What are the rules, laws or etiquette for fishing from a boat in waters around boat docks ?? For some reason i have been seeing a lot of videos of guys getting yelled at while fishing boat docks of people who live on a lake. They are angry that the fisherman are trespassing? What are the laws for this?

They own the dock not the water

It’s public water.. these people have mental issues.. if someone is on their dock while I’m fishing, I typically just troll on past to the next one..

Fishing ON the dock?, or fishing NEAR a dock from a boat?

Here....the bay bottom is public land up to the high tide mark....you can stand in the water in front of a billionaires house and clam or fish, or even duck hunt all you want , as long as you didn't access over private property....homeowners hate it, but when the cops show up they get a lesson real quick, lol

100% agree with all fronts.

However......... Burying a crankbait in your hand while taking the cover off your pontoon isn't fun. Nor is your kid getting snagged on one when climbing down their ladder to swim off their dock. Had family members do both.

was out with a charter for red fish in SC and he got so up and in-between docs it made me uncomfortable

he only hit one and I pushed us off it before we had really one more than bump

you are liable for any damage you do to their doc , boat , ect..

as we say it , it's your extra special tax for living on a navigable water way you get to share your backyard like it is sitting on the street.

it's like putting your deck 1 inch off the sidewalk and getting mad at the people who walk by while your trying to have a dinner party

it's a zero lot line situation and we as fisherman try and be friendly and nice and respectful. if you are out there we will troll on by and maybe cast once or twice , the docks that see zero traffic and are so run down they are half falling in often hold some of the best fish.

there are a lot of FIB owned houses occupied less than half the time on southern WI lakes so generally plenty to fish.

I have never been run off a fishing spot working docs so I am either polite enough or I haven't met the right Karen yet.

in WI there is no such thing as private navigable water only inaccessible public water.

I think there's a fair amount of yt vids that are staged for clicks, and views.

I'm with Marty B. I think most of those videos are staged as well

I fish with my wife's grandfather on LOZ often. We fish around and on between docks frequently. Not a single person has ever said a cross word. Most will tell you if they've caught crappie off of their crappie beds recently.
Nobody says anything to the fisherman fishing around our docks either.

That's not to say that there's not that special person that wants to put on a show for his family or something. But we've never had that happen.

What is their complaint? That you are damaging their stuff or that you are taking their fish? If you can fish a dock without hitting their boat or damaging their things or leaving trash behind then you are doing nothing wrong. The problem is people add structure under or do whatever work to maintain their area to hold fish and they think those fish are theirs or are pets. Thats usually the conflict. They don't own the water or the fish.

There are people that don't fish that don't understand the fishing laws or your rights as a fisherman the same way there are people that don't trap and don't know the trapping regs or your rights as a trapper either. Be real easy to run into a lady living in a fancy house on a lake that doesn't know anything about fishing.

If folks are on the dock, kids are fishing, etc., I’ll slide past. If not, it’s fair game in VA. Water is owned by everyone in the commonwealth. Etiquette goes a long ways. If you come out while I’m fishing your dock and want to have words, I’m happy to oblige. I appreciate that folks paid a lot of money for the view / real estate / lifestyle, but it’s my right on public water. Can only think of 2-3 run ins over +30 years of fishing tournaments or recreationally.

I live on a popular chain of lakes. I will fish docks during certain times of the year. I have people fishing mine all the time even though it's too shallow to hold good fish. The only problem that arises comes from people that can't cast. Most are no problem but there are a few every summer that will throw musky baits into my boat or on top of the canvas canopy. They seem to do that on almost every property on the shoreline. I have never confronted anybody but just sit in my living room and shake my head hoping they don't cause a lot of damage. None have ever offered to pay for repairs. There are 2 sides to this coin.

Landowner in Wi on the Brule River throws bed springs in "his" hole so every unsuspecting fisherman wading by gets his lure snagged up.

Green County Pete,
How was the redfish fishing? My brother lives in SC and we are thinking of hiring someone to bring us out. Any tips?

well I had a heck of a windy day but the guide Dillard worked hard to get me on some fish

I caught a over slot 27 inch Red , a in slot red that I kept and ate
a flounder , a crab and I had something big on but it got off just as I was going to get a glimpse of it , but it saw the boat and that hard run it come off.

I had to laugh when I got on the boat , 8 rods all rigged with 1/2 or 3/8 oz chartreuse jigs and we used a little squid but mostly mud minnows , cast them by dock pilings reel in a little line and let them set there.
about 20 minutes a spot anywhere we could get out of the wind up the tidal creeks on structure like a riprap or dock piling , the more barnacles on the piling the better



I did get the flounder on a sort of bobber rig was tossing it up along the riprap and letting the tide take it down the bank

if you want their number let me know it was Edisto SC nice island town.

Here in WI you can fish off someone's dock as long as you don't access it from private land.

I have had a few run-ins over the past 35+ years I have fished Lake of the Ozarks I have had way more positive reactions with dock owners.

One notable is a spring day fishing with my two sons when they were 10-12 years old. A storm blew in and it started to hail. I pulled into an open well of a covered dock to wait out the storm. It wasn’t long before the door to the house came open and a barking dog came running down to the dock and I saw the person at the house yelling but couldn’t understand. I told the boys that I was probably going to get my butt chewed but I wasn’t going to leave. We all stayed in the boat and never picked up a rod to fish. About 5 mins later, here came the dock owner walking down through the rain. I was prepared to take his verbal onslaught but we he got to us, he had a a hot chocolate in each hand for the boys and a thermos of coffee. He said he had multiple brush piles under the dock and told the boys to start fishing.

We stayed for as long as he wanted to talk and visit even after the storm ended. He was a retired firefighter from Kansas City and had lost his wife some years back and his kids were scattered across the US and didn’t visit. I had it a point to visit with him every time I fished that part of the lake. He passed away a couple years ago. He was a good man that was lonely.

I have had some good run ins

folks out trying to fish with the kids or grand kids not having much of a clue , I give them some pointers even given a few kids some bait or lures , tied a few knots and shown how.

attitude and polite goes a long way

say howdy

definitely lots are stagged but they show how you should respond always be polite and curitous to the public whether fishing hunting or trapping most dont know the laws and just assume they do even dealing with law enforcement i have given them the game wardens number if they didnt believe me had one officer tell me that i wasnt allowed to hunt or kill coyotes and another said her son told her nothing was open i replied i guess your son only hunts deer and to phone the game warden wouldnt even show them any id till they talked to the warden or got a supervisor there immediately

Now that would be balsy, not sure if you are correct.

No you can’t
If the marina has the spot leased than all “ public” rights go out the window. Apply that to trapping. Water might be public but land it sits on belongs to someone.