|
I was floating a popular run on the Sauk River last spring. The April morning found the
river in prime shape and I knew the flyboys were going to be out in numbers. As we rounded
the corner of a long bar, there near the bottom of the half mile run, was another fly
guide boat I hadn’t seen for a while. There is a nice slot in the tailout, so I
figured they probably had already fished the upper drift, and were about to fish the
lower. The day was still young and there could be new fish moving in so why not give this
upper pool a go anyway? The guide and his client were just chatting in their boat.
Couldn’t really tell if they were climbing in or getting out, and as they were not
within shouting distance, I thought I would drop down and talk, after I got the boys
fishing.
My guys had been fishing for a few minutes, and the guide heads up the gravel bar towards
me so I waded out of the river to talk.
"How come you stole my water!" He demanded.
Gee, I am sorry," I apologized. " I saw you parked down in the lower run so I
assumed you had either passed on this water to fish the lower pool, or had already fished
it."
"Everybody knows I always park my boat at the bottom of this run" He said.
" You should have asked."
"No," I said, "Obviously I didn’t know, (I had been on the water every
day for the last month) and its not river etiquette to have ask permission, to fish the
water behind someone, particularly, when they are not even in the river. Now, if it’s
a really big deal, you take the pool, and we will slip on down the next pool."
He declined.
Contrast this episode with an experience a few weeks before.
I was fishing some new water in early season, and we passed another guide with a couple
clients. They were pulling plugs so I gave them a wide berth so not to disturb their
water.
"Good morning Dennis!" Rod yelled. " Swam anything this morning?"
Not yet," I answered. "You?"
"Lost one in the upper run" He said. "Say, have you fished that new fly
water down in the tailout?" "We hit two in here yesterday."
I had to admit, it looked fishy. I shook my head, No.
"Tell you what," He continued, " Why don’t you fish it today, and tell
me how you do?"
"Are you sure?" I asked.
I wanted it bad but it was his water.
"Yeah, What the hell." He answered.
We hooked three steelhead that morning......all from that pool. I made it a point to thank
Rod the next morning. As more and more anglers hit the rivers, it seems this fishing
pressure brings out the aggressiveness in some anglers. It’s a little like driving in
freeway traffic. We are all trying to get somewhere, but we sometimes forget we are All
trying to get somewhere. The rules of the road get forgotten.
Here is a rundown on some of fishing rules on our local rivers.
Rule # One: First Comes First:
Anglers know that a steelhead undisturbed is probably going to hit the first thing that is
presented reasonably. The Dawn Patrol is the angler that gets on the water in the wee
hours of the morning to take advantage of "new fish". The rule is " If you
are first on the water, you get to fish down through first, provided, you are on the pool
ready to fish, and you are stepping downstream in a reasonable manner, so the next angler
also has a chance to fish." Standing at the head of a run and fiddling with your
gear, in hopes that the angler who showed up, a few minutes after you, will finally get
frustrated and go away, is not good etiquette. Neither is any reason that hinders or
prevents an upstream angler from fishing down through the run.
My assistant Jackson said he was following a fellow down through the Buck Island Pool, on
the Skykomish, when this downstream angler sees another fly boy walk up. By the number of
patches on each of their vests, you would think they were in the armed services. This
fishing angler wades out of the pool and begins a conversation with the new arrival.
Jackson continues to step down. The boys keep talking and Jackson keeps
stepping down. When Jack gets even with these boys, the guy that was fishing, yells
out, " Don’t you be fishing down through my water, buddy!"
Fortunately for him, he caught Jackson in a good mood. He breaks people. The rule implies
that, if he begins fishing upstream of you, he has every right to be there. If you get out
of the water long enough to slow the progress of the upstream angler, let him fish
through. The key, be reasonable.
Rule # Two: Don’t Crowd;
Just as you do not appreciate it when you have someone come up and tailgate you, when your
driving, try to maintain a reasonable distance between you and your downstream buddy.
Downstream buddy - read rule # one.
Rule # Three: Be reasonable about your concept of the pool. Little rivers tend to have
little pools. Sometimes when I am fishing even two anglers, I will space them, allowing
each to fish his own pool, if the waters are strategically close.
By contrast, a river the size of the Skagit may have pools a half-mile long, if you were
to fish the whole thing. The Mixer on the Skagit comes to mind....but the taking water may
be only about one hundred yards in length. If you know you won’t be fishing the lower
waters for a least a half hour, and a guy walks up to ask if he can fish, let him. If you
are looking forward to fishing that water yourself, and you know you are fishing iffy
water, you should reel up and go down and fish the prime stuff yourself, but do not hoard
the whole pool, simply because you happen to get there first. IT’S NOT YOUR POOL! You
just have the right to fish it first.
Don’t pull this crap about
" We consider this to be two pools", which is your excuse to step down in front
of someone into prime water. If there is a question about what the fishing anglers
intentions are, ASK, but permission is only necessary, if they are downstream of where you
want to fish.
Rule # Four: Hooked fish goes to the back of the line.
You really see this get abused on the popular waters. The idea here is, If you are lucky
enough to play a fish and you are in front of somebody fishing through, give him a chance
at the next fish. I once saw an angler get on a Grande Ronde pool and proceed to play and
release five steelhead, always going back to the front of a long line of anglers after
each fish! What was he thinking?
Rule # five When in Rome.....
Different rules apply to different waters. All these rules don’t mean jack to a
combat fishery like Hoodsport ,or around a bunch of gear guys, or even a crowded morning
at Fortson Hole. If you go waltzing in and start in on the locals as to where and how they
can fish...You Are Out Of Line. Not only that, but you are probably going to get thumped.
Rule # Six No Sponging or Bragging
I was just pulling into the Ben Howard boat launch. It was the same two guys I had seen
the day before, and the day before that. The conversation would start off innocuous enough
with a "So how was fishing today?" and then they would launch into the twenty
questions, about where, when, how many, which fly and yada yada........ As soon as they
would sponge as much information from one boat, they wouldn’t even say thank you,
they were off to the next boat. I actually witnessed one guy sponge the new arrivals and
walk back up and get on his cell phone to pass on the information, like he was doing the
flyfishing kingdom this great service! I finally got so irritated by the third day,
(didn’t these guys have a life?) that as sponge # one came up while I am pulling my
raft up, before he could even open his mouth, I said, "look, I don’t mean to be
rude, but I will make you a deal. If you don’t ask me the questions, I won’t lie
about them."
At first he was shocked, then he just laughed, and ambled over to the next boat. Some
fellows want desperately for everyone to know, just what a wonderful fisherman they are,
they can’t wait to tell everybody about it. Young guide want-a-be’s are bad for
this. They will start by asking how the day is going, and before you can hardly answer the
question, they will start in about all the amazing fishing they have had that day. If they
are really feeling their oats, they will hang around the takeout and drill the guide boats
as they come in. Kind of their way of saying " Boy, now if you were in my boat today,
you could have had thissss much fun. You could term this as "Reverse Sponging".
Very annoying.
You see, the problem with all the rule breakers are, they simply don’t care about
anyone but themselves. The problem is, even if they read this, they won’t get it.
Nothing tries my patience more than some flyboy that will scream bloody murder when they
think someone else steps out of line, but will do the same thing, given the opportunity,
and never even think twice.
The Golden Rule is still the best rule:
Simply treat others the way you would want to be treated, and we can all get along.
Best of fishing Dennis
|
|