Room to Fish

(Editor's note: This article has raised several questions regarding proper fishing etiquette. Please do not take this as an endorsement of the actions here. I in no way agree with these tactics)

It was in the fall a few years back that I was introduced to serious pier fishing, on the coast of North Carolina. My guide and instructor was none other than my next door neighbor, Sam. We have known each other for a number of years now, although we had only actually been neighbors for a short seven months. The years that have followed that seven months. up to and including this year, have proven to be good for both of us. We still keep in touch and we fish together at least once a year.

On this trip, we arrived at the Emerald Island fishing pier near Morehead City well after the Saturday crowd had claimed most of the fishing spots. As we walked onto the pier, it was evident to me that we would never find a spot to squeeze into from which we could fish.

What you need to realize at this point is that Sam weighed in at about 425 back then - not really fat, but definitely big. He was, to say the least, an imposing presence!

As we continued onto the pier, I whispered to Sam that we would never find a place to fish. He whispered back for me to leave everything to him and follow his lead. From that point on, Sam began banging, clanging, and dropping things all the way down the pier. He was drawing the attention of every angler there, acting like a clumsy, bumbling, big oaf as we moved toward the end of the pier. People were shaking their heads and whispering to each other about us - and the whispers I overheard were not very flattering.

Everyone on the pier, on both sides, was catching spots and croaker, sometimes four at a time on a Christmas tree rig with multiple hooks and a big pyramid sinker. The fall run was on, and people were there to fill their ice chests.

We reached the spot where Sam had decided to fish, and he dropped everything. After making a huge racket rigging a bait on a big oversized spinning outfit, he stepped to the rail of the pier where two anglers let him squeeze in. Heck, they really had no choice. Sam was going to fish there whether they moved or not.

Sam made four casts before inviting me to fish. Instead of straight out perpendicular to the pier, the first cast was down to the left and parallel to the pier. The second cast did the same thing in the opposite direction. The next two casts went to the exact same locations, and on each retrieve of the four casts he turned the spinning reel upside down, reeled backwards, and managed to snag at least twenty five lines. Loud laughter and apologies came from Sam following each cast.

I guess I wasn't paying a lot of attention to what was going on. I was trying to figure out why Sam, an expert angler, had apparently lost it!

After untangling the last cast, Sam slowly looked up at me, smiled, winked, and said quietly, "Let's fish!"

I looked around and saw that the anglers close to Sam had managed to move "en masse" to the left and right and had left a space about fifteen feet wide from which we could fish!

I was flabbergasted as we began fishing. We had plenty of room the whole time we were there, and we caught an ice chest full of spots and croakers!

On the way home, we both laughed as we talked about the reactions we saw from the people on the pier. But one thing was for sure - we did have room to fish!

How about you? Have you ever has an unusual experience while fishing from a pier? Tell us about it on our Reader Submission Page, or on our Saltwater Fishing Forum!

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