Stream Etiquette

[flytyer57]

Why is it that when you are fishing a stream and for some ungodly reason it gets packed on a Sunday morning when the temp outside is 48°, that some clown always manages to wade into the area you are fishing.

Casting a woolly-bugger and letting it swing down stream on a short cast of about 30 feet this morning on the Norfork River, some ignoramus just walked right in where I was fishing. I ended up having to cut my cast to about 20 feet so I wouldn't snag his dumb butt. Then on top of that, he started making his way up closer to me. So close did this fool get to me, that I was tempted to place a cast into the back of his head, and then say; "Oh sorry, did I make that 15' cast a bit too long?"

Now I'm hoping this fool was not a member of OAF. One never knows. I do hope that he does read this post as a guest or anonymous user though. I want him to know that next time, I might not be so polite as to not say anything and just give up and go home. He just may end up with a size 8 bead head woolly-bugger in his neck.

Sorry for the rant, just had to air this out.

[Outside Bend]

The worst I ever had was at Montauk last winter. The day started around 18 degrees, with a high of 26- ice in the guides, the whole bit. But the fish were eating.

I was one of four folks fishing that day. Not four cars. Four people. And yet, with free reign over anywhere in the park, this guy still sidles up 15 feet to my right and starts casting, putting down the fish. He'd walk downstream about a hundred feet until I caught or hooked a fish, then he'd be right back at my side. Incredibly irritating.

[Norm M]

I was out this morning fishing a seam that holds bass and walleye. I waded out to a spot where i could cover it fairly well with plans to adjust position to cover the rest of it. Two guys in a boat who were about 1/4 mile downstream see me catch a few and immediately motor up. i thought maybe they just wanted to chat about what I was using but instead they started fishing the area. As i was wading back to shore to move further upstream one of them asks how fishing is. I told them I was catching fish in that spot and his reply was, yeah we saw that.

I moved up to fish a flat with boulders on it and got a few there. You guessed it, here comes the boat. This time they asked what i was using as I left, I declined to reply.

The only consolation was those clowns snagged up about every third or fourth cast and lost quite a few crankbaits. Instant karma or just lousy fisherman?

[Ill Trout Bum]

Unfortunately, common courtesy isn't so common anymore. I have witnessed unbelievable acts of rudeness in the past year alone. It seems everyone has a bad case of "me first" attitude. This is especially true in the trout parks where "combat fishing" is at it's worst.

I sometimes have experienced similar acts on the river and usually just shake my head and allow them to race ahead of me. My consolation comes in not imitating their behavior. When teaching someone new to the sport, I always stress courteous and ethical behavior.

[gotmuddy]

If someone is crowding me unnecessarily I will definitely tell someone.

[flytyer57]

If someone is crowding me unnecessarily I will definitely tell someone.

Oh I definitely wanted to , but since I had been out there freezing my butt off since 3 AM, and they were about to start generating in a half hour, I just decided to call it quits instead of causing a scene.

What really pisses me off though, is as I was packing up, this dickwad caught a big fish right in the area where I was originally fishing.

I hope he ignored the horns and got caught up in the high flows.

[ozark trout fisher]

That sucks. I have experienced the same thing many times.

Sometimes if it's someone who clearly just doesn't know, it can pay to explain, but most of the time it's best to just move on if it's someone who is just clearly being a jerk. Or if your in a bad mood, you can always cast right at them with a #2 Beadhead streamer. Sometimes they'll go into your backing:)

[Mitch f]

Trout park mentality! I had some local A**hole on the Gasconade run in front of me every time I was working my way down a bank. About 4 hours later he was at the boat ramp and said he has lived here all his life and asked if I was from St. Louis and how did I know about this put in. I told him this is a trophy Smallmouth management area and is well known to everyone. He said he never heard of such a thing. Had he not been there with his son I would have told him what I thought about his behavior.

[id10t]

Why is it that when you are fishing a stream and for some ungodly reason it gets packed on a Sunday morning when the temp outside is 48°, that some clown always manages to wade into the area you are fishing.

Casting a woolly-bugger and letting it swing down stream on a short cast of about 30 feet this morning on the Norfork River, some ignoramus just walked right in where I was fishing. I ended up having to cut my cast to about 20 feet so I wouldn't snag his dumb butt. Then on top of that, he started making his way up closer to me. So close did this fool get to me, that I was tempted to place a cast into the back of his head, and then say; "Oh sorry, did I make that 15' cast a bit too long?"

Now I'm hoping this fool was not a member of OAF. One never knows. I do hope that he does read this post as a guest or anonymous user though. I want him to know that next time, I might not be so polite as to not say anything and just give up and go home. He just may end up with a size 8 bead head woolly-bugger in his neck.

Sorry for the rant, just had to air this out.

Rant on. I have an idea that could be beneficial. OAF Cards that we could give to fellow fisher persons. There need to be 2. One we give to the folks that are friendly and courteous. It would have the OAF Web Site on it. The second one would have a direct link to a page that explains river etiquette and lets them know they have been a jack *&^.

Thoughts

[stlfisher]

The worst behavior I have seen was at the Current. A friend of mine and I were fishing above Tan Van and ran into a couple in their late 40's or early 50's working downstream. The husband, was one of those know it all ultra competitive fly fisherman. He was of course giving his wife and us unsoliticed advice and generally treated his wife like like crap. I felt bad for her. Whenever, he would catch a fish (all 2 of them) he would then announce very loadly what he caught it on. Then he would make a comment about how stupid people are and how they can't fish etc. My buddy and I just left half amused, but mostly disgusted.

We took a lunch break and then went to Baptist. Well we got to Baptist and finished gearing up. Sure enough this guy and his wife pull up, jump out of their car like it was some kind of fire drill, grab their gear (without putting it own mind you), and actually took off in a full sprint downstream. It was so quick I wasn't sure they had time to actually turned the car off first. I just stood there dumbfounded watching two grown adults, flailing about, throwing water all over the place, attempting to high step it downstream. It was probably one of the most pathetic and funniest moments I have had while fishing. 30 seconds pass and my buddy turns to me and says "well you don't see that every day." I have to give them credit though...how one of them didn't eat it hard I will never know. This kicker is this was our first time at Baptist so we didn't even now where to go. They did all that running for nothing!

It actually worked out well...we went back to the hole above Tan Vat and tore them up.