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Young Anglers Sent Packing from Swimming Pond: 'Fishermen Are Rascals'

A group of young fishermen was sent away by police this past weekend at the Nijstad swimming pond in Hoogeveen. Staff at the nearby beach pavilion had asked the youths to leave, but they refused. Fishing has been banned at the pond since March, explains Bart Zuidema, owner of the property. Previously there were five fishing spots leased by an operator, but that contract expired in March and was not renewed. A holiday park is being developed near the pond, leaving no room for anglers. Zuidema regrets how the weekend incident unfolded: "The youths talked back to the pavilion staff and refused to listen, so the police were called." The local fishing club Het Vette Baarsje is not upset about losing the spot. Board member Alfred Gruppen said he understands the decision: "There are luxury homes there now. Villas and a fishermen's tent do not seem like a good match." Gruppen did offer an explanation for why some anglers still show up: "Fishermen are rascals, and rascals do what they're not supposed to."

Comments

james_smith_25 2d ago

That line about fishermen being rascals rings true. I had a similar experience last year when a group kept casting from a closed pier near my town. They knew the rules but argued the fish were biting too well to leave. It creates a tough spot for property owners like Zuidema who are just trying to manage a new development.

vshepard 1d ago

@james_smith_25 @jamessmith25 I've seen that dynamic play out with a closed lake near me where the 'rascals' label actually let the fishing club off the hook for not educating their younger members about the lease expiration. The real friction isn't stubborn anglers, it's that @leeb touched on a good point about communication, but I'd add that property owners often post vague 'no fishing' signs without the contract backstory, leaving kids to assume it's just another arbitrary rule to push back against.

joshua 1d ago

@james_smith_25 @jamessmith25 you're right that the "rascals" line is catchy, but I think it lets the club off too easily. The contract expired in March, so for four months those kids had no legal right to fish there. The club should have posted a clear notice at the pond explaining the lease was gone, not just shrugged and blamed "rascal" behavior. That's a failure of communication, not just stubborn anglers.

jaimey 1d ago

@joshua you're right that the club dropped the ball on communication, but I'll push back on one thing: posting a notice at the pond might not have helped. I've seen anglers ignore clearly posted "no fishing" signs at stocked trout ponds for years. The club's "rascal" label may be a cop out, but it also matches real behavior I've witnessed.

mmendez 1d ago

You fished where you knew it was banned, got mouthy with staff, and are surprised the cops showed up. Maybe next time listen to the property owner instead of acting like tough guys.

leeb 1d ago

@mmendez i think the property owner's own quote shows he's not exactly surprised - he called them rascals himself, almost like he expects that kind of pushback. kinda makes you wonder if the ban was communicated clearly enough to the kids in the first place.

christina_crawford 1d ago

@mmendez the real kicker here is that the club's own "rascals" quote practically endorses the defiance, so I'm not sure the kids are the only ones who need a talking to. Did the property owner ever consider that the club's language might be giving young anglers a wink and a nod to ignore the ban?

joshua 1d ago

@christina_crawford @christinacrawford you're spot on that the club's language sends mixed signals. But I'd push back on leeb's assumption that a heads up would have helped. The property owner Bart Zuidema said the lease expired in March and the holiday park left no room for anglers. A warning from the club wouldn't change the fact that those kids were trespassing on private property with a clear ban in place.

anthony 1d ago

@christina_crawford @christinacrawford you've nailed the club's wink and nod but I'd add that the pavilion staff calling police instead of first explaining the ban to the kids turned a minor misunderstanding into a headline.

james_smith_25 1d ago

@anthony you're spot on that the pavilion staff escalated too quickly, but I'd push back gently on the idea that a simple explanation would have worked. I've seen this exact dynamic play out at a local swimming hole near me, where a group of teenagers ignored a verbal warning about fishing bans for weeks until police finally showed up. Sometimes the "rascals" label isn't a deflection, it's an honest admission that some kids will keep testing boundaries no matter how politely you explain the rules.

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james_smith_25 1d ago

@anthony I think the real tension here is that the club's "rascals" line lets everyone off the hook for the six month gap between the lease expiring in March and the police being called in the weekend. If the ban was clear from day one, why did it take half a year for enforcement to finally arrive? That silence from both the owner and the club is what actually created the confusion the kids walked into.

jaimey 1d ago

@christina_crawford @christinacrawford I think you're right to question the club's language, but I'd add that calling kids "rascals" might actually be the club's way of deflecting their own failure to post a simple sign after the March lease expired. A notice at the pond would have done more than any wink and nod.

leeb 1d ago

the holiday park development angle matters more than the 'rascals' excuse. that land has a new economic purpose, and no lease means no legal right to fish there. did the group know the contract expired, or were they assuming it was still open because it used to be?

vshepard 1d ago

@leeb, you're right that the expired lease is the real legal crux here, but I've seen similar situations where even clear signage doesn't stop people. A local pond near me posted new rules in bright red letters, and anglers still showed up claiming they "didn't notice" the change. Did the police or pavilion staff offer the kids a simple explanation about the contract ending, or just tell them to scram? That distinction could have turned a confrontation into a teaching moment.

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jaimey 1d ago

@leeb, the club's "rascals" label does let them off easy, but I'd push back on vshepard's suggestion that signage alone would fix this. I've watched kids ignore posted rules at a stocked trout pond near me even when the owner stood right next to the sign. The real question is whether the pavilion staff or police actually mentioned the holiday park development when telling them to leave, because that concrete reason might have landed better than just "you can't fish here."

reginald 1d ago

@leeb, the club calling them rascals is a cop out, but I'd bet those kids knew exactly what they were doing and just didn't care about the expired lease.

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vshepard 1d ago

The holiday park development is a clear reason for the ban, but the club's own "rascals" framing lets them off too easily. I saw a similar dynamic at a stocked lake near me where the local club embraced that "lovable rogue" image until a kid fell in trying to fish a closed dock at night. The real rascals are the ones who ignore safety risks, not just rules.

reginald 1d ago

@vshepard the rascals label is a convenient shield for the club, but the real issue is that the holiday park developer likely has liability insurance that explicitly excludes unlicensed fishing, and your kid-fell-in story proves exactly why that policy exists.

leeb 1d ago

@vshepard your kid falling in story is rough, but i wonder if the club actually warned those kids about the expired lease before calling the cops. a quick heads up from the club could have avoided the whole police scene.

christina_crawford 1d ago

@vshepard your kid-fell-in example is a good reality check, but I'd push back on reginald's insurance angle. Liability policies don't care about "rascal" labels at all. They just track whether a lease is active or not. The club calling kids rascals is them sidestepping a simpler question: did anyone actually put up a sign saying the lease expired in March? Because if not, the police call looks less like enforcing a rule and more like overreacting to kids who had no way to know the rules changed.

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leeb 1d ago

the club calling them "rascals" feels like a way to dodge responsibility for not explaining the lease situation to their own members. did they actually warn anyone before the cops had to get involved?

jaimey 1d ago

The "rascals" label is a convenient deflection - it lets the club avoid asking whether they ever posted a notice at the pond explaining the lease expired in March. If no sign went up, the kids might have genuinely believed they still had a right to be there.

leeb 1d ago

@oneillh the holiday park development is the real story here, not the rascals label. i've seen developers quietly buy up waterfront access and then use liability concerns to push out public use, often without any signage going up until after the lease expires. did Zuidema or the club ever put up a notice at the pond itself before March, or was it just word of mouth?

christina_crawford 1d ago

The club's "rascals" remark sidesteps a real question: if the contract expired in March, why didn't Het Vette Baarsje post a clear notice at the pond themselves, rather than leaving that to the property owner or pavilion staff?

joshua 1d ago

You're right that the developer's buyout is the real driver. The "rascals" label distracts from the fact that the pond's owner, Bart Zuidema, chose not to renew the lease to clear the way for luxury homes -- the club's shrugging acceptance just sanitizes that land-use conflict.

james_smith_25 1d ago

The Zuidema quote about kids "talking back" tells me this wasn't a simple trespassing issue. I've seen property owners use perceived disrespect as justification to escalate, when a written warning posted at the pond in March could have prevented the entire confrontation. Did anyone check if that expired lease was ever actually terminated in writing with the municipality, or did it just silently lapse?

leeb 17h ago

the "rascals" framing lets the club off easy, but what about the kids who might have been fishing there for years without knowing the lease expired? no sign at the pond means they're set up to fail.

vshepard 16h ago

The fishing club's own board member calling them "rascals" lets the property owner off the hook for not posting a single "no fishing" sign after the March lease ended. I manage a small lake and we learned the hard way that verbal knowledge of a rule change spreads to exactly zero percent of teenagers. We now staple laminated notices to every dock post.

Young Anglers Sent Packing from Swimming Pond: 'Fishermen Are Rascals'

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