Rick
I’m glad those guys got their just deserts. I think you would have been miserable if that other boat hadn’t showed up. Sounds like you ended up having a great time and caught a lot of great fish. Thanks for sharing.
On the other hand hearing about some of the run-ins with aggressive people has me thinking about gettting a conseal and carry permit. Rude is one thing but aggressive is another.
Greg
Wow, where do you guys fish, the local prison lake or something? 
I have a carry permit and I do exercise that right when I fish, but in the 5 years I’ve had it, the only time I ever came close to using the firearm was on a pitt bull some stupid woman had let off the leash. The dog charged me but fortunately for the dog, me and the owner, she got it under control before it was close enough to be a real threat.
By far, the overwhelming majority of people I meet while out fishing are good folks. Sometimes, it’s families out having a good time around the lake like letting their kids feed the ducks or skip rocks or swim in the pools, sometimes it’s other fisherman or hikers. In a very few cases, I’ve encountered rude people (unfortunately, most of the rude ones I’ve met have been fellow fly fishers…) but the vast majority are just people out enjoying the water the same as I.
One time, a family came to a local lake and their kids (3 or 4 years old) were running around feeding ducks and splashing in the water. I was about 50 yards away and the father started yelling at the kids to be quiet because a man was fishing nearby. I walked up to the dad and told him that I thought the world would be a far better place if more kids were running around the lakes, feeding ducks and throwing rocks. His children were not bothering me one bit. It was a big lake and I could easily move to another spot. The man smiled and thanked me and I moved another 100 yards or so down the lake and kept on fishing. Didn’t ruin my day or theirs.
But with the stories of rude and aggressive people, I have to believe it’s absolutely true, and that I’ve just been fortunate all these years that I’ve never come across any of them. Hope my streak continues for another 49 years (well, I’ll be 98 then and most likely not out stomping around in streams fly fishing but…).
Jeff
I too am glad that the boating bullies got their own behavior back right in the face, BUT where do you find people like this? I was fishing up on that Chattooga River a couple of weeks ago with Better Loops. The Chattooga River is suppose to be Burt Reynolds, Deliverance Country with man-raping, inbred miscreants hiding behind every hill. There were no miscreants this trip but we had to deal with 5-6 parties of canoes, rafts and tubes while we were fishing. The river was narrow and low where we were fishing with only 10-20 feet of navigable water in places. As we saw each float party coming down river, Better Loops and I readied our Bowie Knives, loaded our pistols and got ready for a fight to the death over “our” water. Imagine our disappoint when EVERY party gave us a friendly wave, a cheerful greeting and an apology in advance for disturbing our fishing. I’m sure after writing this that I will run into a couple of total neanderthals as pay back. So far, I guess that I’ve just been lucky. 8T
I was just down in Pickens and heard the Deliverence story being filled near there. Was I close to you? I was in the freakin Mountains of god…riding down from Ohio and seeing the Blue Ridge Mts. In Ohio, unless you’re on Erie Or in Somebodies private pond (and you’re not keeping the fish) 50,60,70 fish per outing as his stories claim seem unfathamable to me. If he came to Ohio, he’d give up fly fishin…cause all them pistolas is what you would see if you set foot on private property…I have friends with ponds and they won’t let you keep your booty…
Eight thumbs, I thought you had a good post that would not reqire anyone having anything bad to say about it.
Hi Predator,
You were, indeed, in my backyard—only about 20-30 minutes away. In addition, you were only about 30-40 minutes away from the Chattooga River which is the river on which the movie Deliverance was filmed. The part of the river that I fish regularly is considerably smaller and safer than the section seen in the movie. Send me a PM the next time you are going to be down in this area and lets see if we can get together for some serious (or semi-serious) fly fishing. 8T
8T PM sent. I love readin Ricks articles but they seem like fantasy to me…I never seen that many fish in one place anywhere. I never leave home without firepower, we’d make a good team