So I’m on my dock on the upper Wando and I see a boat with 2 teenage boys pull up to my neighbor’s dock (2 over) and tie off like they own it. I figured they had permission so I just keep an eye on them as my neighbor keeps a lot of property on his dock. They are walking around the floater sticking their rods under the pierhead fishing the pilings. They fish for about 20 mins when my neighbor’s college-aged kids come running down the dock shouting at them. The kids start scurrying about, throwing stuff in their boat as fast as they could. They leave a tangle of mono on the dock and cast off right before the neighbor’s kids can reach them. They get about 20 ft from the dock then beep their horn and laugh at my neighbors. Beep their horn again, do a doughnut and take off for the far side of river then sit there drifting.
I had my boat in the water ready to go and found myself in a dilemma. What would you all do?
Hard question, since trying to stop them out on the water could be risky to both yourself and them. I guess I’d hope their registration number was visible and take a picture and see about reporting it
Not what I would call poaching. If all they were doing was fishing and not bothering his property I would say let them be . They sure could be doing something worse than that. Just my opinion though.
Tough call. If you know your neighbors didnt like people using their dock maybe you should have said something when they were on their dock or maybe said hey do you guys have permission to use Bobs dock? If they became smart butts at that point maybe then you snap a few pictures and get with your neighbor and see how he wants to handle it. But at no point would I confront them in a boat on the water. Just way to many things could go wrong.
I’d let your neighbor handle it. If they get on your dock you handle it. I was thinking this would be a thread about someone keeping oversized fish when I clicked it.
Doesn’t really sound like poaching or stealing. I wouldn’t do anything, myself. Keep an eye on them and maybe take a picture just for documentation of the dastardly deed.
Good points on the “poaching” I edited the subject to “Pesky”. I called it poaching because I likened it to someone hunting on someone else’s private property as they were all over the neighbors dock.
So a little while later I took my family on a trip to the Harbor and saw the same two tying off their boat to another dock about a mile away. I went over and told them if I saw them trespassing again I will call the police. Then the lies started, they "knew them from school (despite 6-8 year age difference), had permission (but couldn’t remember the owner’s names), etc. I repeated myself and left.
I’m typically not too uptight, I let my other neighbors without water access on my dock whenever they want. I’ve seen curious people even walk out there from the street and as long as they come back empty handed I don’t say anything.
These kids had an attitude and the neighbors were upset so I figured I’d say something to them. Thanks for the ■■■■■■■■ on what you guys would have done.
Let it ride…as long as they are not destroying or stealing anything. They are just being kids and probably won’t be back on that dock unless they know they kids that live there.
That’s kinda funny because something similar just happened on my families dock. But my father is anything but a shy man and knows the DNR around here quite well.
2 kids (low 20’s) in a Jon boat tied up to our floating dock and start fishing. Dad considers calling DNR but instead decides to walk down there to give them a cussing. Once he’s halfway down the dock DRN pulls up. The captain left with a ticket for fishing with no license and trespassing.
For those of you who own waterfront property, what’s your main concern with boats tying up to your dock? Theft? Liability issues (resulting from someone getting hurt)? Or do you just prefer people not do it? I’ve never seen the big deal if the people are showing respect; that being said, I’d never do it without permission, as that’s how I was raised. Just curious.
“I’m not a hundred percent in love with your tone right now…”