Fishing and then suddenly a babysitter?!

Yeah, quite a bit in urban areas. I've had kids go swimming in the hole I was fishing.

I had some little whippersnapper come up to me when I was fishing for redhorse on a sunny afternoon for the contest last week who thought doing the limbo under my fishing lines would be fun... He then proceded to tell me his dad had caught much bigger fish then I ever would.... Next when I was reeling in a really nice shorthead the young lad told me that my fish was wierd and gross and that it was "not a bass." Moments later iIwas reeling in a drum who the young man identified as a "HUGE BLUEGIL" ....yup it was time to leave. 

Just happened to me the other night. I was fishing on our beach's pier on Erie when a clearly drunk (yet pretty polite) guy dumps off his kids and goes back to his cottage to (l assume) keep drinking. They had no idea what they were doing (probably around 7-8 and 12-13 years old) so I offered to help them. They didn't have bait, only lures, so I put a crankbait on one of their rods and a jerkbait on the other. While the younger kid kept snagging the jerkbaits in his pants which I had to clip out several times until finally he quit, the older one kept claiming to have a fish, feeling the pull of the crankbait. They left in about 30 minutes and only fished for the first 10 or so, then proceeded to throw rocks in the water right next to the pier in the area I was casting. Some parents they had...

When I saw this thread I knew it was going to be a good one! I've got so many good/bad stories about run ins with children, dogs, drunks while fishing. Anybody ever get surrounded by a pack of overly friendly very large wet dogs? Or have a drunken man wearing ill fitting flip flops fall into your net? Or have a jackass gondola opperator take our your fishing all your fishing lines with one fell swoop?? (the last one happened to me on multiple occasions) 

Actually, I was fishing a golf course pond this morning when a guy and his black lab came walking by. The dog jumped in the lake and retrieved my bobber, which had the hook very close underneath. The dog gave up the bobber to the man, and miraculously did not hook himself. But the stupid dog did manage to tangle my lines all around himself, causing me to lose valuable fishing time before work, untangling the knots. Dogs...

Yep, I think we've all had some type of run-ins with kids and dogs.  But the ones I remember most vividly are the very positive encounters, like this one. A couple of young kids sharing a beat up old rod and reel moved in close to me when fishing from the shoreline on Yellowstone Lake.  I was immediately annoyed having anyone step in that close, but I let it slide since there was very little fishable shoreline at this particular access location.  It turned out that they were very quiet and extremely polite, even calling me sir a couple times.  I ended up hooking and landing a 5 pound cutthroat, snapped a couple quick photos, and gently released her.  After watching that awesome fish swim away into the clear water, I looked over at those 2 kids who had been completely silent during the entire thing to see them both standing there with their jaws almost hitting the ground.  I think they were most surprised that I let it go.  But they still didn't say anything until I said something first. I don't remember what I said, but they quickly broke into a bunch of questions, mostly about my line and lure that I was using, still being as polite as they could be.  Being impressed with their social skills, and fairly good grasp of fishing, I helped them out for a short while, then left them with the lure I was using. I can still remember the looks on their faces of pure excitement and gratitude when I gave them the lure.  That alone was worth all the rock throwing, tangled lines, splashing, and whatnot during countless other encounters.

Well, I have "babysitter stories" but this one just happened tonight so I'll share it. I bought a new 8 1/2 foot baitcaster (hey, it was on sale) and wanted to try it out so I went to the lake by my house. I haven't been able to fish for two weeks because of a bad car crash and then a nasty back injury, so I was happy to just be out there on the water as the sun went down. But I couldn't cast for crap. I don't know if it's me or the reel I bought, or the line. Five minutes in this guy walks up to me, asking if there are any fish in this lake. He says he just stopped because he wanted to let his car cool off and to let his pet parakeet out. He's wearing a black T-shirt and jeans and smoking a marlboro really close to me. I say "Hi", make some small talk, he says he'd never swim in a lake like this, he has been in Puerto Rico for 17 years and only swims in the ocean. He talks continuously for the next 30 minutes. This is what he said.

• He built all of the Toys-R-Us stores in Puerto Rico.
• He owns a million-dollar estate in Puerto Rico.
• The Puerto Rico estate has three big houses and three big garages with apartments above the garages.
• His mom fell and broke her hip.
• He only swims in lakes where the water is so clear you can see 30 feet down, right to the bottom. Like his family cabin up north.
• This is a darkwater lake. See how the water is dark? You shouldn't swim in a darkwater lake. It's got swimmer's itch, from all the people pissing in it.
• All women are crazy, even his mom, but he loves her anyway.
• He's never been married.
• The problem with Global Warming is not CO2, it's SO2 - Sulphur Dioxin.
• He has invented a "snake smokestack" that goes up and down and up again instead of straight up. This will eliminate all sulphur dioxin emissions but the white house will not listen to him.
• He's a marine biologist.
• He has determined that the problem with God's Waterworld is that all the sulphur dioxin is killing the brain corals.
• He likes to snorkle in the clear waters of Puerto Rico and look at the fish and the corals.
• He is going to win a 7 million dollar lawsuit against Delta Airlines.
• The lawsuit is because he was on a Delta Flight with his service parakeet and a woman screamed that he was winking at her.
• Yes, his parakeet is a service animal. He didn't say why he needed a service animal. I should've asked.
• I'm with OSHA (gets out his wallet and shows me his OSHA card).
• The woman who he says he winked at her called the cops and the airport security accosted him and his parakeet when he exited the plane, with guns drawn.
• He was just standing there with his parakeet cage and a bunch of cops were pointing their guns at him.
• The airport security took him into a room, talked to him for 20 minutes, and released him.
• His $7 million lawsuit against Delta Airlines is for "unlawful imprisonment" for the 20 minutes he and his parakeet were detained.
• God's Waterworld is just going to hell and it's going to be destroyed unless people start listening to him.
• He could've prevented the Fukishima Disaster in Japan because he is a nuclear physicist.
• He said the backup generators at Fukushima should've been built on higher ground.
• Once the tsunami flooded the backup Generators, where were they? WHERE WERE THEY!?!?! (I said I didn't know, he said "Underwater, that's where they were!")
• This is Physics 101. I'm a physicist.
• He said he personally helped the Japanese rebuild the Fukushima reactors with Titanium Concrete.
• The Fukishima disaster released all kinds of Cesium-113 and Plutonium.
• The Cesium and Plutonium are killing all the brain corals.
• The Chernobyl meltdown happened because they weren't using Titanium Concrete.
• The radioactive material from Chernobyl melts 1 mile down into the earth per year.
• I'm with OSHA (gets out his wallet and shows me his OSHA card again).
• That kid that got killed by an alligator, did you hear about that?
• He may have actually winked at the woman on the plane, but even so, it's not illegal to wink at people.
• Winking at a person is no reason to call the cops.
• Women are crazy. They don't listen to you and they call the cops for no reason.
• He goes to Puerto Rico all the time, to stay in his million-dollar estate, built with the Toys-R-Us money. But since his mom broke her hip, he's had to stay in Brooklyn Park.
• Oh my god did you see that huge snapping turtle!?! Its head was a foot wide!
• I get letters from the white house all the time.
• There are mosquitos all around you. You're going to catch the Zika Virus.
• It's much warmer in Puerto Rico.
• Being a marine biologist, I have determined that the reason the oceans are warming is because when the Sulphur Dioxin gets into the seawater, the brain corals turn grey and they make the water warmer.
• My inventions can stop Global Warming and save God's Waterworld.
• Hey! Something just hit your topwater bait. Probably a crappie.
• I really have to go. My parakeet is probably wondering where I am. (he walked away and then came back)
• I was good friends with Jesse Ventura in the 80's. Back when he was a wrestler.
• Jesse Ventura is who made the cops let me go at the airport.
• Jesse Ventura knows all about the aliens under the sea.
• Once we put my snake-smokestacks on all the power plants, Global Warming will stop.
• The snake smokestacks have sprayers in them that remove the sulphur dioxin and all that comes out the end of them is steam.
• Nobody listens to me, no matter how many letters I write.
• Once I get my lawsuit money, I'm going to build new powerplants and save God's Waterworld.
• I really have to go. My service parakeet is probably worried because it's getting dark.
• There are a lot of mosquitoes. I can see them all around you. You're going to catch the Zika Virus. I'm leaving. (he walked all the way back to his car - an old maroon station wagon, and then came back a bit, and kinda shouted the rest from about 50 feet away)
• I know about the secret base on Mars.
• NASA is just a front. There are 314 million extraterrestrial entities living here.
• The entities live in the ocean around Puerto Rico. They are like brain corals.
• There's another base on the moon.
• The 314 million space entities also want to save God's Waterworld.
• Seriously, these mosquitoes are terrible.
• Good luck, hope you catch something (He leaves, puts a cage in his car, and drives off).

This seriously just happened tonight. The whole time I was just casting a hula-popper and picking out backlashes constantly.

Lol.

That's all I have to say.

LMAO boss!  That sounds like a big part of my customers at our bar, now there are no stupid questions but a ton of inquisitive idiots!  Haha  So take conspiracy guy and throw about 5-6 beers in him and it's game on!!  I can't believe some of the crazy shit people come up with, I just look at them in awe, thinking "how the hell did you survive to be old enough to drink?"

Anyway, I'm really hoping we can hit one of the roundups some time would love to meet you guys, and you can meet the reason I found this site, "Dennis the Menace" aka FishingPals4Life.  I swear the kid is running for politics where ever we go by the time we leave everyone knows who  he is and he knows them all by their first names, they know why he's there, what he's using for bait, what they're using, if they want fish that he catches, etc. etc. etc.  Whenever we hit a new spot his famous phrase is "We need to talk to the locals", the kid watches way to much River Monsters.  I told him one time, why do you watch that, the dude is kind of a dork, his response, "yeah, but he knows  a lot of stuff!" Absorbs it like a sponge, got me there shorty!  I do keep him on a short leash though, no babysitters but me, I know how annoying it is to play the question game when all you want to do is relax by the water for a bit.

Anyway, these last few years have been the most exciting, humbling, educational, and fun I've had fishing in my life, thanks for the great site and warehouse of info with great peeps willing to share it!!

Some people are nuts. Hope he and his Parakeet get that $7 Million soon.

Nice stories.  People are so full of it sometimes.  My best kid's story happened last summer.  My wife had a job in Red Wing, so I got to fish there quite a bit.  A group of kids would ride their bikes down to the river and fish.  They caught, and kept, a clearly illegally sized bass.  They also asked me all kinds of questions, esp. once I started catching fishs.  When I caught a 30 inch carp, they asked if they could keep it.  I asked them if they were sure that their parents would want to eat it.  They said "yes."  So, I gave them the carp.  The parents (or adults, at least), showed up in a beat up old, tiny pickup a short while later.  They threw the kids' bikes in the back, everyone piled in the front seats (maybe 7 people total?).  The kid put the carp in his backpack and they all drove off. 

I just watched and chuckled, hoping that the backpack was not the one he used for school and wondering how the parents would react when he gave them the big carp.

Man, you're patient Corey. I can't stand it when strangers try to talk to me while I'm fishing. I usually (politely) make my escape as soon as possible. That guy would've drove me nuts.

Sulphur Dioxin....oh what a gem! 

That poor flight attendant. I can't imagine what he was actually doing to her......

Some people are dumb. And they're breeding. I had a group of 6 or 7 year-olds show up and start throwing rocks into the water right next to me. A woman (who I assume was the mother) showed up shortly after, herself picked up a rock and thew it.

What I wanted to say was are you fucking retarded?! What I actually said was tell your kids to not throw rocks next to me, please. She responded with a troglodytic look common to French cityots, gathered up her whelps and walked off.

Had my parents seen me throwing rocks next to a fisherman, I would have been quickly reprimanded. In that woman's mind, I was in the wrong.   

Damn, Corey, you're a good listener.

How on earth did you remember all of that?

I've fished in very public places this entire summer and I've had some interesting things happen. I had a guy pull up right next to me and get out followed by two very large blacks labs, he continued on to throw a bone in the water seemingly right at my line, followed by both of the dogs, he then had the nerve to ask me to move so I didn't hook one of his dogs. It was time to leave that spot for a day. Another time I was carp fishing near a pool and had 7 or 8 3rd-4th grade kids come up to me and tell me call me all types of demeaning names and tell me that they caught lots of big fish with there grandpa/dad one time. Yet another time I was fishing for panfish at a public pond and there were these three kids with there parents who at the very oldest were 7, and they were trying to fish on there own while there parents made out on the pier, one then started going through my tackle to which I said aloud, "Excuse me." quite loudly. This seemed to bring the parents out of their lover's haze and take care of there children. Fishing in public sure is always and adventure.