An interesting evening of fishing, or Stream Etiquette

[FlaFly 0]

If it's teenagers invading your spot, you might pull out your iPad and start playing operatic music very loud. Or banjo music. Whatever works.

[Fisherboy0301 0]

I like banjo music thank you very much! Haha the only music I don't like is rap haha and I'm 15

[FlaFly 0]

Play rap and you'll attract a flashmob!

[artimus001 0]

no spot on the river is worth losing my Zen over. i'd rather move on instead of getting into a pissing match/fistfight.

[Bryon Anderson 0]

I haven't been on lately as it is the heart of trout season, but I was looking for a pattern I saw awhile ago and noticed this thread. I have to comment.

 

I believe respect for another's privacy and space on the water has deteriorated greatly, and I don't think it is just that I'm getting a little older. I primarily fish PA trout streams and I'm encountering more and more situations where etiquette simply doesn't exist. I appreciate those who have the patience to educate a younger fisherman, and try myself, but the vast majority of what I've seen in the past several years is other adult anglers. This past week I was fishing Yellow Breeches, a fairly popular and well known limestone in SE PA. It was a weekday evening, plenty of open water. In the first hour I was on the water I had two anglers step in the water 20 ft. ahead of me while I played a fish, one crossing to the other side. They completely cut me off from the run I was fishing - at least 50-100 yards of open water either direction. I had to walk behind the one to simply get up the bank to leave. He never said a word. I find an open pool upstream, I haven't made two casts another angler walks up the far bank, stops directly across from me and starts dragging a spinner through my drift. The stream isn't 20 yards across. What really frosted me was he wanted to strike up a friendly conversation about what I was using. Again, I simply left without acknowledging him. Eventually I found some empty water and had an excellent evening over a sulphur emergence, lasted well into dark. .

 

These aren't isolated instances. They're just very fresh. Somewhere early along the line I understood that if you're across the stream from another angler you leave their water alone. It is fine to stop and chat, but don't fish their run if you want any respect. Same is true of fishing behind someone. Jump them, but leave their pool and run alone and move on to the next section of stream leaving plenty of water behind you for them.

 

I think it is pretty clear I'm P****ed by the time I've left the water, but short of a confrontation I don't know what's to be said that is going to help anyone. I tend to go nonlinear pretty quickly and find I'm personally in a better mood 20 minutes later if I just get out of there.

TableGrouch, I have had instances of adult anglers displaying zero etiquette awareness here on Michigan rivers, too. It is dismaying to see. They're not all younger adults, either. To be fair, it is still the exception rather than the rule here, or seems to be, and that is encouraging. Normally my philosophy and m.o. are the same as yours: I figure that if they're grown men and still that ignorant, probably nothing I can do is going to change it, and, more importantly, I'm better off in the long run if I just go find my solitude and serenity someplace else rather than stand there fuming with my blood pressure going through the roof. Life is short enough as it is, right? As far as confrontation goes, I almost never engage with adult anglers in that situation. One, they're not going to listen, and two, this is a gun-crazy state that hands out a lot of concealed carry permits. You never know whose crazy button you might be pushing. In fact, one of the only reasons I felt comfortable saying anything to the youngsters from my original post was that they were smaller than me and did not appear to be packing anything more than fishing tackle. Maybe I'm paranoid, but that's how I usually play it.

[JSzymczyk 0]

 

I haven't been on lately as it is the heart of trout season, but I was looking for a pattern I saw awhile ago and noticed this thread. I have to comment.

 

I believe respect for another's privacy and space on the water has deteriorated greatly, and I don't think it is just that I'm getting a little older. I primarily fish PA trout streams and I'm encountering more and more situations where etiquette simply doesn't exist. I appreciate those who have the patience to educate a younger fisherman, and try myself, but the vast majority of what I've seen in the past several years is other adult anglers. This past week I was fishing Yellow Breeches, a fairly popular and well known limestone in SE PA. It was a weekday evening, plenty of open water. In the first hour I was on the water I had two anglers step in the water 20 ft. ahead of me while I played a fish, one crossing to the other side. They completely cut me off from the run I was fishing - at least 50-100 yards of open water either direction. I had to walk behind the one to simply get up the bank to leave. He never said a word. I find an open pool upstream, I haven't made two casts another angler walks up the far bank, stops directly across from me and starts dragging a spinner through my drift. The stream isn't 20 yards across. What really frosted me was he wanted to strike up a friendly conversation about what I was using. Again, I simply left without acknowledging him. Eventually I found some empty water and had an excellent evening over a sulphur emergence, lasted well into dark. .

 

These aren't isolated instances. They're just very fresh. Somewhere early along the line I understood that if you're across the stream from another angler you leave their water alone. It is fine to stop and chat, but don't fish their run if you want any respect. Same is true of fishing behind someone. Jump them, but leave their pool and run alone and move on to the next section of stream leaving plenty of water behind you for them.

 

I think it is pretty clear I'm P****ed by the time I've left the water, but short of a confrontation I don't know what's to be said that is going to help anyone. I tend to go nonlinear pretty quickly and find I'm personally in a better mood 20 minutes later if I just get out of there.

TableGrouch, I have had instances of adult anglers displaying zero etiquette awareness here on Michigan rivers, too. It is dismaying to see. They're not all younger adults, either. To be fair, it is still the exception rather than the rule here, or seems to be, and that is encouraging. Normally my philosophy and m.o. are the same as yours: I figure that if they're grown men and still that ignorant, probably nothing I can do is going to change it, and, more importantly, I'm better off in the long run if I just go find my solitude and serenity someplace else rather than stand there fuming with my blood pressure going through the roof. Life is short enough as it is, right? As far as confrontation goes, I almost never engage with adult anglers in that situation. One, they're not going to listen, and two, this is a gun-crazy state that hands out a lot of concealed carry permits. You never know whose crazy button you might be pushing. In fact, one of the only reasons I felt comfortable saying anything to the youngsters from my original post was that they were smaller than me and did not appear to be packing anything more than fishing tackle. Maybe I'm paranoid, but that's how I usually play it.

 

TG- I live close by the Yellow Breeches and saw that stuff so often when I moved here that I've pretty much stopped fishing it. All that BS is not worth catching a few small stocked trout to me. Bryon, you need to be worried about the idiots who have NOT obtained a carry permit.

[Bryon Anderson 0]

Bryon, you need to be worried about the idiots who have NOT obtained a carry permit.

 

JS, you're right about that. The people who go to the trouble to obtain the permits are almost always perfectly sane and responsible gun owners. It's the people that just pack and the law be damned that are scary. I stand corrected.

[FlaFly 0]

This thread has had quite a bit of participation. I just thought I'd add my two cents:

[TableGrouch 0]

 

 

TableGrouch, I have had instances of adult anglers displaying zero etiquette awareness here on Michigan rivers, too. It is dismaying to see. They're not all younger adults, either.

 

TG- I live close by the Yellow Breeches and saw that stuff so often when I moved here that I've pretty much stopped fishing it. All that BS is not worth catching a few small stocked trout to me. Bryon, you need to be worried about the idiots who have NOT obtained a carry permit.

 

 

JS - You've got some nice water around your end of the state, just a bit too much of a haul for me for most day trips. I'm at the other end of the state and get to deal with all the lovely weather fun on the freestone streams. I'm enjoying all this miserable June rain immensely, can't wait for July temps to simmer the soup we've been stewing and pretty much end the season.

 

BA - Lived in MI for 20 years, never encountered the same level of ignorance on those rivers trout fishing as in PA (although steelheading could get a little too cozy at times).

 

I think JS might have hit on at least a part of the problem, and that is the PA stocking program. IMHO there is way to much emphasis on the put and take aspect versus conserve and manage. I enjoy fishing some larger (relative) water at times, and it seems that PA is too eager to stock these types of streams regardless of their natural capacity to carry trout and support natural reproduction. They'll set a mile or two aside for special regs, but I really think they need to set 10-15 miles aside, if not the entire stream. Leave the trucks back at the hatchery. All the emphasis on "wild" is on much smaller streams. Following the great white fleet of trucks comes the crowds, and not necessarily the type of angler who's going to tip his cap and keep walking. Usually at this point in the season they're pretty much gone and you can find some good fishing. Wasn't the case on my last outing.

[wschmitt3 0]

So I found a little plano fly box from wal-mart near a place I have seen the kid I mentioned in my earlier post on this thread fishing a few times. I asked this older fisherman if it was his and he said the kid had gotten a fly rod and was asking around if any one had seem me out fishing. So I figured since he was on the path to becoming a fly fisherman I would help him out. I grabbed an old fly box and fishpond chest pack and net I don't use and stuffed it with flies and enough stuff to get him going on a good path.

 

When I got started some one hooked me up with a bunch of stuff and it felt pretty good to pass on some of that stuff and a few really good pieces of gear to a newbie.

[artimus001 0]

^^^^^AWESOME^^^^

 

i'm hoping that there will be an update on how this turns out.

[PJ2 0]

We are all ambassadors to the sport we love, It is our jobs to teach the younger,or novice proper etiquette. It can be done nicely; it doesn't have to be presented in a mean spirit. With that said, there are times when it is better to walk away, as you never know what that persons reaction will be to your comments.

I fish in one of the most crowded, dangerous areas . Montauk Point, N.Y. during the striper season in the fall it is not uncommon to see people acting like complete idiots. I 've seen fights, lines cut, injured fish and poachers all in an area about two football fields long. People think nothing about standing shoulder to shoulder, in front of, above, below, you name it. It is how you handle these situations that will determine whether or not you will be fishing or fighting. Many a time I leave and return at a later time or find another location to fish. Many a time I have said something like" Hey, dude please give me some space". More often than not people are just unaware of what they are doing, But when they know its wrong,its time to leave. No fish is worth coming home aggravated.

As for giving a fish away, as long as they promise to eat it. I'm good with that.

[Big House 0]

Fishing Etiquette is important. I have a big fishing trip planned with some of my buddies, so I'm sure there will be some jockeying for space and spots. I plan on moving upstream, or down stream and giving them ample space to fish. If they hook up I'll retrieve my fly so that the chance for an entanglement is minimized and wait and watch their (hopefully) successful retrieve. If I can grab a photo opportunity / or video I will. I hope they do the same for me as well.

 

I catch and release almost everything. If I want fish, I usually go buy it - its a lot cheaper! ;-)

[wschmitt3 0]

Artimus,

 

Update-

 

I've saw him out fishing the other day I kinda spied on his fishing for a few minutes, I think I may have to show him a little about casting and presentation next time I see him out on the stream.

[artimus001 0]

Artimus,

 

Update-

 

I've saw him out fishing the other day I kinda spied on his fishing for a few minutes, I think I may have to show him a little about casting and presentation next time I see him out on the stream.

by the sounds of it, that might be time well spent.