My summer is a bit wonky with work and my fishing opportunities will be very limited so I spent the past week and bit fishing as many different lakes as I could. I wanted to share a few experiences I witnessed. First the good, pretty much every store I stopped in was busy and several people were just getting into fishing including several kids super excited about receiving their first rod. People are starting to pick up the sport and that is great. But that leads me to the real purpose of this post.
Respect and Decency!
This rant doesn't really affect me as I have a boat but lots of people don't. That is why I am very glad the FFSBC has, and continues to, build fishing docks around the province. But what I witnessed was truly disheartening. At one lake, a group was having a BBQ at a picnic table along the trail to one of these docks. That is totally fine, except they had placed a large tent (not a sun shelter but a full 6 person? tent) right in the middle of the trail down to the dock. I wonder why the dock was empty while people fished from the trees. At another I saw an SUV was parked in the middle of the driveway blocking access to the fishing dock parking lot. I initially thought it was just placed there for easier unloading because the parking lot was on the other side of the dock ramp but nope, stayed there the whole time I was fishing. In both of these though, if a person wanted to they could walk around the obstacle and still fish from the dock. What I witnessed most though was small groups of people hogging the whole dock. On two occasions I saw groups with one side of the dock filled with camp chairs, coolers, a sun shade, you name it, all unused while they stood on the otherside with their rods out taking up the entire dock. And even though I think that was bad I can maybe give them the benefit of the doubt and say they just moved their rods over. The worst I saw was a small group of three that had deliberately placed rods in every single rod holder all around the dock. I mean true, I did not see them place the rods but they were the only group around and I have never seen anyone in BC use 8' heavy rods with 3" red and white bobbers clipped to them as backups for trout.
The standard "T" shaped dock, depending on group size, should be able to accommodate 3 groups comfortably; one on each side with one in the middle. Some of the bigger docks may allow more but unless your group is huge it should never be less. Further, these docks should be able to be accessed with minimum effort; I acknowledge that not every one is going to be accessible to people with mobility issues but people shouldn't have to create a new trail to get to it either. Fishing appears to be a growing sport in this province and that could be a great thing but only if people stick with it. Show respect, have decency and everyone will have a great time.
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Topic: 2023 Interior Lake Season Reports and Updates (Read 8961 times)