Ladyfisher, I wasn't talking about using the stream as a "path". The way I fish, and the way a lot of people I observe fish, means being in the water a lot of the time, but not trampling around. It's about moving very slowly, covering a lot of water in a very long period of time. It wouldn't make sense to wade out, cast a bit, wade back to shore, walk upstream five feet, wade back out, etc. It depends a bit on the river itself how much time is spent on the shoreline vs in the water itself.

Regardless, my point was that to me, fishing is about fishing a stretch of river, not high-tailing to each "hole." The person who only fishes holes is passing up a lot of fish and a lot opportunities to learn.

When I approach a river and see another fly fisherman a bit downstream, I assume that where I'm standing is where he's eventually going to be. So I walk quite a ways upstream. This means that if I approach a stretch with several fisherman already in the water, I'm probably going to find a different place to fish. There's less free space around here than there used to be, but with persistance it can be found. I have never jumped ahead of another fisherman, or started fishing within maybe 800-1000 feet of another guy with a fly rod unless it's my fishing partner (I prefer being alone though).