Fishing Etiquette

[bigbowtrout]

One time I drove way down south to a cutty stream in the middle of nowhere, as far as my little 4x would take me. I was on a solo fishing trip for a few days.

 

But, sure enough, as soon as I get started fishing I see two anglers coming up from behind me, fast. In the middle of nowhere. These to guys had the NERVE to insist on pool hopping with me upstream in MY water! Then, they had the NERVE to feed me barbecue back at their truck, invite me to camp with them, insist I drink all their scotch, and insist I fish with them the next day. My solo fishing trip was completely ruined.

 

As I tell my toddler several times a day, "it is more fun to share." You'll find plenty of guys out there who never learned that lesson, and a lot of this etiquette stuff is to avoid pissing them off.

 

 

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!

[walker1]

So much of this is perspective. I had a trip last winter on the Crow, where we arrived at Burmis and decided to head upstream (where almost everyone goes in the winter)...couple other cars there, so we knew we would be seeing people. There was a group there rigging up when we arrived, did the whole "how's it going" thing, but found them not too interested in talking...that's fine. The funny thing was though, as you could see them get quiet, and move a lot faster when they saw we were flyfishing too.

 

We took our time and found the first run above the bridge open when we got there. Fished for a while, and then started moveing upstream. We finally ran into them a couple runs up, and the moment they saw us, you could see them reeling in and running upstream to beat us to the next pool. We just laughed and fished the pool they left. This actually happend a few more times that day, and it never really bothered us, but I'm betting it did them. We joked hopeing to see them around the next corner, so we could see their reaction. My buddy actually wanted to jump 3 or 4 runs ahead of them (which is totally fine etiquette in my books), but decided to just let it be.

 

Was actually expecting to come on here the day after and see someone post a report about lack of etiquette from our group, and how we kept trying to poach their water even though they were there first. It's all about perspective.

 

Sometimes we just need to relax, and put yourself in the other person's shoes. Just because you're heading up or down stream doesn't mean that you get first dibs. Sometimes people take 'etiquette' too far.

 

Hey Tim............................ I remember we did well regardless and as you say got a laugh out of it. Sometimes you can do everything right and still meet people who just don't get it. I also recall the scoth and beer went well at days end!

[bloom]

One time I drove way down south to a cutty stream in the middle of nowhere, as far as my little 4x would take me. I was on a solo fishing trip for a few days.

 

But, sure enough, as soon as I get started fishing I see two anglers coming up from behind me, fast. In the middle of nowhere. These to guys had the NERVE to insist on pool hopping with me upstream in MY water! Then, they had the NERVE to feed me barbecue back at their truck, invite me to camp with them, insist I drink all their scotch, and insist I fish with them the next day. My solo fishing trip was completely ruined.

 

As I tell my toddler several times a day, "it is more fun to share." You'll find plenty of guys out there who never learned that lesson, and a lot of this etiquette stuff is to avoid pissing them off.

 

Ha, forgot about that. Friggin cool. In the middle of nowhere, and first we were suprised to come across someone, then second, we actually knew the guy. Nothing better than sitting on a tailgate at the end of the day with 'pops' and a little bbq.

 

Also seeing a pattern here with me and scotch...not sure if thats a good or bad thing

[H2O]

Also seeing a pattern here with me and scotch...not sure if thats a good or bad thing

 

Just for the record, the 3 of us would have made the hike in the morning if it wasn't for your pattern.

[bhurt]

Here is my take on fishin etiquette.

 

What I do is I go up to the person regardless to weather they are fly fishin or using center pin, spin gear, etc... and ask them how their day is going, having any luck, what are they using, I share some of my stories with them and they share some with me, and by that point the person is very open to you (I am ever the salesman) and I find I usally can find a spot where ever I want. I do not bring aggression with me, cause if I come up to a person very aggressivly then they are going to treat me very aggressivly.

 

Now what do I do if someone intrudes on me is I calmly go over and talk to them, if they do not want to hear anything I have to say then I usally get up and leave with some very cheecky comments, usally something like, "YOU THINK WE WERE BACK IN THE DAYS OF SAGRAGATION WHERE CERTAIN PEOPLE COULD FISH WERE EVER THEY WANT REGARDLESS TO WHO THEY ARE!!!!" Or if the person gets me really steamed up I sit on the bank and toss small rocks into the hole were I was pushed out, if the person says something I shrug my shoulders and say "Isn't pay back a bitch!"

 

Everyone has there diffrent view on what should be done and what shouldn't be done, I always suggest talking to the person calmly ay first, if it comes down to physcial violence or you feel threaten just get up and walk away, the bow is a aswome river with lots of fish everywhere and one jackass isn't worth ruining your day.

 

Remeber things have a way of coming back and biting jackasses in the rear end when they are not expecting it, but I find beeing friendly and open with others usally ends up good in the end.

 

Remeber good things comes to good people, and when life throws you lemonds, paint that *hit gold.

 

[InvermereAngler]

I hope the dinks that crashed in on my group today read this.

 

Me and 3 friends were fishing a run today and a group of 8 guys decided to crash in and fish all around us. One guy was so pissed that we were there he went and sat in the bushes by himself for 2 hours and sulked (I thought he was being nice by not crashing in on us). After awhile he decided to fish a bit and he was the worst person in the whole group. If any of you guys are a members on this board you should be ashamed of your self and actions.

 

 

 

 

[Myth1228]

It seems harder and harder to run into fishermen who understand, or, even care about, ettiquette. Yesterday during the Bullshead opener, beedhead and I had encountered a ridiculous amount of @***hole fishermen. When we first arrived at the lake, we noticed that the spot we were hoping to fish was empty. Within 20 minutes of casting out, a spin fisherman (we will get to the fly guy later) came over and started casting his huge bobber literally within 10 feet of me. Not only did this guy park himself right on top of me, but he then began to "educate" me on how to fish the lake, etc. Anyways, I got tired of this guy casting his line over top of mine and moved closer to Jeff.

 

Shortly after the above incident we moved to the big point east of Golden Pond. After about 5 minutes of fishing, a boat with 3 spin fisherman watched Jeff pull a trout in, and then proceeded to drop anchor directly in front of us, approximately 40 feet off shore. Not willing to give up our spot for a group of @sshole boat fisherman who could have fished anywhere in the entire lake, we proceeded to have a rather loud conversation back and forth stating exactly what we thought of them, followed by tossing double nymph rigs "slightly" close to their position. After about 20 minutes of this, the boaters still hadn't had so much as a bite and decided to move on.

 

Not long after the first boat left, another one with 2 spinners came by and watched us land a fish. Immediately upon us releasing the fish, the boat made a big U-turn and began to repeatedly troll back and forth not 25 feet in front of us. After the 3rd or 4th pass through our casting zone, Jeff loudly commented that we could probably land our rigs right in their boat if we wanted to. Not being one to pass up a challenge I waited for the boat to come back for the next pass and laid out a number of false casts directly in their line of travel (Obviously I wasn't about to try and intentionally hit anybody with my rig, they were 60 feet away and approaching - the point was to make it clear to them that we were tired of having a freaking boat repeatedly motor directly through our cast zone). Again, this boat got the hint and moved on.

 

The final and, perhaps, most obnoxious hole roach came an hour or so after the second boat left. Jeff and I were fishing approximately 50 feet down from another pair of fisherman. We had been fishing near this group all morning, and each pair was leapfrogging over eachother throughout the morning. Any time one of the pairs passed the other one, we always made sure to give a good distance so as to not interfere with the stationary group's fishing. After a while, the guys we had been leapfrogging had moved to about 40 feet or so away from us when @***hole #3 came strutting over the otherwise barren area and parked himself right in between Jeff and the other group. @***hole #3 was a fly fisherman with the worst casting skills imaginable and a real inflated sense of himself as best I could tell. Both our group and the other pair immediately looked at this guy as if to way "wtf?", yet he just kept casting into each of Jeff and the other guy's cast areas. Not only did this guy think it was a fantastic idea to interfere with two fisherman, but he also thought it would be a great idea to stare at Jeff and I with dirty looks the entire time he was there. After a 20 minute staring match between us and the new guy, we decided to go back to the parking lot where we met up with adc and his friends.

 

I honestly do not understand how people rationalize that they should jump directly on top of other people and cross lines with them. I, as well as Jeff and the others from this board that we routinely fish with, go out of our way, to the point of fishing in less than ideal locations, to avoid interfering with the enjoyment of others. As was stated above, when somebody approaches and shoots the breeze a bit, builds a rapport, etc we are more than happy to share what we are using and scoot over so they can join us; however, when people like those described in my above rant decide to try and push us out of our holes without so much as a hello, we don't typically respond as kindly.

 

In any event, the situations described throughout this thread are all to common and it wont be the first, nor the last, time that any of us experience them.

[Jokey]

I almost hate to say it but discussing fishing ettiquette here is practically a waste of time (with the exception being of the fellow who asked).

Chances are pretty darn good that everyone using the board is well aware of common sense and courtesy and acts accordingly. It is the people who have no idea how to handle themselves even on the internet that go about their daily lives pissing people off and generally acting like flamin' a-holes that are the one we have problems with on the water. I do wonder however how many of the non posting lurkers, that come to various fishing boards in hopes of getting good intel, are the fools I seem to run into.

 

J

[kipper]

A couple of years back on the Crow me and a friend were fishing down from the Colliers(sp) and we were planning on fishing downstream. We were both in the water near shore when 2 guys showed up and walked through the run right in front of us without so much as a look our way. They were almost 2 stepping tossing nymphs against the far bank walking down the middle of the fricking river. A while later we walked downstream and to a really nice rocky hole on a corner...we were only there about 15 minutes when a film crew came out from the other bank across from us - yes you are reading this right -and a couple pinheads dressed in their fancy fishing gear proceeded to fish downstream right across from us ..i guess they thought we would leave but we stuck around for some time and watched the "show' none of them caught a fish while we were there...but it ruined our day.