreline, I anchor 100 yards from the shore, launch my kayak, and start paddling down the shoreline looking for fish. After about 15 min. I hear his boat; a guide with a flyrodder on the front of his poling skiff. *He runs a few hundred yards past me*, shuts down, then poles to the same shoreline, and starts poling in the same direction I am going. Anyone that wades, kayaks, or poles down a super shallow shoreline knows it is important to be the first one down that shore. I always see a lot more fish on the first pass than I do on my way back to the boat. I said a few comments to this guy, not yelling, but just loud enough that maybe he will get the hint. Then he turns his boat back in my direction, I think he has seen the error of his ways, and is going to go past me and fish in the other direction. I start paddling faster to get past him, then I realize he has turned because he has seen a fish. As I get close to him, he starts talking to me and points to a fish and offers me to cast to it. I ask him which direction he is going, and he points in the direction I am headed and said he is going to fish the entire shoreline. I kept my cool, I didn't say anything mainly because of his client, and I gave up and paddled back to my boat and headed to the marsh. He won that day. As mentioned, this guide has done this to me on numerous occasions. *I guess he feels like he owns the shoreline because he is a guide and has a paying customer up front.* I know guys in poling skiffs, and especially tower boats, do not have respect for kayakers, but we have just a much right to be there and I NEVER pull ahead of someone working down a shoreline. I wish they would give me the same respect. If he does this again I am going to take some photos of this guy and make him famous.


Who exactly feels like he owns the shoreline?


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## jfarar (May 17, 2010)

Great story, POC Jetty! Thanks for sharing!


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## barronj (Sep 30, 2013)

pocjetty threads are always a good read. Thanks for the entertainment, had to study the stringer to see if it was in fact a stringer, or perhaps a lamp cord that had to stand in for the day.
I bet you don't have 5 hours on that boat you bought, since you bought it, and 4 of those probably came on the hose in the driveway just to keep the fuel moving through the system :^)


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## c hook (Jul 6, 2016)

*right*



shadslinger said:


> Sounds like some good experience to prepare for fishing below the Lake Livingston dam.
> Come on up and get the final training session, lol!
> I did literally laugh out loud at the post, good story, but I hope you find fishing peace.


about 79/80 time frame I used to load the jon boat in the back of my single cab dodge tk short bed stepside, 9.9 johnson against cab in jon boat, and head to the dam. white bass city. it was a zoo then, boat to boat and elbow to elbow, I couldn't imagine now.



pocjetty said:


> LOL. "Things aren't the way they used to be." People have been whining about that since there have been people. Things are never the way they used to be - I get that. I caught a lot of fish that day. If I hadn't been catching anything, nobody would have been following me. I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have been a real improvement. I'm doing okay with fishing peace.
> 
> But sometimes. Sometimes I just want to say, "Tell you what, buddy... you pick an area where you _don't_ want to fish, and I'll go there."
> 
> I would say that I've turned into an old curmudgeon, but the truth is I was a young curmudgeon too.


it's tough to get away from the crowds, the new thing is 10 story high rise tower with 400 HP(mach 4) with nascar bucket seats and seat belt, burner bars, neon lights, 2k on stereo alone. it's gotten pretty crazy out there. we live in different times, all you can do is shake your head, realize how lost in life they are and fish on. keep it in perspective, and hope one day they wake up. :texasflag


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## Drundel (Feb 6, 2006)

Same in the surf. I was fishing a while back with john_b, he was throwing croaker and the rest of us were plastics. I was fishing with him so next to him. He was catching them as soon as the croaker hit the water, I'm not a bad fisherman and I wasn't catching a fish. Yet everyone who could see him started working their way to us.

Was funny to watch them try to cast where we were and give up after 15 or so min without a bite.


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## EastTexasRancher (Jun 21, 2019)

An acquaintance has a 22 year old son that recently financed new boat that he says went $117K with all the bells and whistles. Heâ€™s an hourly guy at a chemical plant. The note is over $950, and he tows it with a financed 2019 F250 Lariat. 

But, I think this guy lives vicariously thru his â€œstudâ€ kid.

Iâ€™d beat my son with a stick if he did something like that. Twice.

Sorry for derailing the thread.


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## Moochy (Sep 13, 2014)

barronj said:


> pocjetty threads are always a good read. Thanks for the entertainment, had to study the stringer to see if it was in fact a stringer, or perhaps a lamp cord that had to stand in for the day.
> I bet you don't have 5 hours on that boat you bought, since you bought it, and 4 of those probably came on the hose in the driveway just to keep the fuel moving through the system :^)


I laughed at this thinking the same thing and then I looked out at my boat doing the same thing, sitting.&#128543;


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## c hook (Jul 6, 2016)

*right*



EastTexasRancher said:


> An acquaintance has a 22 year old son that recently financed new boat that he says went $117K with all the bells and whistles. Heâ€™s an hourly guy at a chemical plant. The note is over $950, and he tows it with a financed 2019 F250 Lariat.
> 
> But, I think this guy lives vicariously thru his â€œstudâ€ kid.
> 
> ...


at 22 he really doesn't care, young, living at home and enjoying life. hopefully as he gets a little older he'll wise up. if his tk note is 650+950=$1,600.00 and he makes $3,000.00/month, he still has $1,400.00 left over to play with. :rotfl::texasflag


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## WillieT (Aug 25, 2010)

EastTexasRancher said:


> An acquaintance has a 22 year old son that recently financed new boat that he says went $117K with all the bells and whistles. Heâ€™s an hourly guy at a chemical plant. The note is over $950, and he tows it with a financed 2019 F250 Lariat.
> 
> But, I think this guy lives vicariously thru his â€œstudâ€ kid.
> 
> ...


Someone might get a great deal on a lightly used boat and truck in the near future.


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## c hook (Jul 6, 2016)

*lmao*



pocjetty said:


> First, I've just been crushing the trout the last few days. Smaller 13"-15" dinks have been so think they've just been a nuisance. But I've also stumbled up on some groups of really nice fish. I was using a suspending MiroLure, white with silver flash. Once I got the retrieve pattern worked out, it was non-stop action. I caught my limit and released a lot of fish, and moved to scout around a bit. At the next spot, I caught a few fish with the same retrieve, but it was pretty slow. I almost left, but decided to put on a 3/8 oz. jig head and a Norton Sand Eel (that manila envelope color I love), and things just went haywire. Let it fall all the way to the bottom, then give a series of really tiny bumps - just enough to get it off the bottom and moving. Repeat. Give it the occasional slightly bigger twitch. It was nice fish after nice fish, until I literally got tired of catching fish.
> 
> We've all had our share of potlickers. But these last few days there have been a lot of people who appear to be doing nothing but running around looking for someone with a bent pole. They pull up too close, slam a few things around, toss out the big anchor and start slinging the live shrimp under a cork. (We've all seen it.) I've just been wading down the shoreline and turning my back on them. Mostly they aren't catching much, even on live shrimp, and after a while they crank up and leave.
> 
> ...


in an effort to avoid such a senario, can you post up GPS coordinates. i want to avoid this area. :rotfl::texasflag


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## redfisharmy (Aug 1, 2004)

karstopo said:


> Who exactly feels like he owns the shoreline?


Well, I was taught that you do not pull-up on a shoreline with someone there and fish in front of them. That's just me I guess.


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