Ask anyone about fishing courtesy and they’ll just laugh.

There isn’t any these days.

When it comes to getting that fish, anything goes.

Once upon a time, anglers respected each other’s space and safety.

One of the first things Dad taught me when we were in a boat running with the motor wide open was to slow to an idle if we passed near another boat that was anchored, so its occupants could fish that spot.

Another was to give your nearest neighbor plenty of casting room when fishing from a pier.

And if someone else was on your fishing spot before you, go somewhere else.

I haven’t seen anyone practice any of those rules of common courtesy in Florida in decades. The worst fishing sin is crowding in on someone else’s fish.

That happens all the time, especially in Mosquito Lagoon, home to Florida’s only landlocked population of giant redfish.

On the weekends, it looks more like a Wild West roundup of cowhands circling a herd of longhorns. Except these “cowboys” usually end up dispersing the school to nobody’s benefit.

If one angler is lucky enough to hook a fish, the others crowd in, giving him or her no room to play the fish.

The same thing happens on most area lakes.

Orlando bass guide Dean Puller is pretty well known, and just the sight of his boat draws a crowd.

“I had a spot where I could catch 25 to 30 fish in two hours, and one day I counted 32 boats in a 60-yard-wide area,” he said. “People were so stacked up on one another that nothing would hit — not with all that artillery being thrown into the water.”

He, too, wonders why things have changed so much since he was a young beginner.

“When I was a boy and saw somebody else catching fish, I didn’t go anywhere near them,” he said.

Of course, there were far fewer people here, especially when I was a young angler, and it was no problem giving them more room.

Still, you can show others a lot more courtesy on the water.

“I’ve always felt comfortable if someone was a two-cast distance away,” Puller said. “Then they weren’t impeding on your fishing.”

If we all don’t start cleaning up our acts, “angler courtesy” is going to end up truly a thing of the past.