Public parks are supposed to be for everyone, but not everyone plays fair.

When fishing hooks turned a peaceful dog pond into a hazard, one clever owner turned the tide with meticulous precision.

You’ll want to read on for this one!

I’ve been feeding fish away from someone’s fishing spot

I got a dog, and my dog likes to swim.

We have a park nearby with a dedicated area for dogs, including a pond (the dog pond), which is connected to other ponds through ditches and the like.

My dog is a bit of a scaredy-cat. He won’t jump into the deep end — he needs a slope.

There are two slopes, one on either side of the pond, and the pond is about 30 meters across.

People use the pond for fishing too.

We’ve been getting our rare days of sunshine over the past weeks, which means people who fish are out fishing.

I already judge them — inflicting pain on animals is a weird hobby — but I don’t own the park, so there’s not much I can do.

For the most part, park goers have coexisted peacefully.

There are these three old-timers, late 60s to early 70s, who’ve been fishing in the dog pond for the past five years whenever the temperature gets above 25°C.

I leash my dog so he won’t bother them, tell them good day, walk around, and let him swim on the other side. Five years, never been a problem.

Last week Monday, I was doing exactly that.

But one day that changed.

One of them starts shouting, “You can’t do that, we’re fishing!” First, I ignored him. Then I shouted back.

It escalated into a verbal altercation where one of them threatened to “hook” my dog.

I responded by threatening to sink their boat (they have this really cool GPS boat).

They didn’t like that and threatened me further. At that point, I deescalated and went on my way.

I had a few laughs about it on the way home. I didn’t think it was too serious — boomers with attitude.

But the threatening behavior continued.

The very next morning, both slopes on the dog pond were littered with fish hooks. Thousands of them, both in the water and on the surrounding area.

I called the municipality, and they cleaned it up the same day.

No one was willing to address the issue head on.

I explained about the altercation, but there was nothing they could do.

I called the police, but unless I wanted to report the threats, there was nothing they could do either.

So it was time for this dog owner to take matters into their own hands.

So, I started reading up on fish species and their habits. This guy in the store has been schooling me.

Now, every night, I spend half an hour prepping the best food these fish have ever eaten — germinating corn, soaking tiger nuts in tuna extract, and making caramel vanilla salmon worm balls.

The last ones are particularly tricky because you need the right consistency, and they can’t have lumps. It took me a few days of testing.

They put their plan into action.

For about 10 days, I’ve been creating feeding grounds for different fish species at their favorable spots everywhere in the park except the old men’s fishing spot, hopefully keeping the fish away.

I don’t even know if it’s doing anything.

Not everyone approves of their pettiness, but it’s bringing them joy anyway.

My girlfriend keeps saying, “If you’d spend half the time you spend on this on something useful, something useful could be done.”

But I am delighted with myself and will continue to do so until the temperatures drop.

I’m already contemplating next year.

Now this was some petty pond politics.

Let’s see what Reddit made of this story.

This commenter thinks the dog owner should keep fighting the good fight.

Doesn’t the girlfriend understand this is serious business?

“Useful” is subjective anyways.

There are other ways of keeping the fish away, too.

With every carefully prepared bait, the tide shifted back toward fairness and calm.

Sheer determination is sharper than any fishing hook.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.