Out of Control Fisherman- GEIST RESERVOIR INDIANAP

Alright guys so i drove back from purdue last night to enjoy 2 hours on the lake since everyone keeps calling me telling me how nice the water is this time of the year. About 25 minutes into my set i fall, and to my surprise i am being yelled at by a fisherman over on the bank. I could not exactly hear him because this guy was like 100 yards away and im sitting in the water so i am yelling back at him that i cant hear him. He keeps going on about how he is frustrated..... so i tell him he better just shut up. At any rate our argument escalates and he feels the need to come over to my boat. He then explains that even though we were not doing anything illegal, he thinks he has a right to say something to me because " his 1000$ trolling motor hit bottom due to our wake because he was in less than 2 feet of water." I am sorry but that does not seem to be my problem. Any way so by this time there is another boat watching and a few residents living on the lake are watching the situation. After much arguing we start idleing away and he does as well. I am still standing on the platform because my binding laces are knotted and i couldnt get them off.. This guy decides to turn around and come straight for the back of my boat doing at least 35 mph and sprays my whole boat down. Not only that but his boat was within 10 feet of my platform and the wall of water hit my so hard it knocked me over into the boat. This seriously scared the stuff out of me. He also continued to threaten vandalizing my boat. (this is the second fisherman to threaten vandalization this year). This guy was in a ranger bassboat i believe- he was part of the tournement and was wearing clothing with goodyear stamps on it as well as his boat had a few goodyear stickers on it.
At any rate after the guy almost killed me one resident called 911 from the bank, another boat came up to me and gave me their telephone numbers and said call if i need anything. This guy just took off and left after he sprayed us. At any rate my whole point of this story is NOMATTER WHAT IS SAID- there is nothing that can call for such behavior. He put myself, my little brother and two friends at serious risk and could have killed us. When i called 911 dispatch had already gotten 2 other calls from people that were not in my boat. Lets make it clear i have no issue sharing the lake with anyone and am not out to get the fishing competition shut down by any means. But i will be going to any means possible to make everyone know who the hell this guy is and set an example out of him so that these guys realize they cant just yell at every wakeboard boat that goes by. So i am here to ask you guys for help. I am attempting to get every possible wakeboard boat out on geist next tuesday night. This is the second time i have had an incident of this type this summer, the last time my buddy was ran over by an angry boater and his jet ski sunk. (the guy ran as well and he was a resident on the lake) We need everyones help we are not going to say anything to anyone or start anything... just ride nonstop and surf.... we want waves and legally of course I plan on crowding this damn lake until someone from the tournament gets the point and can say something to these guys. I called the person in charge of the fishing tournament and he was not even there last night! He jsut shrugged it off and said "oh ya i'll mention it to the guys next week." Help me out im trying to make a point here! Thanks- Matt Crowe


P.S. On the other hand i had an outstanding set for not having ridden in three weeks haha DNR is also going after the guy because we got his REgistration numbers... but im not really letting this go this time.

Hope your "plan" doesn't backfire and have a negative reaction, such as having the lake no wake during fishing comps or certain times of the day.

Did the cops find him? I would have left the police out of that one. Why didn't you go find him? This is clearly a situation that should have been solved by swift and blinding violence.

DNR is planning to fine him they already called me and will be going to talk with him soon. haha trust me the lake would not become an idle zone on fishing comp days.... too many residents on this lake to have that happen. all i know is this guy is getting it one way or another... i guess it hit a little closer to home when it was actually me on the platform not able to get out of my boots thinking he may slide into us....nothing like seeing the underside of a boat coming at you

matt your best action would be to take his reg numbers and report him to the police and demand that you want to press charges. the witnesses on land will make this a winning case. please dont go thru with your plan for tues as you will be punishing every fisherman out there for one idiots actions. I hate to say it but as boaters if we dont all learn to band together the laws are going to take it away from all of us.

Be careful with this Matt, depending on the way the law is read, you can be held responsible for the damage your wake causes. One of my buddies got sued for destrying peoples shoreline on my home lake in Florida (Luckly it was solved by talking to the people). Just a warning before you get too deep into this...

"he is frustrated..... so i tell him he better just shut up"

LOL nice.

Why even argue with the dude in the first place? Why not ask if moving out another hundred feet could appease the both of you and walk away on good terms?

You sound like one of the dbag riders that give us all a bad name.

(Message edited by Stanfield on September 24, 2008)

well hopefully DNR will have something going before tuesday.... its funny my friend got ran over on a jet ski this summer the guy put a huge hole in the hull of the jet ski...sunk to water level on the spot... it is still on the lift to this day (took place in may) and he has not received an insurance check or anything else to compensate. Its sad- i went to call DNR right away last night but had to call 911 because the DNR office closes at 6:00pm even though its not dark till 9.... maybe calling his sponsor is a good idea its funny i get tickets left and right driving on the road for stupid things like going around one car in the gravel to get to an EMPTY turn lane in traffic...yet no-one is ever around when some guy goes crazy on you

haha thanks for the •••••••••••••• stanfield.. i know it seems over the top- ok first maybe i didnt explain this well enough. i tried avoiding the thing in the first place we just started idling away... he was 100 yards away he came after me... then argued with me and started going away again... then came back i guess to get the last blast and damn near hit me. Now you can sit there and call me a dbag.. but i have been on many different lakes and rivers around the country and nowhere else do these guys seem to interrogate people trying to have a good time. In Arizona while i was there for two years the guys woudl often talk to you when you fell near them.... I was a good 150yards away from this •••••••••••• the whole thing started... something about being bitched at by one of these guys everytime i go home to ride gets old. Also- "he is frustrated..... so i tell him he better just shut up" ---so i paraphrased the exact words that were said...get over it. Tell me how you feel the next time a boat gets this close to you at speed and ruins all the ••••••• your boat. I try my hardest to ignore these guys at all costs

i'd be very carefull. let DNR run it's course. thats your best bet now. i def wouldnt be taking matters into my own hands. right now it looks as if you have on shore witnesses to back up your store so dont ruing it by acting an @ss and doin something stupid.

wow, spraying the boat is taking things pretty far.

ya.... alright so jsut for the record... i will be letting DNR do their job and will chill on the wakeboat rally on tuesday... he was within 10 feet from the platform of the boat... cell phones got soaked- haha for some reason my tach stopped working... i mean the wall of water pushed me into the boat and the water hit the switches on the dash so hard it turned them on? hahah crazy stuff

Last week we were on lake Owasso in MN, and had someone call the cops on us for "driving dangerously close to them and being reckless"

We had city cops borrow someones boat from the launch to drive out there and yell at/interrogate us.

No, we didn't get close to anyone. There were not many boats on the lake, so I doubt anyone else was responsible either. I'm guessing some fisherman was sick of constant rollers and our loud ass boat.

Totally not cool.

I live on a lake and there is a fishing tournament every Monday evening and to keep peace I just do not ride on Mondays. Yeah I know I have a legal right to be out there 7 days a week but just figure giving up riding one day a week is a small price to pay to avoid the very situations you describe. Even giving the peak fishing day up, I still have had my share of run-ins with backwoods retarded fisherman - note I do not think all fisherman fall into this category - but am increasingly finding that avoidance and keeping distance when possible is the best policy. I do not think there will be any way to verbally appease a P.O.d fisherman. On most lakes, the fisherman greatly outnumber us, and my experience suggests that when you call the law in, the DNR/Police are more likely to be fisherman themselves and tend to sympathize with them when there are these types of conflicts.

Yeah if you want revenge on all the fisherman, packing the place with a bunch of wake boats will take care of that, but it may compound other problems for you in the future.

If someone every sprayed my boat like that and put us all in danger, you better bet I am going to follow you to the dock, and will have the police on the phone while I am chasing you down.

Regardless of words, physical attempts like that NEED people to be made example of.

Find his boat, call the police and press charges. his attitude will change real quick. And I have to agree...getting everyone together is fun, but will not solve this issue.

So they have a tournament every Monday? Why don't you guys organize a wake series next summer? On the 1st and 3rd Tuesday or something have a scheduled Demo Day on the lake, use the various dealerships in the area and make it a summer long happening. Sounds like the fishermen are organized, the only way you can make wakeboarding legit in the area is to have organization yourself. Until then they will have the "we own the lake" mentality. Perhaps they will extend the courtesy bmartin does and stay away.

Sean, I thought I was the only person whom local police had to commadeer (sp?) a boat to come out on the lake. Granted, we were riding without a spotter, we were honest with him and he let us go with a warning. But that is alot of effort to come out when you are one of the few boats on the lake.

I agree with KG on this. Might be fun but nothing will get solved. Matt I live in TX but my Uncle lives on your lake. He lives in a cove that everyone parks and party's at on the weekends. My wife and I were visiting last summer and I could not believe how many people hang out in front of his house. We try and visit every other summer. Might look you up next time and see if your looking for a third. Hope you get it all worked out.

Ive known Matt for a long time. He will do the right thing here and USA Wakeboard will give Matt full support. Here are a few suggestions.

1. Let DNR do its job.
2. Indiana law requires DNR Permit to hold tourny. So do not hold an orginized event without a permit
3. Quitley Research if permit was filed and approved with DNR on this fishing tourny. My guess is that it was not. It can get very expensive to permit every Tue.
4. Part of the permitting process is if property owners that live within the county object they need 25 signatures submitted to the DNR that would force a hearing. These property owners only need to live in the county and not necessarly on the lake.
5. If you could document that this fishing league has not walked the line you could force them off the lake.
6. I dont think forcing them off the lake is a good thing but knowing the process will at least get thier leadership to walk the line and oust the stupid ones who do crap like this.

forcing them to walk the line will piss them off royally and while yes they will have to do things on the up and up, it will open a whole new can of worms, but it will also show them that they don't "own the lake" good luck either way

Is that what USA Wakeboard proposes as a solution? All that will do is ruin it for everyone, meaning wakeboarders. It will have fishermen all up in our business because of one of their bad apples. Sure thats the system and how it goes, but in real life on the street you just don't pull that. Just like the guy shouldn't pull what he did. All those suggestions will do is ruin it for everyone. We are going to be holding events on public lakes, if this is what USA Wakeboard proposes, should we start looking at WWA?

A-Dub let me be very clear. Indiana is way past that when it comes to DNR. After WWA lost the Indy Venue, I spent countless hours and personal money getting the law changes so that we could have events on waterways in Indidna. Passing 100% in the House and Senate. I was mostly sucessful, However wakeboarders were denied a collegiate regional championship in near Indy 2006 when I know we had every legal right only because the property manager was a die hard fisherman and knew the system. I ran out of time and money to appeal. I will continue to move forward wakeboarders rights for events. BTW I would invite WWA to get involved in waterways since Im trying to get thier event back to Indy.

Indiana is way past what? Thank you for your work and efforts. It is greatly appreciated by all, especially myself and crew. However your suggestions and proposals seem to be out of spite, and the reality is fishermen out number wakeboarders greatly, and your proposals could greatly set back your own work, let alone day to day activity. You suggesting to make sure that this fishing "league" we'll call it has their ducks in a row will then trickle out to other fishermen. Your example is perfect, because a fisherman was in charge of the property, it didn't happen. Fishermen are deeply involved with the Indiana DNR (DNR are usually fishermen), and on the three public waterways I frequent they already hassle us enough. We don't need to give them more reason because they heard of some immature reactions by someone in Indy. You are suggesting trying to find and shoot holes in the fishing leagues set-up. Do you want wakeboarders throughout the state to have DNR and fishermen finding and shooting holes through their day to day or even when they try to have events? I don't think you're seeing the big picture on this, and how it will really effect wakeboarders in the end. We are the minority and don't have power within DNR. Is it unfair? Yes! Should we start fighting the army with a few men? Should we piss fishermen off even more so they slowly start taking away our freedom, rights, begin hassling us even more. That will backfire, and you're suggestions and proposals out of spite because of what happened in 2006 are not worth it.

I think A-dub is a closet fisherman!

On a serious note, I agree that going after all fisherman will open up a can of worms. What if some d-bag wakeboarder started attacking fisherman? Would you want all wakeboarders on your lake punished?

Going full force after the guy that sprayed you is a much better alternative. I get pissed when people ride 30-40 ft from my boat, I think my head would have exploded if that had happened to me.

there is so much hostility already between fishermen and wakeboarders, most of them look at us as immature brats and a lot of times, we prove them right, we need to stop doing that if we are going to be respected. in my honest opinion, a-dub is right and the best thing to do is when something happens, let the police handle it one occurrence at a time and eventually the fishermen will get tired of explaining why they felt they had the right to harass us or damage our property or whatever they decide to do.

MATT I LIVE ON GEIST AND THAT SAME BOAT CAME UP TO ME LAST SATURDAY MORNING YELLING AT US THAT THE WAKE WAS TO BIG AND ALL OF THIS OTHER CRAP AND THEN HE CASTED HIS HOOK AT MY BOAT AND IT CAME LIKE 3 FEET FROM THE INSIDE OF MY BOAT. I GOT YOUR BACK AND I WILL BE OUT THERE ON TUESDAY FOR SURE. P.S. I AM GOOD FRIENDS WITH THE CHIEF COP AT FISHERS SO IF YOU GET ME THAT GUYS INFORMATION I CAN GIVE IT TO HIM.

I wouldn't start a war, you have several witnesses to this guy's reckless endangerment and yet another guy who was threatened by same individual. Use the authorities and play low key and be respectful. You simply should not choose to make some grand show against all the fishermen due to one individual.

Don't stoop to this guy's level. I have my own experiences with this (waverunner moron blowing through bouys and almost killing himself to spray out boat for NO reason). I chose to talk to the sheriff about it and voice my complaints respectfully. I found out that the sheriffs hate waverunners anyway as they have no clue and are constantly running into each other in their pen and having to be evacuated by chopper or ambulance

When possible, I try to give all stationary boats a wide berth and give everyone a break. Nobody really likes the rollers from a slammed SANTE anyway.

we've got a little competition at our regular riding spot too... there's a sweet buttered up barge canal here that we ALWAYS ride in and it's kind of an unspoken rule that we stay in there and they jet and fish the rest of the Tn river... the moral of the story is... i would go after that guy with all legal actions possible as any responsible self respecting adult would do... as for the rest of the fishermen... just don't drive right on top of them and when you know they're looking throw something big and if they give you props give them a fist pump back and pretty soon they'll be fishing there just to watch your crew ride and you won't have to worry about them being jerks... but the jerk will show themselves and you can always deal w/ them like an adult

ya thanks for everyones responses, like i said before i am on a first name basis with the head of DNR in the area due to the fact that i work at the dealership that services their boats. So although it is pretty much fact that most of the DNR are in fact fisherman.... this is the second incident on the lake liek this i have dealt with since may and DNR understands my concern and is behind me at this point to make things right. I dont have a problem with DNR, the fisherman or anyone else being on the lake. I simply have a problem with being harassed because of my wake every time i go out... i understand the wake is not a pleasant thing for the fisherman to have to deal with. However, i really am curious on a few things... 1- why do they need to be in a foot and a half of water in the weeds to fish? With all the equipment on that boat cant they be in 5 feet of water (thus not putting their expensive equip at risk...) 2- Why are the gunnels of these fishing boats so low? You would think you could raise the gunnel up the necessary few more inches to keep water from swamping the boat without adding too much weight to the boat or anything else... these boats are already extremely fast so i dont think it woudl slow them much... like i said before no war is needed... i have all the witnesses i need plus a brand new phone that was ruined and potential damage to electronics on the dash....

"Should we piss fishermen off even more so they slowly start taking away our freedom, rights, begin hassling us even more."

Adub, your asking a question, please use correct punctuation. It's "?" after you ask a question, not a period. Oh, and you used "set-up" no - needed in set up. I'm just saying.......

Matt, I have spent some time in a fishing boat and will take a shot at some of your questions.

1.Most of the time fisherman will be in 5 feet of water or deeper, but occasional they will need to get in really shallow water to retrieve a lure or fish a bank.

2. Gunnels are really low in these boats so they do not have to 'lift' their quarry too high to get it on the boat. Getting the fish on the boat is one of the most likely moments when a fish will break off. I'm sure there are other reasons too.

Sounds like you have a good relationship with your DNR officer and things should work out. It sucks what happened to you and hopefully the DNR officer will make the 'bad apple' of a fisherman pay and the news will spread and have an effect on how others treat you on your lake. Good luck!

Two of you have had run ins with this guy? I still say kickhisassseabass.

The limits of someone elses boat are not of your concern. If the lake is to ruff for a bass boat, try a larger boat. I don't yell at the ocean because my boat is to small to go on it.

I should add, I had a run in with two fisherman on our local lake once. I was running the dam because the lake was blown out. Went inbetween them and the shore(there was a good 100yards seperation) and my brother crashed. I was pulling around to get him and I here them yelling at me. I argue back that it was to ruff to go further out, and there was plenty of room. They keep yelling and arguing so I told them to go f#$% themselves(basically). These two guys stand up and they look like WWF westlers. All you could see was a silluet of these monsters. I am like, oh crap! They are realing in there lines very quickly, and I am trying to get my brother in the boat. It was just us and my sister. They come hauling up to us, and we did the only thing we could do. KISSED SOME A34. We obviously got out alive because I am righting this.

ok so if we ride on tuesday how can restrict our wakeboarding?????

Connor, I think if you speed the boat up and ran between 32-36(slalom guys do it!) and keep you ballast empty, all the fisherman will be fine.

On Owasso lake i am out there one day a week and there is these skii club some of them are the rudeiest people. I can almost gaurntee it was them. Watch out for them they think they own the lake.

Thanks A-Dub.

Not spite but fair. The law is to apply to all. Again Ill say I dont think its a good to force them off the lake. They really do have the right to be there just as much as we do. Its just a good time to demonstrate we follow the law and care about safety. One of the reasons a permit is required is so that law enforcement can keep it safe. Facts are the CO (Conservation Officer)was not present and there was a serious incident. Was it because the CO was not informed about the event? I want the CO at my events.

Think about it this way - If I saw a wakeboarder do that to a fisherman - make no mistake I will rake him over the coals for making my sport look bad. This could easily be said for the officials of the fishing event. At the end of the day you want the leadership to un-invite the idiot.