I have enjoyed the comments and learned a good deal from them. Maybe the most important thing to glean from what has been said is that every pond is different, every owner is different, and every neighborhood is different.
Concerning ponds, mine has only the dam plus maybe 400 feet of shoreline accessible by land out of a total of about a mile, and �insurance regulations� prohibit letting my neighbors fish from my boats or putting their own boats in.
Concerning owners, if my primary interest were largemouth rather than bluegill, I would probably be a lot more strict about who could fish and what they could keep. (Almost everyone else in the area lives and breathes only for trophy sized LMB.) Also, being able to look out my window and see the area where someone could fish from shore really helps.
The neighbors are usually law-abiding and they love to gossip. If anyone were sneaking on the place (as a couple of deer hunters have been known to do), I would hear about it if I didn�t see them, and I make it a point to talk about how sad, but necessary, it would be to prosecute trespassers. My biggest concern just now is that I hear rumors that someone may be planning to come after my wild turkeys this coming spring. But, that�s a slightly different problem I am working on now.
Lou, 13.5
