Was working in my garden late this afternoon, dog started barking toward the ponds, about 800 feet west. I looked up and saw a guy cast netting. I went up and confronted him. He said he didn't see any no trespassing signs. He was a young guy, early 20's, wanting bait for flatheads at the nearby White River. I was pretty mad at first, but I let him have a few small BG for bait. I told him I better never catch him there again without asking. Disgusted.

Amazing. Did he have to cross a fence? I’m sure if he would have caught some of your channel cats, he would have kept them. He had to know it wasn’t a public pond..

That was a chance to perhaps provide a little guidance for a young guy who is interested in fishing rather than less desirable activities. I probably would have gone ballistic, but you no doubt did the right thing. I too am a bit more lenient on younger folks.

Now, if I catch him again, without asking me, I will go ballistic. I think it wasn't his first time. One day last week I saw a bunch of bubbles on the surface in various places, like something had been dragged along the bottom, like a net.

No fences. I don't want to have to mow around a fence, and it would interfere a lot with hay operations, where you need to make wide turns.

No signs. You don't have to have them in this state. Trespassing of that type is obvious. There is no place to put purple paint, other than putting up posts that would become obstacles.

It's a never-ending process.

Stay strong and don't get down about it.

Daughter is building a new small house overlooking our ponds. Dry wall installers were there the second day installing drywall.

Looked out my window on the morning on that second day and three of them were out on the dock fishing.

Called daughter to see if she given permission. She had not.

I got hot and went ballistic. Quite frankly I scared myself. I had not been that angry at anyone or come down on them like I did for I don't know how long. I'm generally a laid back logical kind of guy. Not this time. I actually felt bad about it afterwords. Three mid twenties guys and I don't think they will try fishing there again. But it really kind of spooked me that I could develop that kind of anger that quick.

Did a little soul searching about how to handle myself in future similar situations.

I was mad that someone would cast net my ponds, but I held back a little. Mostly, I was shocked that anyone would be so brazen to enter obvious private property, with the pond being 350 feet back from the nearest public road.

I found a little more about the guy. He's a local..early thirties. I'm not a good judge of age.
I put up a "No Trespassing" sign today at the ponds, facing toward the road.

Some of the long time locals have been hunting and fishing on everybody without permission since their teen years, and think it's their right.

I have only owned this place four and a half years, but have lived within 15 miles my whole life, less four years in the USMC.

I'm familiar with that mentality of the long time locals. Saying things like "My grandpa was friends with the old owner", etc.

Wise move John. It is one piece of a puzzle that only costs a few bucks. Take pictures of the "No Trespassing" sign close-up and far away in case the trespassers tear down the sign and then claim it was never there when the Sheriff is interviewing them one day.


A trespasser told a buddy of mine once...."hell these city slickers buy these properties and think they own them, but we been hunting and fishing here forever".....they dont seem to understand well yeah that's what private property is...you purchase land and it's yours....hello?

John, this issue was one of the main reasons I decided to build a pond rather than buy an existing one.

I did build these ponds. The first one was renovated, but before that, had deteriorated into a swampy, overgrown mess that didn't hold fish. No one could have claimed to have fished there for many years.

Here's a picture.

Checking.....checking. Hummm not east Texas.

Right! We just have road hunters that kill bucks on the side of the rd and then cut off their heads for trophy antlers and leave the bodies to rot along the rd side.

John, I would be pretty sympathetic with folks looking for bait - but as you stated they should always ask first. There's no excuse for anyone to wonder that far from the ROW to toss a net into a pond without asking permission first.


My HOA pond has 4 signs posted stating the pond and surrounding land is for use by HOA members only and others by permit. I run into quite a few people who don't belong down there - they all have the same story. "My ______ used to live here 15 years ago, I've had permission to fish it since then" or "I'm just getting bait"

Its funny, everyone who gets bait out of my pond already has permission to fish it anyway.


The sad part is, folks who live here will have family come to town and fish the pond - they always leave behind a mess I have to clean up. Water bottles, lure packaging, food, etc.

Lusk sez "People think water melons and fish are free."

Wow. I had a watermelon stolen off the pond bank last year, and it wasn't even ripe yet. I had thinned the vine down to one melon and was watering it from the pond.

Around here people do the same thing: “ We been fishing here for 20 years ...... bla bla bla... we had to fence off parts of a private road cause folks think they can hunt there....

In the state of Louisiana, you dont even have to have a no trespassing sign, much less a fence. If you aren't carrying a written permit on your person, you are trespassing. Game wardons will take everything you got in a heartbeat. We used to hunt just about anywhere we wanted back in the 70s. You dont dare to now if you have any scrupples at all. If you aren't on a lease, you're hunting public land with 10,000 others. Half of which should never own a gun. I hardly ever hunt any more. Fishing isn't much different, especially in the Mississippi basin. A man owns a field that usually is dry, but spring rains flood it. Just because you can get there by boat doesn't mean you can fish it. The B.A.S.S. ELITES were here on the Sabine River two weeks ago. They could fish anywhere they could get to by boat in Texas. Louisiana was completely off limits.