Common courtesy dictates the rules when it comes to sharing space with your fellow anglers. If you see an angler standing on the shore catching fish after fish, you may be tempted to get as close to him as possible in the hopes of getting your share of the fish. But put yourself in his shoes. Would you want someone else to invade your space if you were hauling fish out?

Besides, it isn't the safest thing in the world to get within casting distance of an angler who is casting out his line. If the wind catches it or he makes a mistake, you could end up with the hook stuck in you.  Every angler needs a reasonable amount of space around him that he can be sure is free of objects that will impede his cast. So the rule is: - give him his space.

Another reason to keep a good space between you and the other anglers is that you don't want your lines to become entangled. Life is too short to spend half your day undoing the tangle. If you stand too close together, it is likely that your lines will either cross each other's when you cast, or become entangled under the water. And if you are tangled under the water without realizing it, any fish you may have managed to hook will almost certainly escape.

This rule of giving space applies even more so if you are out in a boat. Boating safety must be observed at all times. If one craft gets too close to another, a collision is likely. If you are in a boat and trolling the shoreline where someone is fishing, their line could get entangled in your propeller, causing you more problems. Remember that safety is much more important than catching fish. There will always be fish to catch, but you only have one life and you don't want to endanger it for the sake of one fish.

The only time when you may fish close to another angler is when you have either gone fishing together or you are fishing from a pier where everyone mostly sits fairly close to each other. This is because there is not a lot of room and besides, they don't have to make a wide cast. Often they will be fishing with a hand line, which will be going straight down.

When you are fishing fairly close together like this and one angler has a bite, it is a good idea for the others to immediately reel in their own lines until the fish is safely landed. The reason for this is that the fish is likely to swim any which way and could easily entangle your line in the process. These simple rules will ensure that everyone has fun and a fair chance of landing their catch safely.