What constitutes "crowding" where you fish?

[John_N]

I realize this is a question with no single right answer, but I find myself curious today as to other people's perspectives. I'm just a few hours removed from a trip to a local fishery where people frequently don't give a very wide berth, but where one nimrod in particular really got under my skin today. I was working a run downstream, swinging a couple soft hackles, and rounded a bend to see a guy working his way upstream. Neither one of us was beating a path, but after a while, we closed within pretty close proximity to one another. We both continued fishing for awhile without getting any closer, and when I felt I had finished with the water in front of me, I reeled in and walked around the guy to continue downstream, making some small talk as I passed about how the fishing had been going, and then re-entering a respectful distance downstream of him. I took a second to change one of my flies, and as I was finishing up I heard footsteps behind me. It was the guy I'd just passed, now walking in downstream of me, close enough to where the end of a long drift from me and the beginning of one from him might have tangled. I couldn't believe it. In one move, he'd cut me off from any further movement downstream, unless I wanted to get out again and go around him. Keep in mind he'd seen me working downstream before, and he had been working up previously, so there was no reason for him to come back down, other than the possible fact that I was a few steps away from one of the better pools on the stream, the one he'd just started casting to.

Anyway, I get home tonight, having mostly forgotten about this joker, and happened to see a thread on another forum where a guy was complaining about a couple of fishermen that were working their way downstream toward him on a stream, out west maybe, and he described trying to tell them diplomatically that he thought what they were doing wasn't cool. When one of the other fishermen asked this guy what he expected, he supposedly told them they should give him or any other fisher 500 yards. My reaction to THAT was: 500 yards? Where in the world do they give that much space? It struck me that here's a guy getting offended when someone comes within 500 yards of him, when my personal hopes are probably more like, I don't know, 50 yards or less?

So hence the question, what's considered crowding in your mind?

[Marco]

Common sense should dictate the answer to that question. But since the last two elections, it seems to have waned in priority.

Mark

[sgallas2]

Really Mark, this is a flyfishing site.

John, on eastern waters with a a fair number of people fishing, if you can get thirty yards id be satisfied with that. If you consider most peope cant ( and probably shouldnt ) cast more than 50 ft accurately, 30 yards should give you a safe margin. On western waters iwould think a hundred yards should keep most happy.
What gets me is when no one else seems to be in the area and someone comes up on you and starts fishing close. Of course, you could view it as an opportunity to catch the heck out of them and frustrate the other person.��

[Marco]

Freudian slip. Please disregard.

Mark

[ScottP]

When we were fishing the Kenai in Alaska this summer if you got 20 feet of space you felt fortunate. Luckily, everybody was pretty cool about it when lines inevitably got tangled or someone hooked up (I've seen things get real ugly on the Salmon River in NY). My personal space definition varies when I'm out west. On well-known waters, especially in the summer, I'll expect crowds although nothing like combat fishing mentioned above, and either slip in the cracks for a bit or head elsewhere; again, most folks are pretty easy going and will try to spread out as much as the situation allows. On lesser-known water, or places where a bit of hiking puts some distance from the pull-offs, I usually don't see another person; if I do, I'll give them a couple hundred yards, often more. On little blue lines, I hope I don't see anyone.

Regards,
Scott

[Luke McLeod]

If I want to deal with crowds, I'll goto Walmart. I prefer to either keep driving or keep hiking. I don't mind close quarters fishing with friends, but big crowds do not make for a relaxing day fishing for me.

[lastchance]

50 feet of lee way is good enough for me, although of course, I always want more. The way I look at it is that they have just as much right as I do to fish public water. I don't get mad about it, I just move on and recognize their right to fish there.

[Byron haugh]

Obviously, it depends on the water and the type of fishing being done. John, you describe, I believe, a fishing method that does require a lot of water........fishing soft hackles or streamers ( I assume in a fairly long-line downstream method?). This method would obviously require more space between fishers.......especially if you are wading downstream as you fish.

If you are 'parked" on a stretch of water like the Ranch on the Henry's Fork. The fisher is usually static and casting dries to risers. This situation would require less spacing to be thoughtful of the other angler.

500 yards is obviously excessive. I would think 50 yards (width of a football field) would be fine in most situations.

[Jayatwork]

I dislike combat fishing. My preference would be to not have anyone else in sight, but that's usually not realistic. If there are miles of good water that nobody's fishing, don't set up right next to me please.

I agree with Byron that 50 yards is usually fine.

Swinging for Steelhead is a different situation. The routine is to cast, swing , then take a step or two downstream and repeat, working your way through a run. In this case it's considered rude to step in below someone, on the same run, even if your 50 yards downstream. It is usually OK to start upstream and follow someone through (but polite to ask first).

[Ed_D]

When other anglers see me cast, they generally shy away a bit and give me some extra space. I'm pretty sure it's their self-preservation instinct and not merely good manners...

Ed