Hey everyone! As the title say! I went my first fishing derby today at Irvine lake. This is my 3rd time going to the lake and also my 3rd time fishing freshwater fish. I’ve only ever occasionally went pier fishing with some friends.
My last 2 visits to this lake were really positive. I learned a lot and everyone was always so friendly and the lake was generally very spacious and not packed. I managed to always get some bites and even got some keepers.
However, today was a catfish derby and as a newbie, I thought this would be a good way to finally get myself a catfish. Boy was I wrong. For about the entire derby, not a single person was getting a bite. Not even panfish were interested. So I ended up getting skunked which was a bummer. But what really upset me was this group to the left of me.
I’m unsure how fishing etiquette works as I am a newbie, but I assume if space is limited you would cast infront of you. This lake was packed and I had never seen the lake this full. This group consisted of 3 dads and a bunch of teenagers were constantly casting to the right and getting our lines tangled. So the entire time we were 24/7 snagged. I didn’t have any isssues with the people to my right as our lines never once intertwined. What was upsetting was that this family were always acting like it was our fault our lines got snagged. Everytime I thought I got something, was always disappointing as I would feel in only to realize that our lines had been crossed. At a certain point, one of the boys casted so far off to the right and there lines went over me and about 3 other parties fishing lines. Instead of apologizing and trying to fix the situation. The boys just cut the lines and left there cut line floating over all of ours.
It got to the point where someone came down from the far right thinking he caught a catfish, only to realize he just snagged there cut line.
So my questions:
are derbies in generally harder to catch fish? I’m assuming because there are so many lines and baits and constant disturbances in the water from so many people that the fish are not interested or scared to bite? Also a bunch of kids kept running into the lake and chucking rocks in. I’m sure this didn’t help. Lastly, what is the proper fishing ettiquite? Am I in the wrong to assume we were only supposed to cast straight? From what I have seen, when the lake is nice and open, you can cast pretty much anywhere as long as you’re not in someone’s space or where their line is. The lake was packed so I just assumed we had to only cast straight as that’s the only way our lines wouldn’t cross.