Great Weekend! A lot of Crabby People!

[LundAngler]

I had a great opening weekend spent with my dad and my 8 year old son. The fishing was pretty good, the weather was pretty good, and the company was great! The boat traffic, on the other hand, was nuts! What I don't understand, is how we can have so many nice people on this chat board, and so many grumpy people out on the water. I waved to several people on Saturday (and they were looking right at me) and never waved back. Just about everybody I saw looked so serious, and there were very few smiles. As I was watching some of these people, I was thinking to myself, "you are out fishing on opening day....you should be having a blast...and you look like you're at a funeral." I wish we had a better way to identify the many decent people on this website out on the water...maybe we need a boat decal!

Jeff

P.S. Don P, It was great to see you out on the water again!

[the other andy]

Blue is easy to spot, we saw him fishing next to our campsite Friday. Our boat was all smiles but we didn't have much love for strangers when we're fishing a flat that's a couple square miles and boats are pulling up to within 50' of our boat whenever a fish was caught. I understand I don't own any water but have a little respect for my drift, eh?
Hotspotters piss me off. Use a map and locater and lure to find active fish, not binoculars.
Other than that and the weather it was an awesome weekend. The eyes were stuffed with larva, I'm guessing mayflys?

[George G]

While I really love the TFF, not on opening weekend. I have been up their and I have found that almost half of the people are rude, not friendly, wave Hi, forget it, pass your boat 75 feet a way at high speed , typical. Just very sad to say the least. I won't due opening weekend at all anymore. Reminds me of Pewaukee Lake every summer weekend. Nuts on the water. Not sure if they were flatlanders but when I did come up for opening weekend on 51, you would think their was no speed limit, none of their signals work, mostly Illinois plates, just terrible. We will be up for Memorial day week , as in the past and this seems to work out fine. Still enough nuts on the weekends but nice after that. Still a great place to enjoy your time with friends and a great Fish Fry at the Midway. Have fun everyone and respect the other person please. It is only a fish, not a gold rush. thanks. Help some one if they need it. Better than fishing to say the least.

[ChrisS]

LOL.....I just keep fishing and forget about it. I try to wave to everyone but sometimes I get a little side tracked. There was a lot of running and gunning on the opener. I saw most people rap'n shorelines.

Had one guy that his main outboard most of died on him and he was using his kicker.........but just because you have problems does not mean you can break the law and come with in 50ft with your 15 horse wide open kicking a wake like no tomorrow...............we just caught more fish while we listened to you go all the way back to the landing. :D ....for ever!

[BlueRanger]

Saturday morning, I had a pair of guys who looked old enough to know better motor between me and the shoreline I was casting to - they drove through all of 18" of water to do it. Didn't spoil my day or prevent me from having my limit of walleyes in the livewell by 9 AM, but I had thoughts of turning the boat around, trimming up the big motor and giving them a soak. At least they didn't have kids with them - nothing like cultivating future you-know-whats. But it wasn't the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last.

[FraudDog]

We will be up for the summer in the first week of June.... and I will wave to everyone I see. Will be fishing out of a 20 foot green/white pontoon with a 50 merc on the back-- If I look like I have no clue where I am going or what I am doing, it is because both of these things are true. I will promise to never intentionally disturb anyone's time on the water. We are looking forward to doing some freshwater fishing now that it is in the mid to upper 80's here in FL.

I remember the opening day in WI years ago (when they used to stock trout in roadside creeks around Wittenberg and other places)... it was wall to wall crazys and no fun. Now that I am older and recently retired I look forward to relaxing fishing - catching is always a plus, but the fishing is the best part!

You all have fun, be safe,and hopefully you'll leave some of those good eating walleyes and panfish for us.

[George]

I am always amazed at how inconsiderate of others some people are. Are they really that rude or are they just clueless? Here they are, in one the most beautiful places on the planet; why treat it like it's the Kennedy Expressway? Enjoy being out on the TFF. Have fun driving your boat. Enjoy being with people who love the TFF and fishing just as much as you do. When somebody waves at you...wave back. How hard is this anyway? If you have the good fortune to come in with something in the livewell, that's just more icing on the cake. Unfortunately those folks will never read what we've all said here. So I guess I'm just preaching to the choir. But at least I feel better! :o Glad to hear you guys had a good time and everybody got back safe.

[BlueSprint07]

I just thought I would sprinkle some relativity on this subject along with some sunshine. I have been enjoying the Turtle now for what will be my ninth year. First every trip was late August in 2003. Since then I started an annual spring camping/fishing weekend mid May every year. We struggled immensely from that first trip until the third year. Slowly but surely we learned and adapted and now we can just about call our shots. Until last year when we were humbled by the cold front and winds. Made me realize the TFF still has some tricks up its sleeves. In the end we worked hard to find some good new stuff and were still able to enjoy 1 nice fish dinner and a few fat bass on camera.

I have found the majority of people on the flowage to be quite hostpitable. Yea you get a few cranksters for whatever the reason is, but I've met some of you guys and found you to be top notch. Especially after doing tournaments since about the same time stretch, now there are some guys who won't give you the time of day. On the relative part, I was on High Falls on the opener near Crivitz. Try draining 13,000 acres of the Turtle and keeping the same boats and creating a nascar track on the water. We saw so many near accidents and 1 in particular where two boats almost looked to be rubbing is racing and then split to go around an anchored boat pan fishing. The inside boat was some guy with his kid hanging onto the front seat for dear life. I get up to the point where he cut dangerously close to shore and find HUGE rocks just a few feet on the surface. Where is the warden when these situations occur? Would have liked to run into him at the landing.

Anyway I will be up the 15-19 and have a similar looking bass rig as Mr. Ranger, only it's not shiny unless he buffs it for me. I also don't have a gps in my head yet so I go a lot slower watching the graph and zig zagging with the river channel. I keep the cooler well stocked and I am all for sharing what is workin just don't cut in front of me on my shoreline! ;-)

See you guys next week, can't wait,

[Nitroboats]

Saturday morning, I had a pair of guys who looked old enough to know better motor between me and the shoreline I was casting to - they drove through all of 18" of water to do it. Didn't spoil my day or prevent me from having my limit of walleyes in the livewell by 9 AM, but I had thoughts of turning the boat around, trimming up the big motor and giving them a soak. At least they didn't have kids with them - nothing like cultivating future you-know-whats. But it wasn't the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last.

Yeah Blue.....Those are the times I wish torpedo tubes were an option on Rangers. lol

[dinged prop]

Several years ago a friend and I came to our campsite for lunch. My little 14 ft boat was pulled up to the beach when this under powered large boat passed within about 25 ft. behind it, filling it with water over the stern. Dennis with the DNR had warned us of this huge stump, which we had already found by snagging it while fishing. As these guys went by I said to my friend I hope they hit that #### stump and right as I said it there was a huge bang and the motor flew in the air. They slowed way down after that. So there is justice now and then Blue.

[St Croix Kid]

it's funny. I have fished with 3 guys up there who have spent many years fishing the flowage. almost never have i seen them run WOT. I have never run WOT up there either except when well past the dam and down in Bastine. . it's amazing to watch people race across that water and most of them don't know where they are going

[mkoeh475]

Craziest thing I ever saw were some kids running wide open from the Hideaway down to Long Island at about 2:30 in the morning. Still amazed they never hit anything.

[FlambeauFisher]

Sad, but this is PRECISELY why I skip opening weekend. The weekend after opener is always more pleasant. I too have had experiences on the Flambeau and elswhere where sportsmen didn't act like sportsmen. I guess we'll always have that to some extent. I do like the idea of a boat decal or something of that sort where fellow list members can identify each other and meet.

Good luck to all and see you on Memorial Day weekend.

Rich P
Sheboygan, WI