We all have them local, go to ponds to get our quick fishing fix. To take our kids for a bass and bluegill bite. Most of them are on private land, in apartment complexes, or behind a store, or along a roadside. Most times people see you are fishing, and allow you to stay so long as you are respectful. However, as the saying goes one bad apple spoils the bunch. Recently, a bad apple spoiled my bunch and I’m quite unhappy about it because frankly I’ve been fishing months on end there without troubles, and this is where my step son learns to fly fish with me.
It all started fishing the spot with a friend of mine Cody. We were casting at bass being respectful, having a good time when all of the sudden three young aspiring bass fishing kids were sneaking back out of the complex from behind the gates. Two days later I go back, start teaching my stepson to cast his fly rod. When I noticed, about 100 yards of mono just all over the grass, soda bottles, and other small bits of trash at the spot. I cleaned it up, and just about to start fishing again when the security guard cane out hollering. “This is private property you need to leave NOW! or the cops will be called.” I responded with a “Yes ma’am, I apologize, just teaching my boy here to fly fish, I’ll pack up” She responds back “I’m sorry, I know you two are respectful but we have had issues lately and I can no longer allow any fishing here, kids sneaking in and fishing, leaving their string around and it destroyed our landscaper’s weed eater, so we can no longer allow it”
The moral is, we as anglers, especially younger generations complain that all the good spots are posted, have a mean old person kicking them out, get cops called on them and get trespass warnings. Yet we refuse to be respectful and ruin a good thing. I bet most people wouldn’t care or be so agressively about giving you the boot, had they not had 100 people before disrespect them in the past. If people are nice enough to allow you to fish, DONT RUIN IT! Leave it cleaner than you arrived, be respectful to boundaries, and respectful to the owners. Not only will ignorance ruin it for you, but will ruin it for everybody who goes there.