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Bryon Anderson

An interesting evening of fishing, or Stream Etiquette

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Yesterday after work I ran over to my favorite smallmouth stream to put in a few hours before dark. It takes about an hour and change to get there from work, but it's worth it to me. This is a little creek that most fishermen would take one look at and keep on going, but looks are deceptive--it is VERY productive, and I've never had any competition from other fishermen other than the occasional local dangling worms off a bridge or snoozing in a lawn chair with the rod propped on a forked stick, that kind of thing.

Just as I was pulling the car into the shade to park, two boys that looked to be maybe 14-15 years old rolled up on bikes with spinning rods in hand. By the time I was rigged up, they had headed off downstream, so, naturally, I decided to fish upstream so as not to disturb them.

I had made less than a half dozen casts when a voice calls down from the bridge--another local with a spinning rod, asking if it would disturb me if he fished the hole immediately downstream of the bridge. I thanked him for asking me first and told him to go for it.

A few casts later, he was back, asking if I might "do a fellow fisherman a favor". Seems he'd hooked a good fish and it had promptly wound his line around some low-hanging flora. The branch was very springy, and he couldn't break off his line, and the fish was hanging there with its head out of the water. I managed to wade into the deep hole and free the fish, which he then asked me to bring up to him. This was a big bass, easily 4-5 pounds, and it grieved me, but he had caught it and it was pefectly legal, so I obliged him. He toodled off happily on his scooter to fry up his fish (along with its superior genes that were now gone from the river's gene pool, but whatever.)

So I slogged out of the hole, recovered my rod and thought, "Okay, now maybe I can fish a little."

I had no more than waded back to my original position when here come the teenagers, sloshing upstream like water buffalo, talking loudly, and generally being teenage boys. No worries, they're just kids and they're leaving. They have to be leaving, or at least getting out and going around me, right, because I'm clearly fishing this pool and headed upstream? Wrong...

They wade immediately next to me on either side and start in with the usual, Doing any good, what are you using, oh you're fly fishing, I've always wanted to try that but it looks hard, etc., etc. No problems, no worries--it's a beautiful day, I've got hours ahead to fish my favorite stream, they're young and interested in fly fishing, time to play Ambassador For Our Sport. So we talk, look at the rod, the reel, my fly boxes, yada yada, and finally I say, in my "this has been nice but please go away now" voice, "Okay, well, I'm going to fish upstream a few bends." Which I proceed to do. With them following me step for step.

Sigh (inwardly). It's okay, I say to myself, be patient, they're young, they have to have homework or chores or something to do soon, right? Don't do anything that will forever convince them that fly fishermen are jerks. Be cool.

Then...fish on! Nice one, too. Boys become excited, rush up to see. I land the fish, show it off, we all admire it. "No, I'm putting him back," in answer to their inevitable question. Okay boys, show's over. Time to go away now. (Still to myself, of course).

As I'm releasing the fish--PLOP! One of their jigs lands in the water about two feet off my left elbow. Son of a....okay, be cool, be nice, they obviously haven't been taught anything...

"I'm going up to the next pool," I say, in my nice-guy voice. "You guys can finish fishing this one." Blank looks all around, message clearly too subtle, not received.

"Uh...okay," one of them finally says.

So I go. It's cool, it's good, I feel pleased with myself for remaining calm, being Mr. Nice Fly Fisherman. My next mistake was in beginning to fish again before I'd actually gotten out of sight of them. I immediately hooked a very nice, big bass. Boys became VERY excited, crossed the distance I'd spent a couple of minutes putting between us in about two seconds, whooping and hollering etc.

We repeat the process from fish #1--show the fish, can we have it, no I'm putting him back, etc., etc. This time I haven't even got the fish released before one of them WADES PAST ME AND STARTS CASTING. Last straw! We've now gone beyond forgiveable youthful angling faux pas into full-blown territorial violation.

Time for my enough-is-enough voice. "Guys," I said. "I am going up around the next bend. I would greatly appreciate it if you didn't come up there and fish right on top of me." Baffled looks. Sheepish "Okay" from both.

Thinking all this over in the car this morning, I decided I was comfortable with how I handled it. I guess I could have been nice and just let them fish through, but, you know, they lived right up the road and could fish that stream every day if they wanted to--especially with summer vacation right around the corner. I live and work almost an hour and a half away from it by car. It's a special place that I don't get to visit nearly as often as I'd like. And somebody clearly needed to demonstrate/teach a little common courtesy (or "stream etiquette" if you like), as their own parents had clearly miserably failed them in that department. I could have been a little nicer, but I could have been a heck of a lot less nice, too.

I'm counting the evening as a success.

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First thing I notice ... since there are so many nice bass that you're catching one from every hole, I see nothing wrong with the locals keeping one here and there. Since the first guy left as soon as he had one, he was catching dinner and now harm done. Also, you say the boys come back making a bunch of noise, and it didn't hurt the fishing, so that creek can stand a little catch and keep, as far as I can tell.

I believe, if you'd given one of those bass you caught to the boys, they'd have left and you WOULD have had the rest of the evening all to yourself. Those boys might have been fishing for dinner, too. Might even be from a family that is out of work, you never know.

Back to the noise and creek etiquette and parents. Very possible that the parents have never been fishing, or at least, have never taken these boys to the stream. Although some people had parents who taught them about fishing, an equal number learned it from others, TV, books or "Boy's Life" magazines.

You did handle things okay ... but I'd have given them one of those fish and THEN sent them on their way.

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You make a fair point, Mike--they probably would have gone away if I'd given them a fish. I didn't think of that at the time, or I might have considered it. I do feel pretty strongly about C&R with the big fish especially, but all but one of my fish were in the 12-13" range, just right for the frying pan. For the record, I have nothing against anyone legally keeping fish--I mostly choose to put mine back, but I don't begrudge others keeping their catch if it's legal. I have been known to harvest the occasional mess of bluegills myself, and I have kept and ate many salmon, steelhead and lake trout out of Lake Michigan.

 

As far as the stream etiquette, you make a fair point there, too--not everyone is taught right from wrong by their parents. Maybe they did take up fishing on their own, who knows. I do believe, however, that everyone who fishes needs to learn their angling do's and don'ts, if not from their parents, then from other people as you said. In this case, I took it upon myself to be the "other people." I managed to get the message across (I hope) without being rude or talking down to them, and I didn't pull what has been (in the past) a typical move for me, which is to just reel in and storm off muttering passive aggresively. So if it wasn't an overall success, the incident did at least represent some personal growth for me. :)

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This has happened to me a few times this summer Bryon. I've had a couple incidents combining the same elements of your story.

 

First - A kid that lives near by has been trying to tag along when he spots me as I leave to go fishing and I have had to ask him nicely to take off after he didn't get the hinting that Id like to fish by my self. The mistake I made in this case was (like you did, kinda) that I let him take a few casts and showed him flies and tried to be a good ambassador for our most awesome sport.

 

Another Day - I was fishing about a half hour away and was catching some really nice fish and while I was releasing a brown trout I caught these kids came up on the hole and one of them stood right next to me and dropped a worm and a bobber right into the feeding lane I was fishing. I wasn't too mad because I had already had a good morning of fishing so I remained silent and released my fish and then helped one of the kids get a treble hook out of a rainbow's mouth. Once I got the hook out the mother or baby sitter or what ever that was there and noticed that the kids were kinda rude in crowding me and said something to them about letting me have my spot back. One of the kids said "Well he doesn't care. Right?" I had a nice conversation about fishing etiquette and fish handling with them and then one of the kids asked about fly fishing and I showed him my gear.

 

About a week ago- I was near the place I was in the above incident and was fishing and sharing the space nicely with a different group of kids who were very polite and seemed like some well educated little anglers. We were all catching fish and one of the kids who seemed like he might have been a little "special" was like a little fishing guide. He had a nice long handled net with a really nice rubber basket and was netting every ones fish and pulling hooks (including mine) with quite a bit of skill and changing his friends lures and baiting their hooks. The part of this that reminds me of your story is when I caught a couple of the 2 year 17" rainbows that get stocked into this river the kids wanted them and since they were catching the smaller fish that were recently stocked and we all knew would be terrible tasting I gave them to them. Normally I would have released these fish and would have thought it rude for them to ask but these fish would have been harvested by some one before too long so no big deal and they had a filet knife, foil and butter to cook them on the little charcoal grill in the park. I actually thought it was better of me to give them to them than release them after they asked.

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. I actually thought it was better of me to give them to them than release them after they asked.

 

Yeah, now I'm feeling like a bit of a heel for not giving them a fish. I should mention, though, that one of them told me he'd caught an 18-incher downstream and had let it go--although he didn't say if he'd let it go on purpose. :) It was his buddy that kept asking for the fish.

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I really wouldn't feel bad. It was your fish, you made a choice that you though benefited one of your favorite fisheries and frankly you made a good choice and if it were me I would have rather seen that big fish you mentioned go back to spawn. I honestly never thought I would have given some one a fish I caught like that, and I doubt it will ever happen again.

 

I gave these kids these fish because I knew that the fish probably would have been harvested with in a few days. This place is a big time put and take fishery with lots of pressure right in the middle of a residential area, I've watched probably 50+ fish get harvested from a mile or so of river in four trips to this river over three weeks. If it was a wild fish or a fish that might reproduce or a fish in a place with less pressure and higher hold over rate I would have said no with out even thinking about it but those fish were dead either way and these kids were good little fishermen and really deserved the fish and I knew that they were going to put it too good use.

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My opinion, you should not feel like a heel! You didn't think of it at the time and no malice was intended. 'Your' kids Byron, needed an education about not jumping right into a spot you were fishing, you stated to them that you were going up to another spot and didn't want to be followed. They jumped in on you in open spot - ok - but two or three, etc... - they needed to learn that THAT sort of behavior is not such a nice thing to do to other fisherman.

 

Just my opinion.

 

May 2015 - I had a guy that had broke his rod leave a spot - unknown to me at the time - and return to that spot that I was now fishing. (in other words I went in to fish a spot that was vacant and he returned sometime laster thinking he had 'rights' to that 'spot') We're not talking 5 minutes - it must have been 30 minutes or so upon his return with a borrowed rod. He 'jumps' and starts fishing so close I could of hook him with a short cast! I couldn't believe it! But, you called it 'passive/aggressive' Byron - right? lol I 'let ' him fish but held my ground and fished.

 

The only saving grace was I caught some nice fish that evening (he didn't) and every time I landed one he asked 'What are you using?". I only provided 1/2 of a truth for an answer. Had he not jumped in on me I may have shared the 'complete truth' but.... not a chance for this guy.

 

He asked me 3 or 4 times that evening what I was using! ;) lol... I did have a good night that night!

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I really wouldn't feel bad. It was your fish, you made a choice that you though benefited one of your favorite fisheries and frankly you made a good choice and if it were me I would have rather seen that big fish you mentioned go back to spawn. I honestly never thought I would have given some one a fish I caught like that, and I doubt it will ever happen again.

 

I gave these kids these fish because I knew that the fish probably would have been harvested with in a few days. This place is a big time put and take fishery with lots of pressure right in the middle of a residential area, I've watched probably 50+ fish get harvested from a mile or so of river in four trips to this river over three weeks. If it was a wild fish or a fish that might reproduce or a fish in a place with less pressure and higher hold over rate I would have said no with out even thinking about it but those fish were dead either way and these kids were good little fishermen and really deserved the fish and I knew that they were going to put it too good use.

you're right--the nature of the fishery in question does make a big difference when it comes to deciding whether or not keeping fish from it is ethical, whether it's legal to do so or not. In a fishery such as the one you described--heavy pressure, constant put-and-take--you're right, it's no big deal as there are always more fish where the harvested ones came from. This little creek that I was fishing can (as Mikechell correctly pointed out) withstand some catch-and-keep, bit it is, at the end of the day, just a little creek. I venture to say it would only withstand a little C&K and still continue to produce the numbers and size of fish that it does now. I've fished that little creek for 15 years and hardly ever seen another fisherman there until last night, when I saw three, all of whom were clearly inclined to keep their catch. It's entirely possible that word of the place has begun to get around, and that more catch-and-keep fishermen will begin to show up. That's why I didn't give up those fish, especially the big one.

Well, that and the fact that I kind of feel like, if you want to keep a fish, you need to catch it yourself. smile.png

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Well, that and the fact that I kind of feel like, if you want to keep a fish, you need to catch it yourself. :)

 

" If our father had had his say, nobody who did not know how to catch a fish would be allowed to disgrace a fish by catching him. "

 

I don't know why, but that last sentence in your comment reminded me of this quote. Do I even need to say where this quote is from?

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I had a similar situation in the long past, ... had a great spot on a bridge spanning an inlet to Tampa Bay, with a street light right in the middle. I would go there any time after dark on an outgoing tide. The tide would carry shrimp, crabs, etc., out of the inlet, and there were jillions of speckled trout and redfish waiting to grab them as soon as they came into the light. All I had to do was cast a lure or bait up under the bridge and soon as it came into the light I had a fish. I made the mistake of bragging to someone.

 

Next time I went there, several guys with cast nets showed up, plopping their nets right next to where I was fishing. All I could do was abandon the spot since these guys showed up every time the tide was right. I learned never to divulge a fishing spot.

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FlaFly, I had a similar thing happen to me on a lake in MN. This was before the days fishfinders, sidefinders, idiot finders, etc. I made the mistake in the bar of telling someone how to triangle a small reef where the walleyes fed hard every night. Yep...few days later I went there just before dark and there were about 4 boats anchored on that reef. Fortunately that was only of the spots I fished on the lake and never divulged another one.

 

Many years ago in northern MN I was fishing a small channel between an island and shore smacking walleyes in the shallows feeding. Some guy with a 16' fiberglass and a noise, shaking 50hp or so was trolling with a couple of kids. He went by outside the island and saw me hook a couple of fish. Made a big circle and came straight at me to go thru the channel. I waved him off and yelled. He gave me one of those "I have as much right as you" looks and kept coming. Kept coming that is until his prop went crunch crunch bang bang and he had to sit on the bow and paddle toward shore. I did try to warn him.

 

We fished several years in fall in MI U P after they started the salmon stocking program. Chinook and coho would run the rivers and steelhead and Lake trout would follow them in to feast on eggs. Fantastic fishing with the rudest fishermen you'll find anywhere the first few years when MI in it's lack of forethought decided to allow snagging of salmon. After they outlawed it, reduced the barb to shank distance, things then got a lot better since wardens wrote a lot of tickets that first year of no snagging. We used to fish egg flies and had fantastic fishing back then. One of the funniest thing that happened on our many trips was when four guys were standing just past knee deep in one run creating there own current break and eddy. My buddy tossed his egg fly right next to the last guys leg. It swirled into the eddy and he was into about an 8# steelhead. One guy got mad but the others laughed like hell.

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In a particular river, in a particular pool it was common practice to fish across from other fishermen. This guy came in across from me. I caught two or three fish on my side out in the deeper current ( that was the deal, to fish the trough). So he is fishing and fishing and fishing and this fish kept rising in front of him. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore, I gave a big double haul and planted my fly right smack above the last rise, Wham , got it ! He yelled out small fish, I yelled back " Fish ON" and it busted out of the water , in front of about 4 other guys"! It was about an 18" land locked salmon, that He Never Caught. Turns out it was the dam keepers relative of some sort, to which I knew the dam keeper well. We had laughs over that catch for some time to come. Maybe that act was a little out of line, but we were all experienced fishermen in that pool and well versed in a touch of humor, nobody got tweaked over stuff like that if it wasn't common every day practice out of an individual..

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Ya, the fish were surface feeding, he was short line nymphing with some sort of bead head or other weighted fly. Wasn't working, he was probably trying to dredge up a bigger fish near the bottom but I think they were up top too.

 

That's ok , a few years later I saw a fish in that same pool, had worked on it for a while with no takes. I thought, bet an eagle could get that thing. No sooner thought that and an eagle came soaring over the tree line, turned down river, glided up stream and plucked that sucker out front in front of me. Flew back where it came from fish dangling below. One of the most awesome sights I've seen on a river. They hold the fish so it's aerodymic in the air stream, head first. Went off feeding it's young I imagine.

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