“He was in my spot”: Man pulls a gun on another fisherman over fishing spot

A dispute over fishing space at Oly Lake in Grant County, Wisconsin, escalated far beyond arguments about lines and etiquette when one fisherman displayed and ultimately drew a handgun during a confrontation with another angler, according to bodycam footage reviewed by the YouTube channel WildlifeWarden.

The incident happened after deputies with the Grant County Sheriff’s Office were called to the lake by a fisherman who said another man had pulled a gun on him during an argument. Although the armed man later insisted he had never pointed the weapon at anyone and only wanted to protect his father, deputies concluded that taking the gun out during a verbal confrontation had crossed a serious line.

In the end, the suspect was arrested for disorderly conduct and taken to the Grant County Jail, where he later posted bond and was released.

The Argument Started Over Fishing Lines

The fisherman who called 911 told deputies he had been fishing by himself when he moved into an area where a family already had several lines in the water.

He said he knew “nobody owns the river” and believed he could fish there without crossing anyone else’s lines, but the group quickly began complaining that he was casting into their space.

According to his account, the argument became increasingly heated as the family continued telling him to move. He said he initially tried not to engage because he was outnumbered, but eventually one of the men insulted him and another began walking toward him.

The fisherman told deputies he stood up and started taking off his jacket because he thought a fight might be coming, but said he had not yet touched or threatened anyone when the younger man produced a firearm.

“He pulls his firearm out,” the fisherman said, adding that he believed the situation could easily have ended much worse if he had been carrying his own gun that day.

That concern became a recurring point in his conversation with deputies. He repeatedly said he had called police specifically because drawing a firearm during a dispute over fishing was dangerous and could lead to someone getting killed.

The Armed Man Said He Was Protecting His Father

The suspect, identified in the footage as 28-year-old Payton, gave deputies a different version of the confrontation.

He said he had been fishing with his mother and father, who already had three lines in the water, when the other man began casting between them and repeatedly crossing their lines.

Payton said his family had initially asked the fisherman to move farther down the bank so everyone could fish without getting tangled, but the man refused and became argumentative.

He described the situation as mostly verbal until the fisherman stood up and began moving toward his father.

According to Payton, that was when he lifted his sweatshirt and put his hand on his concealed handgun, intending to warn the other man to stop advancing.

At first, he denied actually removing the gun from the holster.

“That’s literally all I did,” he told deputies while demonstrating that he had simply lifted his shirt and grabbed the weapon.

He also denied pointing it at anyone and said his intention had been to communicate, in effect, that he did not want the argument to go any further.

Deputies Began Noticing Inconsistencies

As deputies interviewed everyone separately, however, the details about the gun began to change.

The other fisherman told officers that Payton had not merely shown the weapon, but had pulled it out and worked the action before telling him to back off.

Payton’s father also acknowledged that his son had taken the gun out, although he maintained that it was never pointed directly at the other man and was only displayed as a warning.

That placed Payton’s initial account in conflict with both sides.

Deputies returned to him and carefully walked through the sequence again, asking whether the gun had actually come out of the holster.

Eventually, Payton admitted that it had.

“In the heat of the moment,” he said, the handgun had come out into his hand, although he continued insisting that he never raised or aimed it at anyone.

One deputy pointed out that this admission was different from what Payton had said earlier, when he claimed only to have touched the gun under his sweatshirt.

That inconsistency mattered because investigators were trying to determine not only whether the weapon was present, but exactly how it had been used and whether the display could be justified as self-defense.

Officers Said Words Did Not Justify Going Straight To A Gun

The deputies repeatedly told Payton that they understood the argument had become heated and that both sides had been insulting each other and posturing.

What they did not accept was the leap from verbal aggression to displaying a deadly weapon.

“You can’t go from words or words and posturing straight to the endgame,” one deputy told him.

The officer explained that law enforcement officers themselves are trained to work through different levels of force, unless there is an immediate and serious threat that justifies going directly to a firearm.

In this case, deputies said there had been no physical fight, no weapon in the other fisherman’s hands and no clear evidence that Payton or his father were facing an immediate deadly threat.

The fisherman had stood up, removed his jacket and moved toward the family, which officers acknowledged could be interpreted as aggressive posturing, but they said that was still not enough to justify drawing a gun.

That distinction is important because concealed carry comes with more responsibility, not less. Simply having a firearm does not mean it should become the answer whenever an argument begins to feel threatening.

The Caller Said He Did Not Really Want Charges

The fisherman who called police remained angry about the gun but told deputies he was not especially interested in seeing Payton sent to jail.

His main concern was that the weapon be taken away.

“I don’t even care if the kid goes to jail or not,” he said. “Take that gun from him.”

He repeatedly warned that if he had been armed himself, seeing another man draw a handgun could have prompted him to fire in self-defense.

That possibility was also discussed by deputies, who told Payton that displaying the firearm could easily have caused the encounter to spiral into a shooting.

The officers framed the arrest partly as a way to make sure the confrontation ended that day and did not continue after everyone left.

Disorderly Conduct Was Chosen Over A More Serious Charge

Deputies told Payton that they had considered more serious options, including reckless endangerment, which could have been treated as a felony.

Instead, after interviewing the witnesses and deciding that he had likely displayed the weapon without actually intending to shoot anyone, they arrested him for disorderly conduct.

One deputy described that outcome as a relatively low-level criminal charge compared with what the facts might have supported.

The officer also explained that because Payton lived out of state, taking him to jail ensured that he could be booked, given a court date and properly processed rather than simply being released and contacted later.

The deputy emphasized that the arrest was intended as a consequence for taking a verbal fishing dispute into the realm of deadly force.

A Fishing Dispute Became A Lesson About Carrying A Gun

Before placing Payton in the patrol vehicle, one deputy spent several minutes talking with him about concealed carry and the responsibility that comes with it.

The officer said that even off-duty law enforcement officers often become more selective about carrying firearms as they gain experience, because simply having a gun introduces another layer of risk into any confrontation.

“When you put that thing on, it needs to be very calculated,” the deputy said.

Payton appeared to accept that the situation had gone too far and acknowledged that showing the gun may have been excessive.

WildlifeWarden’s narration concluded that deputies ultimately determined he had displayed and drawn the handgun during a verbal dispute over fishing spots, which was enough to turn an otherwise ordinary argument into a criminal matter.

The lesson from the incident is not really about who had the better claim to a few feet of shoreline. The argument could have remained exactly what deputies repeatedly called it: a petty fishing dispute.

Once a gun came out, however, the stakes changed completely, and that decision became the reason police were no longer dealing with tangled lines or bad etiquette, but with an arrest.