Today I had a very unpleasant encounter at coyote reservoir. I show up at 530 to enjoy our south bay honey hole. If the "gentlemen” involved in this incident are on this site and read this, Im sorry only that I didn’t get your names to go with the story.


I park on the dam and walk down the west bank(roadside) about 50 yards south of the northwest corner of the lake. Some of you may be familiar with the rock pile which is currently about 20 yards off shore.( consistantly produces good fish for me over the years.) I fish for about an hour when I see two vehicles pull up near mine, a white Lexus and a black 4runner. Out come two guys and a gal. Didn’t have a thought in the world other than, hopefully they will have more luck than me! I see they have high quality gear and are definitely knowledgeable bass fisherman. One guy walks down the dam as the couple makes their way towards me. I have three rods and a backpack at my feet and a dog tied to a huge limb that I drug down the hill to keep him in place. Apparently he had his mind set on fishing there too, I believe he said something to his girlfriend along the lines of “ we will fish right here on there rocks, and proceeded to put his stuff down LITERALLY 10 feet away from me. Now, if there were 20 people on that particular 100 yard stretch of bank, I wouldn’t have minded so much and probably would have B.S.’ed for hours with him about local fishing. But considering it was Wednesday evening and there where only 3 other people on the entire freakin lake, I was a little confused at his choice of spots. This is when things got out of hand. Instead of asking me if I mind, he takes it upon himself to TELL me that I don’t mind if they fish there. More confusion. I very calmly and politely explain that I actually do mind that someone else literally rubs elbows with me fishing a rock pile I drove 45 minutes to fish for 2 hours. I explained I wasn’t asking for 50 yards, merely 50 feet or less! Apparently that was a very “selfish and ignorant” thing for me to request and it sparked rage within this extremely angry individual. He then proceeded to get in my face, consistently threaten me, and remind me that if he weren’t already on parole, that I would be knocked out or worse before I knew it. I attempt to calm him down but there was no reasoning with him. I began to loose my temper and as soon as I start defending myself his pal starts up on a cursing and threatening rampage from across the way. After several minutes of confrontational banter, I convinced him I wasn’t budging and that he wasn’t going to slip in and steal one of my favorite spots on the entire lake when I had simply gotten there first and had driven there specifically to keep my feet planted . He eventually walked down the bank where he and his girlfriend fished for a while, until it was getting close to dark. On his way back, he passed me with his head down, maybe still very angry, maybe embarrassed after realizing what a POS he acted like. I took the opportunity to walk up to him in a non threatening manor and stuck out my hand. I was surprised he shook it. I apologized for things I said. He did not.

Now I know that was just short of a novel, but im just so frustrated at the situation that I had to share it and hopefully hear someone’s response. Was I out of line?!? Was I right for simply explaining myself and then for defending myself when attacked? I would have loved nothing more than to enjoy a peaceful evening on the lake but to have someone act so pathetically immature over a sport we both know well and love passionately? How does this happen? I guess that’s what I get for assuming all fisherman have common courtesy, eh? Just how in the heck did I end up some major A-hole whos at fault and in the wrong here. Did i deserve any of this?


My personal opinion is that you are both a complete and utter disgrace to society, the outdoor community, and an embarrassment to the bass fishing world. I hope nobody else has to deal with what I had to today. Like I said on the lake, life is too full of other stuff to stress about. Please don’t bring your negative attitude and hostile personality to the only place a lot of us have to turn to for peace and quite, sanction and sanity! Hopefully you can let go of your anger and be happy with the wonderful world around you. LATE!

I think you did good nothing to worry about. To be honest if someone got in my face like that I'm sure they would be taking a nap shortly after that. Not to mention he was already on parole, it would be more reason to make the 1st move.

Not sure how you were able to restain yourself but good for you.

All else fails, whip it out and piss a circle around you, stomp your foot and yell "Mine!"

Seriously though, you handled as well as anyone could expect. Some people are just plain assholes. If he had half a brain I'm sure he would have stopped for a moment to see if you were having any luck there, which you weren't, and moved on.

wow...craziest story I've heard on a fishing outing. honestly though, I agree with everyone here, you seem to have handled yourself quite well. afterall, you're not in jail for strangling the guy, right? haha.

you should have asked him if he liked the fishing in prison....

You did good, probably better than I could in that situation. There are some real assholes in this world!

i was fishing off the bank @ calero a few years ago, caught a couple of 3 poundish fish,
when i hear this dude up the bank about 30 yards, tell this other cat, 'hey that guy down there (me) just caught a couple of nice ones'. 30 seconds later, the other dude is standing next to me casting...

Good job on keeping your cool, that must have been hard to do. Some people just don't have common sense and a sense of boundary. I had that happen a few times, but without the altercation. I just said you know that this place is huge, there is nobody here and why of all places did you have to park your A$$ here. Maybe next time just say hey who ever catches the first keeper bass wins and gets to stay and the loser gets to take a effing hike or make a wager, but somebody like that A hole would probably never move or pay up if they lost.
I think it's fine when people walk up and ask how i'm doing, how's the fishing, and what's working, then moving on. I have no problem helping out, but when they get right next to you and cross your line or get tangled up that's another story. If kids are involved when somebody walks up then I will just simply move and let them fish on. LOL, cuz 99% of all kids eventually start throwing rocks in the water at some point.

First off , I would say , you are in the right to hold your ground . As an old man who has this type of situation occur more than I can count , I would say , AVOID confrontation with idiots like this, only because you never know what the level of mentality of the one individual , or of all of them.
Best advise I could give ---- do what I did the last time I was confronted at Calero, use technology. Call the ranger or front gate with your cell and explain that you have verbally threatened and feel unsafe regarding the person who has confronted you . They are forced to investigate and take the issue seriously.
They would have probably come out to your location and checked into the issue.
If they would have found him "guilty" of threatening you , he would be wearing handcuffs and eating his meals with other the criminals of this great society we all have to live in.
Bottom line , to many people in this country have NO RESPECT FOR OTHERS , NO SELF DISCIPLINE , NO WORK ETHICS AND NO RESPONSIBILITY --- to many freedoms . They need to be taught the tough lessons . The best way to do this is USE the law to your advantage. If the rangers had come out and confronted him , the likely chance he would do it again would probably go down . There is a reason he is on parole(he's a fuXXing idiot )!!!!!
Tight lines ,
1Old man

I like this idea! The dude would have been like, "This fool's crazy. Let's go to Parkway."

man iam glad you did not get tackle jacked i thought the story was going to be a tackle jack story i have heard too many of these stories about people in the stockton area that have been jacked and left on the shore in there boxers wishin they had brought a piece --gb

LOL... I was thinking the same thing the moment the story started going off towards parole and the other crazy buddy coming over and all. I honestly can't imagine something like that happening around our local lakes in the south bay, but ya never know.

I've never heard of anyone getting tackle jacked, but I can only imagine they will jack you for everything just like you mentioned, leaving you in boxers or worse even...hahaha. i'll make sure to make a mental note to not fish in stockton without a gat.

thats good you didn't get jumped, when i was reading your "novel" i assumed that you were gonna say you got jacked.

Yeah. So regarding calling the ranger. That was definately my first instinct. I had to make a quick decision if it was worth risking what they might do after hearing me explain the situation to the ranger. I had my 6 month old puppy with me, so packing up my stuff and retreating to my truck just to hope my cell phone got decent reception was not something I was willing to do at the time. Backing down seemed like giving in and giving up my spot in which the whole thing started over wasnt an option. In the end I wish those pricks would have gotten what they deserved. I regret thinking it would have been more trouble than it was worth to stick around and deal with all that garbage.

When it comes to gettin tackle jacked, I wasnt worried at all. One thing they didnt know is that I always carry a serious business CRKT 6' tactical blade on my belt when anywhere outdoors. I also had an empty beer bottle in my back pocket.


Anyways thanks for the support everyone and Im sure those douchebags will get whats coming to them one day.

You shoulda shanked a couple of tires on your way out with that blade.

hahaha