When Grace Fails

[WestCentralFisher]

If you spend any amount of time on public water, you're well aware how delicate a dance it can be finding a half decent place to fish without getting in someone else's way. The best you can do is minimize how much disruption you cause to your fellow man, and try to extend grace when someone else blurs the line a bit on how close is too close. The general idea is that we're all here to relax and enjoy a pretty spot, and you hope not to make that harder for the other guy. With any luck, the favor will be returned.

But then there are times when that grace fails.

Today I arrived, to my surprise, at a nearly blown out river. I quickly decided to just work the banks and leave the waders in the car. Too little wadeable water and too much downside risk if I misjudge things. About 45 minutes into what would be a slow day, I see a gentleman getting in the river about 20 feet upstream. Ok, a little close, but he sees me. Surely he'll work the shallow, wadeable water upstream and we can both go on about our day.

Instead he turns downstream, and says "care if I wade in front of you?". I grunted something to the effect of "Ok, it's a public river" in response. I had envisioned he'd wade on by and continue on. Definitely not something I would do, but ah well. With the murky water and stocker trout, it would have an effect for a few minutes at most.

Except he stopped directly in front of me and started casting. He looked over his shoulder at me sitting 3 feet behind me and remarked that the river sure was pretty. I somewhat pointedly said "Uh huh. Well, I wouldn't want to get in your way, so I'll move on, I guess." He said ok and took another cast. He didn't quite hit me with his rod tip on the way back, but it wasn't that far off either.

It's rare for the social order to break down to quite this extent, but it does happen. I have at least once been on the other side of this, and it was what you'd call a memorable learning experience. I was in my early 20s, fishing a famous western tailwater known for big trout. I'd caught a few pretty good ones, but then I hooked a real monster brown. I am quite sure that time and adrenaline inflated the size, so I won't guess. But it was big enough that if I landed it, I'd have been real tempted to hang it on the wall.

The problem was, it kept running hard downstream, and I had to keep following it. Perhaps 10 minutes into what was turning into a pretty epic battle, I notice that I have worked my way downstream to a different pool, and am standing right where a guy had presumably been dropping his flies just moments before. The tunnel vision had been so total that I just didn't notice.

What happened next was what you'd have to call instant karma. I lost my footing, got shot into the main current with terrifying speed, and before I regained my footing, was swept over the small rock dam that made the pool I had been in.

When I finally gained my footing, I was beat to hell, felt lucky to just be more or less intact, and as you may expect, my leader was broken and my line in a serious birdsnest.

I honestly think that's part if why I'm now so careful to give people space. There will always be a part of me that thinks if I crowd someone, I'll careen directly into whitewater, nearly drown, and lose the largest trout of my life.

Of course karma doesn't always work that quickly, but I can always imagine that guy lost a real wall-hanger a few minutes after I left.

[Flysmallie]

I'm about as easy going as you are going to find. But that guy wouldn't have made a single cast in front of me without learning excatly what I thought of his actions. While it would't affect my day one single bit, they have to be told they are out of line. I'm not saying that you should have done that, I'm only stating the way I would have handled it. 

[WestCentralFisher]

12 minutes ago, Flysmallie said:

I'm about as easy going as you are going to find. But that guy wouldn't have made a single cast in front of me without learning excatly what I thought of his actions. While it would't affect my day one single bit, they have to be told they are out of line. I'm not saying that you should have done that, I'm only stating the way I would have handled it. 

I respect that. I'm more likely to (gently) raise the point if it's someone who is otherwise displaying signs of being a new fisherman. They may just not know better and a tactful conversation might have a real effect.

In this case, the guy clearly knew exactly what he was doing and just didn't care. So my next move was either going to be something to the tune of "Hey, listen here you..." or just walking away. Given how erratic and unpredictable I've often found people to be at the slightest hint of confrontation, and my main priority for the day being to relax, I am gonna walk away pretty much every time. 

[Flysmallie]

16 minutes ago, WestCentralFisher said:

I am gonna walk away pretty much every time. 

99% of the time I'm going to do the same. I might tell you what a sack of crap you are in the process, but I will already be moving. Usually the only time I will stand my ground is if it's someone taking advantage of another. I don't even have to know the victim. But I have also walked away from those. Sometimes intelligence wins out in my mind and I just let things go. Other times......well I'll just say that my daughters call it the nuclear option. 

[Johnsfolly]

That guy must have grown up fishing the trout parks. I have had many dads and kids wade in front of me while I was bank fishing a hole or two at Bennett's. I wouldn't be surprised if that guys father taught him his fishing ethics🙄.

[Quillback]

1 hour ago, Johnsfolly said:

That guy must have grown up fishing the trout parks. I have had many dads and kids wade in front of me while I was bank fishing a hole or two at Bennett's. I wouldn't be surprised if that guys father taught him his fishing ethics🙄.

Or fishing the hatchery holes in the northwest.  Watched a couple of guys wrestle in the mud near a hatchery outlet.  The hatchery hole on the Cowlitz river in WA would have people lined up shoulder to shoulder 2 ranks deep on a Saturday.  This was at the base of a steep bank, maybe 50 feet high that was composed of a loose clay with rocks and boulders mixed.  The river ran up against the bank, eroding the hill which led to an occasional rock rolling down.  Fighting a 10 lb. steelhead in those conditions would be challenging.  I never fished there from the bank but watched it from a boat.  

The jet boat traffic was something there too.  There was about a 400 yard drift from the creek that led to the hatchery (Fishing was forbidden in the creek), a sled would jet up to the top of the drift, and as soon as that sled had drifted down far enough, another one would jump in at the top of the hole.  This would go on all day.  Probably 50% of the sleds were guides.

I fished with a guide a couple of time on the Cowlitz back in the 90's.  A guide with a sled was around $200 then.  Get a couple of buddies to go with you and it was relatively inexpensive.  It certainly wasn't worth it to me to purchase a jet sled to fish the rivers a few times a year.  

The guide I fished with used spinning rods that were converted from 9 foot fly rod blanks.  We'd use what was basically a carolina rig set up baited with eggs.  You'd cast upstream at about a 45 degree angle and bounce bottom as the boat went downstream with the current.  The guide would use a kicker motor so you'd drift at the right speed.  A lot of snags and you'd just break it off, and get another setup from the guide.  Guides were kept pretty busy handling the boat and retying rigs.  They earned their money.

That's all a thing of the past, at least on the Cowlitz.  Hatchery has been just about shut down.  

[ness]

I've fished trout parks a lot, and I still just don't get the mentality of crowding in on somebody. Sure, it can get tight at times, but I'm going to be trying to work with the people around me rather than go on the offensive. Just like my mother Saint Lee would have wanted me to. 

In the particular case above, I would likely try chatting the guy up for a bit, then maybe drop a hint. That way I'm a friendly guy to him, not a competitor. If he didn't get the message I sure wouldn't stew about it and let it ruin my day.

[DADAKOTA]

There is very little common courtesy these days.  I'm afraid I'd have explained to the idiot that he needed to wade on by so I could continue fishing.  Or I'd have intentionally snagged him or his line.

[jdmidwest]

A couple of quick practice rounds with the carry pistol at the gar floating between me and him would have give him the message.

But that was college, and we were on a bridge shooting gar when someone decide to fish our hole.

Then there was the time we were diving around under the same bridge looking for my .45 that fell out of the shoulder holster jogging out of the way of the oncoming train.  Some guy was wondering by and asked what we were looking for.  My response "I dropped my good rod with a Zebco 33 on it".  His response "You are going thru all that trouble for a Zebco 33?".  Mine "It was the last gift from my Daddy dying of cancer".  We found it next day with a strong magnet from the Physics Lab.

People are drawn to other people when they fish, its just human nature.

[BilletHead]

          

            I found this kinda appropriate to this post. I don't think this is the whole story. 

 

Years ago, when I was writing regularly for Field & Stream magazine and Anthony Licata was my editor, we hatched an idea for a story on “ethics in fly fishing” and we jokingly called it, “The River Dick.” You know, how not to be the “dick” on the river who does all the wrong things.

We never quite pulled that story off and I’m not sure why. I guess Field & Stream might not have been ready to use “dick” in a story, and I might not have been comfortable pointing fingers, having been a dick myself had anyone called me on any of it.

But I think there’s still some value in pointing out where the ethical boundaries are between just fly fishing, and being a total dick as you go about your business on the water and interacting with others.

After all, most newbies who commit party fouls don’t realize they’re being dicks at all. If there’s no blatant intent, is there a foul? Of course not. But they’re still perceived as being dicks, even if all they really wanted to do, at the end of the day, was get out there and catch a fish or two.