that really narrows it down to who it is... there is heaps of those boats around.

have rego and pics sent through to but didnt deem it necessary to publish

 that sux. i would be spewing at that. some people are amazing. they have the money to buy a decent size boat and no doubt they have all the gadgets on board but just too lazy to find their own ground to fish on. wouldnt a nice size sinker on their hull make a nice pinging sound

Has your bro told them where to go and informed them of proper fishing etiquette?

My experience has been the bigger boats the worse.

I have had problems with a couple of big rivierra's over at Rotto, who have pinged spots shamelessly. It's almost as if they think because they have lots of money and not much time, it's fine to be an arse ole! We just up stumps and drive at em.

do they have anything there they can cast with? Aim for the tonk and stare!! lol

down here are shocking for that

So now every guy with white trail craft and mercury is a suspect.i would either say nothing or post photo of the mug.

Its funny, we all hate them but there must be a shitload of them out there as we have no shortage of offenders on some days.

should not be called fishermen by any one or call themselves fishermen>

What happened to the thrill of the chase and exploring to find your own???? But they wouldnt get that!!!

NAFA wankers>>

Personally I would be embarresed to do that to someone!!

Hope they cop what they deserve!!

i have a trail craft and a merc so does that make me a pinger??????  up load the photos of the boat

I have a number of waypoints which I've researched over the last year or two. If I travel for an hour to one of these spots and find somebody else on the said reef, how close can I get to the other boat (allowing for the direction of the drift) without being subject to the sort of abuse and anger detailed above? There can often be two sides to the story.

Team gates owns a Trailblazer with a 125HP Optimax but I'm pleased to say it wasn't me. I was playing golf yesterday morning and in the afternoon we went to Rushton Park to watch the Eagles beat Port Adelaide with the last kick of the day.

Recently, we were fishing out from the Cut around the 40m mark and had just drifted over a lump, when all of a sudden this boat that we saw in the distance, drove up within 20 - 30m of us, did a u turn and sat upwind in our drift. They must have also drifted right over the same lump. We weren't catching much so maybe they didn't, either.

Perhaps they already knew it was there, maybe not, but we were pretty pissed about the whole thing.  

It's not something that I would do, but I don't know how you can prevent it.

regards
rusty...

243 shell though the hull hahahah

whats to say they didnt have that spot marked already. Just coz you know where it is doesnt mean its a secret there is a lot of boats out there that probably have the same spot marked.

Some people that are just out for a quick trip might be just going to that spot that they ALSO have marked.

Unless they follow you from the ramp or just keep following from spot to spot then they are with in there rights to also fish in the same patch of ocean.

My brother inlaw has a similar boat and I'm probably going out on Monday with him, hope we don't become suspects when we go out. Not that we'd ever fish that close to someone we don't know.

I had a similar experience though when I had my ten foot tinny 3.3hp motor, a much bigger boat came over and circled me and even yelled out "hey I can see you have fish underneath" He was checking with his sounder.........A..Hole, I still remember his boat to. Find your own spots or at least stay a few hundred metres away.

Danny.

well said jayce!  the thing is no one owns the ocean its free to be used by anyone where and when they choose,  its just a shame that there are a few people that dont know whats right from wrong, noighting worse then going 38k out to my fav fishing spot and have a boat rock up 15 mins later,  but hey they might have that spot also so sweet f a i can do about it. just try and out fish them i guess.

I'm not in favour of pingers infact they piss me off as much as the rest but who in all honesty on here would travel 38k's

to find someone on YOUR spot then turm around and go back as there could be a lot of k's to travel to YOUR next nearest spot, people just need to keep a respectable distance thats all, theres no point in fighting over something you dont own as in

fishing spots

I've headed out to one of my marks and found a boat on it. I usually move off as first in best dressed.

If I really wanted to fish the same mark then I would politely ask if it's OK with them to have a jig.

On the other hand we were fishing the Victoria River in the NT not long back, three boats we had, three boats in very quick sussession trolling the same rockbar (I'm talking 50m spacing between boats trolling a lenght of 100m only then rotating) and up comes a boat and drops anchor right on top of said rockbar. Absolutely no way to confuse the three boats were all trolling in quick succession and right over the rockbar.

The cowboys just dropped anchor and pulled out the Rum!

No manners there

Here is my take.if you rock up at a spot and someone else is fishing. Go to another spot.if your on a nice bit of your own ground keep a look out and move off before they are close. Learned this the hard way people see you catch and come over. Not anymore

Nobody owns the ocean - I agree

Pingers are the lowest form of scum on the ocean- I agree

Drive 38ks to a spot and find someone fishing it will I will be pissed off? - Definitely

****** but here's how you can make a difference

• Make sure you do plenty of exploring and ensure you have a plan B spot close by to all your spots. (If not a great excuse to look for more spots close by.)
• To protect your spots always pull up and move away well before someone approaches if you can - fish a nearby spot then come back after they have moved on. (it would be very rare that they could pick your exact drift and find your mark if you jump early enough. If they rock straight up to it, you know they probably have it already and would be fishing it whenever you aren't, so not much you can do about it.)
• If you move on before the guy gets there it suggests that there is no fish there so the pinger may only have a half arsed attempt to fish the mark before moving on.
• If a boat is in your way heading to a spot take a very wide berth and don;t slow down- who knows you may find another lump nearby (clearly sends the message that you aren't a pinger)
• If you get a persistent pinger move over to some sand and start a drift with lines overboard but just below the waterline. Wait till he pops out his sea anchor and drops his line then pull anchor and piss off like the clappers over the horizon.

Exceptions: 

• Fads (different etiquette required altogether)
• Sea Containers & Sambo aggregations (different ettiquette)
• Anchored boat with or without burley trail (no go zone period) Stay 50m minimum away and definitely not down wind or down current.
• Snapper in Cockburn sound (different ettiquette)
• Radar pingers %$#@$^ no chance.

Well said Andy Mac.

We went fishing outa Darwin last year, heading to a known spot and found others already on it. We kept our distance whilst deciding where to go next and dropped some plastics over the side in the meantime. Cleaned up on big black jews!

Whats the moral of the story? I dunno except that fish arent always only where you think!

I agree with a few of the others who have given the alternative point of view.

I am brand new to boating, fishing and heading out and loving every minute.

Mondays example of friend on board who happily offered spot coordinates so off we head 30k plus out only to find a boat right on top of the spot. Bah humbug we say, head off to a couple of alternatives and then head back to the spot later to find about seven other boats there. From my persepctive we were heading to a spot, and some might have thought we were pinging.  We scanned around a bit, kept our distance and dropped a couple of lines without luck. Definitely two sides to every story. I do like the other etiquette tips though.

It was a brilliant day on the water, no luck fishing unfortunately.

yesterday we had a guy that came out of no where trolling around us, scanning the ground, next minute he throws his sea anchor right infront of our drift, some people have no idea

who marks craypots and/or fishes on them?

Certainly not saying I havent/dont but Im a little curious as to the opinions of those who have a "black and white" view of pinging as being "the stealing of someone elses fishing spots"?

If you travel 38 k's out and you've only got one spot, then your not looking at your sounder often enough.

If someone sits 10 metres away in your berley trail, they are a bottom feeding cockroach.

Pingers or spot raiders are scum.

Morally, fs some one is on your spot when you arrive veer off and go elsewhere. By veering off I mean at least several hundred metres before.

Bit of an endless argument, but most pingers think they are justified because know one owns the ocean. Cheap cop out really, probably happy to bed a mates missus as well.

40km out. no one in eyes sight all directions. drifting one spot for over an hour and a boat comes and sets up 15mtr from us. mabe they had the same mark ( im sure he did ) but its a big bloody ocean mate. i could have chosen 20 other spots within 10 mins drive. im embarrassed for them. this shit happens every day and i honestly cant believe people do it.

Yeah they have to do it. I had one yesterday come and park 100m from me on the line I was drfiting. I was just releasing an undersize dhu to go back to the start of my drift the the other boats sets up upwind of me. and you could tell he pinged my spot as he did a half circle round me watching me fight a fish to find the lump I was fishing. and then puts out four rods between two of them.

In my books that just downright wrong whether you have the spot marked or not.

 Too many people think its OK to:-

• Ping a spot and drive off or worse still drift right up your clacker when you are in the middle of nowhere
• Push in to retrieve / launch their boat rather than going in boat order (I know this is contentious but its my firm view it should be boat at ramp order not trailer at ramp order)
• Tailgate you on the freeway to try and force you to change lanes
• Push in at road works racing up the blocked lane to get as far up the queue as they can before pushing in
• Young adults not giving up their seats on public transport for seniors or pregnant ladies. (I remember a young lad refusing to get up for my wife on the train... he soon moved when she threw up all over my newspaper gotta love morning sickness - but that was a long time ago naturally)
• Tieing up to the fads to stop anyone else fishing them
• Diving / spearing the fads when there are 5 or 6 other boats trying to fish them. (Nothing wrong with diving the fads but maybe best to pick a weekday if you must dive them and make it a quick dive in swim past and get back on the boat then wait your turn again)
• MERGE - what does that mean????? Push in???? yeah thats right speed up to gain that extra 3 seconds off your trip time rather than let someone who is in position and in turn, have that extra car length safely
• Wash every window on their car at the petrol bowser after paying when there is a queue a mile long to get to the pump. (Steve will remember that one - grrrr)
• Eat a kilo of grapes from the bag while you are waiting in line at the checkout (sorry mate but one or two grapes I can forgive but scoffing them non stop while the checkout chick scans the rest of your purchases and then when she weighs them you only pay for half what you ate.... thats STEALING in my book and especially nasty since its only a few dollars and you think its totally acceptable to do it blatantly in clear sight. Perhaps the muscle tonic, bulging biceps and tats intimidate most people so he's probably been getting away with it for years and clearly teaching his kids that its ok to steal as they were with him when he did it. Grrrrr!!!)

COMMON COURTESCY seems to have vanished in a small but growing portion of our comunity. Respect for others, their property and their rights was at the core of everything we were taught when I was a lad, but sadly that has long gone with the age of political correctness and a toothless justice system that encourages juvenille delinquency by letting offenders off far too lightly. 

Jeez I must be getting old and becoming a grumpy old man. 

Had the same thing happen to me in Geo Bay the other week, funny thing was I dont have a sounder at the moment, a boat just came around and around me and then sat 50m away.  I laughed and took off.  Was fishing the rough area that the artificial reef is off quindalip.

If some idiot parks 10m away from me in the ocean, the bugger is going to get an octo jig thrown in his general direction and across his lines.  If I can retrieve that octo jig quick enough and his lines that are tangled in them, then he will get his lines cut.  Got no problem doing that all day long.

Theres always plenty of room for other people out there, just a quick hey mate i fish this area too do you mind if I park up away from ya and fish as well? is the decent thing to do.

We were anchored on a red emperor spot getting a few when a boat approaches, he was trolling for billies.  He circled us then tried to tell us via vhf, there was more fish on his sounder 100mtrs away

we had it yesterdya up north. huge stretch of reef, we had a berely trail out diving and this one red boat comes and keeps trolling about 50m from us and then through our berely trail if we werent in it. kept at it for about and hour or so. then once he finnaly left had another small tiny come and anchor about 10m from our boat ( turns out it was our skippers friend) but then another guy in a smallish quintrex came right up to us aswell and anchored about 50m away again. this is in the middle of no wear along a huge 2-3km reef where i have never seen another  boat before.