Stream Etiquette

[Trav]

Amen brother..I am one of the lucky ones with days off durring the week. I can't remember the last time I fished on a weekend or holiday. It's just not worth the hassle.

Sometimes you have to appreciate the fact the other guys out there are fishermen too...I give space to tourney guys. Been there done that....

I did see a couple guys looking desperate on Pomme on Thursday who had a space in mind who run up on other guys to fish. This is sketchy on ethics in my books.

I am pretty easy on tourney guys when it comes to location selection but it is wrong to jet in and and jet out. You should at least respect wake.

[Mitch f]

Sometimes you have to appreciate the fact the other guys out there are fishermen too...I give space to tourney guys. Been there done that....

I did see a couple guys looking desperate on Pomme on Thursday who had a space in mind who run up on other guys to fish. This is sketchy on ethics in my books.

I am pretty easy on tourney guys when it comes to location selection but it is wrong to jet in and and jet out. You should at least respect wake.

I will respect all who respect me. I've had tourney guys act like they own the lake and tried to quickly motor in front of me and fish the water I was obviously going to fish.

Just because a guy has chosen to be a professional fisherman doesn't give him a special right of way that I don't have. I will say that he was the exception and not the rule; most pros that I have come across were extremely nice and courteous. It's always the "wannabes" that are the worse.

[flytyer57]

Fishing the White River @ Cotter this AM, I had a couple guys in a boat launch from the boat launch just down stream, motor up just past me, and start to drift back down into where I was fishing.

Now if you're in a motorized boat, that kinda tells me you have the whole freaking river to fish. Why would you want to fish where some guy is wading?

This is what I'm talking about. Some jerks just don't give a darn about others.

[Mitch f]

Fishing the White River @ Cotter this AM, I had a couple guys in a boat launch from the boat launch just down stream, motor up just past me, and start to drift back down into where I was fishing.

Now if you're in a motorized boat, that kinda tells me you have the whole freaking river to fish. Why would you want to fish where some guy is wading?

This is what I'm talking about. Some jerks just don't give a darn about others.

Yeah, I agree with you on that one!

[gotmuddy]

Fishing the White River @ Cotter this AM, I had a couple guys in a boat launch from the boat launch just down stream, motor up just past me, and start to drift back down into where I was fishing.

Now if you're in a motorized boat, that kinda tells me you have the whole freaking river to fish. Why would you want to fish where some guy is wading?

This is what I'm talking about. Some jerks just don't give a darn about others.

very likely they were a guide. Guides on the white can be jerks sometimes.

[flytyer57]

very likely they were a guide. Guides on the white can be jerks sometimes.

No, they were just a couple of old geezers with their spinning rods and the mutt.

[laker67]

It has always been my assumption that a person's behavior on the creek, is a direct link to his attitude and behavior to everyday life. They would most likely be the back stabbing co worker, the grouchy neighbor, the guy who passes the whole string of traffic instead of waiting for his turn, and the guy who use's foul language in front of women and little kids, including his own. I first saw this type of behavior, on the trout creeks, back in the early 80's. They are quickly and surely passing it on to their own children and the next generation of trout anglers.

[Al Agnew]

Here's an etiquette question...what does everybody think?

You're floating down the river. It's a river that's not populated by the canoe hatch, so mostly all you'll encounter is the occasional angler or pair of anglers floating it. If you're like me, you fish fairly fast, and cover a lot of water during the day. Ahead, you see another canoe or kayak, guy or guys in it fishing. You know that they are fishing a lot slower than you are. But if you pass them and start fishing ahead of them, you seem like a jerk.

What I do is paddle past them, tell them where I'm taking out and how far I have to go, and keep paddling without fishing until I'm out of sight. I think that's the best I can do. But it always seems a little lame.

Even worse, there have been times when I've passed up others before lunch. Then I stop for lunch, and while I'm eating I see them coming. Now I really feel like a jerk if I finish eating real quick and get back on the water ahead of them, but I know that if I wait until they pass me, I'll soon catch up to them again and have to go through the whole thing once again. Aaarrrggghhh!

[eric1978]

Here's an etiquette question...what does everybody think?

Yeah, I hate it when that happens. Not much you can do, though. Best you can hope for is that they conveniently stop to take a break or wade a little and you can pass them then. But you can't let other people dictate the pace of your entire day, so I just try to have a quick, pleasant conversation as I blow past them so they don't think I'm a jerk. Besides, they should have stayed home knowing I was gonna float that stretch that day.

But on the positive side, I think fish that are spooked by a canoe get over it a lot faster than fish that are spooked by a guy stomping through their house...so if you're 5 minutes or so ahead of the guys you passed, it shouldn't really affect their catch rate. That's how I rationalize it anyway.

[stlfisher]

I am wade fisherman almost always and sometimes I can fish slow so if someone on foot wants to pass by and just politely says "hey mind if I pass through" or something like that I have no problem at all. It is all about attitude and intent. I might even share a spot with them as long as they seem polite etc. I don't mind a floater either...I am probably picking apart a spot and they are running and gunning.

For all the times I experienced jerks I have had great conversations and met some nice fisherman of the "I practice etiquette" clan.