ORIGINAL: crappie guy
TT:
I would say that it is different b/c every echo on a fish finder isn't necessarily a fish. If someone was using one of those underwater cameras then your example would be more appropriate. Also, using a fish finder doesn't guarantee a bite but snagging a fish at the spillway is as close to a guarantee that there is in fishing. Now if you catch a fish at the spillway legally, by all means put it on your stringer. However, that's not the issue people have with the Linesville circus.
Here's a sampling of what irks people at the spillway:
1. Snagging fish rather than landing them legally
2. Guys catching a limit and leaving their buddy to hold their spot while they run the limit home so they can come back and keep fishin.
3. Local Yokels who think they own the spillway.
4. The occasional fist fight that breaks out when someone tries to be a hard @$$ there.
Through reading the boards it appears that the fish commission is more of a presence at the spillway this year. I'm not sure who posted that earlier in the thread but I read it. My cousin was there fishing (out in a canoe) and fish commish made him pull his walleye out of the water, put it next to a measuring tape, just to make sure it was at least 15, which it was. All this while the fish commish was on shore looking out with binoculars.
My honest opinion about the whole spillway area is this. There are people who are willing to put up with this so called circus to fish and catch their limit. Yes it may be easier but frankly I fish to catch fish. MOST people who say "I fish for the experience, not to catch fish" are lying and are full of pooo. The other side are the people who aren't willing, to old, or in a position where their bodies won't allow them to endure the conditions at the spillway so they use the boards to complain about it.
The way I see it is there are people who will put up with it and will go there and catch fish. EVERYONE has the exact same opportunity to show up, wait in line, or sit out there cramped up in a canoe. If that's not your idea of fishing then by all means do what makes you happy. However, that doens't give anyone the right to complain about others who do. As far as the snagging fish goes I don't do that at all. Sure there are people that do it but being that you don't like this type of fishing I'm willing to bet that you're just going off of what you read here or have heard, rather than sat down there and saw.
If what was going on there was really having an affect on the fish population the fish commish would surely have someone camped out there during this time of year. Personally I'd like to see that just so that the idiots that feel the need to throw punches might refrain from doing so.