Marker 58....CROWDED!!

For the last couple of days I have been hitting Marker 58 and easily limiting out on good eating size trout. The water is clear and the guides are plentiful. This morning I fished the deep end of the bar with my good buddy, Judge Oscar Garcia, and we started pounding the trout. All of the fish were in the 16-18" range and its didn't take long to fill our limits.

We continued fishing and began to cull and release. As I picked up a good trout I heard a motor coming up behind me and as I turned around a guide and his party of four had eased in behind me. I could have easily cast into their boat. They were fishing bait and almost immediately started boating small trout. I didn't say anything but surely thought it. They were really loud and annoying.
Shortly there after another guide eased into position close to the first. I started to invite them for a beer and party!
I have nothing against people trying to earn a living. In fact in the state of our United States, I highly encourage it, but even in the guide profession there are rules of etiquette. I guarantee if it had been me pulling up that close to the guide(s), someone would have given me a piece of mind.
Reminds me of a guide I ran into a number of years back. My brother in law and I had gone into South Bay early one morning. I spotted a boat anchored and five people wading the west shoreline. We proceeded to move down and beyond them by about a quarter mile. As we were getting ready I saw one of the guys headed in our direction. I proceeded to launch my kayak and my brother in law continued to get ready. He was wading....by himself. As I paddled away I noticed the individual had reached my boat and was talking to my brother in law all the while throwing his hands in the air. Almost as quickly as he appeared he waded back with his group. I took the kayak and headed for the North shoreline which was another half mile away. Later when I returned I was told that it had been a local guide who was raising hell about us invading his private fishing place.
I blew it off, but later received a call from the guide's wife. She cussed me out for taking money from her husband and food off their table. A picture of my boat ended up on the website Too Cool Fishing. I was blackballed by several guides in Port Mansfield, but it really helped my DVD sales.
I sent the guide a personal apology, but never heard from him again. His wife stated that the area we had gone into was his spot. I asked her old he was and she replied not as old as you... old fart. I replied back to her that I had started wading that spot back in the early 70s and that she and her husband had probably been in diapers. She hung up!
Never ceases to amaze that we all have to share the waters and yes courtesy is very important. Seems that some of the younger generation failed that subject.
Now back to our fishing. the majority of our trout came on topwaters and white split tail Gulp. Plastics in brown anf grape with chartruse tails also worked.
Oscar was able to secure a Triple Hitter by catching a 14" flounder and a 23" red, along with his trout. Hard to do down here!

Lots of boats and people on the water this weekend. Several tournaments going on.
Just a note when talking about guides, I have been facebook friends with an individual who fishes from POC to Baffin Bay area. He recently posted that his parties took 240+ trout the last couple of days. Then another guide posted he had taken upwards of 500+ last week. Not sure if this is hype or truth, but it's numbers like those that give guides bad names among the general public.All of those numbers where taken on croakers.
Using their figures it would appear that between the two they serviced 147 clients last week. I am sure that they will say they released a good number, but we all know that fish caught on croakers suffer a high mortality rate. I just ask that you guys stay on the middle coast and stay away from the LLM with your croakers!!
See ya on the water!