This was only my second trip to American, it being over an hour away from where I live, but when I was there last, I was really impressed. I only got a bunch of small rock bass, and the wind was blowing like crazy, but the lake was beautiful and had a large variety of shoreline environments. My 18 year old nephew was visiting the west coast for the first time and had caught his first fish ever in Kitsap's Island Lake, only 2 days earlier.

This time the wind was perfect, though this meant an abundance of jet skiers and water skiers. We worked the shoreline of the SW end of the lake quite thoroughly, catching more small rock bass, but nothing larger and even our efforts at jigging for perch on the bottom between 10 & 40 feet went unrewarded. When the battery showed signs of getting weak so we returned my inflatable to the launch and swapped in a fresh one. I'd learned from the previous time ... this lake is big! We continued along the north shore and got even fewer bites. The view of Mt. Ranier from here was incredible though! By the time we reached Silcox Island, we decided to cross the lake and head back.

As there are a number of docks along the SW shore of the Island, I told my nephew that we'd fish those but pass up any where homeowners were visible, to give them some privacy. Well before I knew it we came to a dock with a middle aged woman sitting on the it. I said something like "Hi. Nice day, isn't it?". Her reply was "You're too close!". I asked her, "For what?", to which she replied that if she were to dive into the water directly at us, we could hook her. I pointed out that she needn't be afraid since neither of us had a line in the water. Why must some people just be nasty by default?

For those of you who are privileged enough to own waterfront property and have a dock, I can appreciate that the dock is private but please also recognize that your dock is occupying space that was previously public. If a person floats by in the surrounding public water, offers a friendly greeting, and doesn't touch your dock or even have a line in water, show some common courtesy. You may now be able to exclude the public from the space where your dock is, but that doesn't entitle you to guard a buffer in the water around it. Obviously if people are in the water, there or anywhere, appropriate caution needs to be exercised and distance maintained.

The rest of the trip back was uneventful. So, there was nothing caught to talk about, but what a beautiful lake! I will be back!

CCTMark

8/12/2014 8:09:00 AM

I had a similar experience a couple of years ago on Long lake in Spokane. I was fishing near a dock when a lady came out on the dock and said we had to leave because it was a designated swim area. I said okay where are the markings for the swim area and she said that if we didn't leave she would call the F&W guys to come and ticket us. Of course I said go ahead, she didn't, and then she said she was worried were would hook one of her kids. I think I am pretty accurate when it comes to casting so I told her I thought I was sure I could avoid hooking her kids who were 50' away from the water on their swing set. Some people geez!

Amx

8/12/2014 3:28:00 PM

This past spring I had a kid come out of the house and tell me I had to fish somewhere else because their dog was upset with me, altho the kid was nice and polite about it. The dog was inside the house as was the mother, and the mother told the kid to tell me. And to think a year earlier I was helping the kid with fishing and tying knots and bass fishing, and even asked the mother if it was ok to give the kid a hook so he could use it with a plastic worm to fish for bass off their dock. I guess she forgot about all that. I'd taken about 20 minutes out of my fishing to help him and the mother was sitting on the lawn and had no problem with my helping. I told the kid that he doesn't have the right to tell me anything, and that their dog needs training. Then the kid and I talked about fishing for a few more minutes all nice like. Still seemed to be a good kid, about 8 years old. The mother was inside trying to hold the dog.

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