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Streamside Etiquette
Ladyfishers Article from wayback.... Sept 1, 1997 should be required reading just to get a fishing license....anywhere. In many ways, it seems rudeness is rampant these days.
Last week, while on a camping trip with my family at Burney Falls, CA, I was fishing Burney Creek just a bit above the falls. One of my six favorite places on earth. It is a small stream that issues forth from the lava in a series of voluminous springs starting less than a mile above the falls. Never is it more than about 30 feet wide untill the last 100 feet above the falls. For the most part it is less than 20 feet wide. Cold and crystal clear, it is a pocket water brook at its finest. Deep pools the size of a bushel basket with wily rainbows and browns the order of the day. The banks are accessable on foot, though rocky, uneven, and brushy. Cool and shady even on the hottest days. I had gotten up at the crack of dawn and walked about a mile and a half from our campsite to the farthest upstream point where there was water this late in the year. I met nary a soul on my little hike, and there was no one fishing but me. The campground was nearly empty and I wasn't surprised to find myself alone on the creek, as reports indicated fishing was slow.
I was only there about a half hour, and working on my second stop downstream when a woman showed up and plunked down within 10 feet of me and started slinging a lure. My thoughts were " Hey !!! Hello !!! Fishing Here !!! What The %#@!!'s the matter with you ?!?! Now, I'm no midget, I go about 280 and just a smidge under 6 ft. With a 9 ft. rod in my hands and yellow floating line out in the stream, so I was quite visible. Peeved, and verging on angry, I gathered up my line and fly, and moved about 80 yards downstream.
Second cast there, second attempt to interest what looked to be a very nice trout holding in the slack water just below a clump of grass, and here comes Miss Panther Martin again, crashing through the brush right behind me, saying, nearly at a shout "Ya catchin' anything?" :shock: Well, Mr. Trout split the scene, and with a tight lipped "no" so did I. My better judgment kept me from saying anything more than that one word. I walked over a mile to get to a footbridge and cross the creek to the less accessible side, and then fished my way back up to nearly where I was before. I saw her again about 40 yards below where I last encountered her, and assume she fished her way down a ways before she gave it up for the day. Now to me, fishin' is fishin' and I don't much care what folks fish with. I just happen to choose flies and fly rods, for my own reasons. As long as they're legal, folks can fish however they want, and I don't care, nor judge....it's all fishin' far's I'm concerned. However, the plunk of a lure in such a small brook don't do much for the fishin' right close, and lack of respect has no place on the stream. To further hamper my mood, I gathered up no less than 100 yards of tangled line strung up in various trees and bushes, and attached to everything from bobber and worm rigs to little rubber crappie jigs. I tell you....... sometimes it seems people are nearly the bane of my existence... :-x
.............................................Modoc Dan
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Dan....She was totally hitting on you, buddy! :p
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Thanks Dave..............:roll:
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What Dave said, for sure.
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Unfortunately
There are more horses asses than horses. Sorry for your experience.
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I feel for ya having run into the same situation to many times. Unfortunately I am not a nice guy. I do not tolerate such things but I do not say anything either. Here is a example: I am fishing on a lake that is about 150 acres. Found a honey hole and catching some nice browns and bows. Another fly fisherman in a float tube comes over right next to me so our tubes are touching and starts fishing. Now I am more then mad and want to kick start the harley on his face but I be quiet. Next cast I get "Hey your flyline hit me in the head and is tangled on my tube" I say oops sorry I never was good at casting would you mind untangling it for me" "Here I will bring the line in so it is easier" Oops sorry again didn't mean to hit you with my rod. being old and all I sometimes have a hard time with the rod as well" "Yes that is a number 6 hook on that fly." "Oh sorry again did not mean to jerk it just then being old I have tremors at times, it didn't hook ya did it?" Funny but after that he kicked off about 100 yards from me. Whole darn lake and he wanted my spot. We as a camping group go throuogh the whole camp ground and pick up trash and cover the shore as well. Hope your next trip goes better
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Modoc
God gives us people like that to make measure of ourselves.
Bob
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Sorry to hear that. I was fishing alone one sunny day and looked behind me on the backcast to see I was sadwiched between two guys. They kinda ambushed me and seemed to get a kick out of it. I had to break my fly off because I would have hooked one of them in the face. Started casting over me and laughing. I just left quietly..I'm not one to get physical over fishing. I was going to stop and ask them how the felt when they first read Pychon's Gravity's Rainbow and if the overturning of the Pulitzer was a blessing or a curse. But, they seemed too busy ripping the faces of of some bluegills Ugly Stick style whilst slamming Pabts.
Janus
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A number of years ago my son and I were the only two fishing in sight when a guy comes out of the brush and jumps up on a rock between my son and I. The whole pool was full of salmon for at least a couple hundred yards. Riley was 7 or 8 and this clown wants to fish between us. I suggested I would normally move, but his rudeness precluded that and perhaps moving would be a good plan for him.
WIth a string of profanity he flung a huge salmon lure right over Riley's head in an obvious attempt to get my goat. He did.
I am 6'4", 220 or so. I threw him off the rock and into the river. When he came up gasping I opened his tackle box and dropped it upside down on his chest suggesting he had forgotten something while leaving in such haste.
It was obvious from a number of thiings he was not a civilian. I told him my plan was to find his vehicle and through that, his commander. I did. His boss did not approve of his charge's actions and straightened the lad out...
art
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Hap:
Was that you? ;)
I have had my share of confrontations. I actually relish them. Some of these morons need a dunking!