Stream etiquette??

Tigereye

Tigereye

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Joined
Sep 30, 2014
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1,185
Location
Lehigh Gorge
OK I was fishing tonight after work and was having a very nice evening. Surprisingly there were a lot of folks out doing the same, 2 or 3 bait guys and a few feather chuckers. More than I expected.

It starts like this. I pull up to a parking area and 1 car is parked taking up 3 spots. (instead of parking head on, as most do, this guy is parallel parked. ) Ok Strike one. I rig up and walk down to the river. I was fishing the Lehigh. There is one guy fishing the lower end of a 100-120 yard run.

I move up to the top of the run a good 75 yards away and start to make my way out into the river. The guy looks my way and shakes his head. Hmmm. I make a few casts back out and walk down stream on the bank giving him plenty of room for back cast. As I get below him I apologize and say I didn't mean to encroach on his fishing but thought that there was plenty of room for both of us . My apology is met by another disgusted look and a head shake. Strike 2. I wished him good luck and told him to try a Slate drake. (I have been doing very well with them this week and thought It would break the tension) No Avail.

Went down stream around the bend out of sight and had a great night with a slate drake compara dun. Still I could not get this guy out of my head. I quit early Around 8 o'clock figuring a shower and a late supper would help.

I know I have had the squeeze put on me many of times and I usually move to another area. AS long as I have room to cast and feel the other guy does too, I am fine. For those that don't fish the river. there are certain areas that are wadeable/fishable and others that clearly are not for safety reasons. it is not uncommon to have 4 or 5 guys in a run or pool.

On smaller streams I understand offering someone courtesy and fishing around some one. In this case though I think it presumptuous to control that amount of stream.

If I am wrong here I'll take my lumps.

Thanks for letting me vent.
 
I think you just ran into a jerk,sounds like you were more than reasonable to me,
 
It's a fine line. Personally, i think you did the right thing. Sounds like you were contentious of your fellow angler and did your best. On the other hand there are many who think you should never drop in woth in sight of another angler.

I wouldn't sweat it. PA is a place where we must learn to fish together on some streams. You did your best, dont let his attitude bring you down. His attitude is not in your control.
 
I'd be happy if people gave me half that much room many times. I fish the C&R on the YB several times of year. There are two regulars with terrible stream etiquette. They both tend to fish downstream. They will work their way right down to you, well within the distance of a cast, and then continue fishing on the downstream side in the same manner. This is not when the stream is crowded either.

This year I had someone fish right past me. He came upstream, fished the bottom of the run I was working, then fished behind me and continued to the riffle above. Our casts could have easily overlapped at all three points... this was on Spring. I couldn't believe it.

If a stream is busy, I personally feel that enough room should be left between anglers that each can make a long cast towards the other and not have the lines overlap. There are, of course, exceptions to this, i.e. Erie trib steelhead and Penns green drakes.

I can't really think of a situation where 75 yards isn't a reasonable spacing on a larger water. I also can't think of a situation for an angler to enter a riffle/run/pool section that is occupied by another in water like the canyon section of Spring but there are obviously different attitudes towards this.

I try not to stress about these things on the stream. We all have different expectations. Understand that sometimes you will be annoyed by the actions of others and that, despite the care you take, you will upset some anglers along the way. It's just the way it is if you are fishing popular waters in PA.

Now, don't get me started on the yaks.
 
Not sure if I could see someone do a head shake at 75 yards so I start by assuming you were much closer then that. Regardless, the guy was a jerk who goes to the stream just waiting to shake his head at someone. You would have to stand right next to me and cast to the exact spot I'm casting to raise my eyebrow. Can't let a jerk ruin your outing. I do believe that a lot fly fishermen believe they are entitled to a larger portion of a stream then a spin fishermen because of the back cast. I don't which is probably why my tolerance of distance is great.
 
75 yards is 225 feet. I think you were fine.
 
I know I have had the squeeze put on me many of times and I usually move to another area. AS long as I have room to cast and feel the other guy does too, I am fine. For those that don't fish the river. there are certain areas that are wadeable/fishable and others that clearly are not for safety reasons. it is not uncommon to have 4 or 5 guys in a run or pool.

I will pre-face by saying I do not know the Lehigh, so this is not criticism as much as explaining my own view of it.

But as for how close is too close? The answer is, it depends on how crowded the water is. If you and he were the only two in sight of each other on a large river, yeah, that's way too close. If, on the other hand, the banks of all the major holes were polka dotted with fishermen, then nah, that's about right.

As a rule of thumb, observe how much room other guys have. Don't give anyone less room than that. If they've got absolutely no one in sight of them in either direction, it should stay that way, or at worst you should be a spec on the horizon.
 

Everybody is different I don't like being close to guy's and don't see alot of guys unless it's a big hatch but sound's like you were fine to me. Iv'e had my share of encounters on the water most time's it's just wise to laugh and move on.
 
I was on the Erie tribs last winter where nobody would be within 100 yards of me, but as soon as I hooked into and landed a Steelhead I would have a spin fisherman walk right up to me and stand 5 feet away and cast into the hole I just landed one out of. I truly didn't understand someone having zero consideration for me as a fellow fisherman.

Sounds to me like you were a considerate fisherman and did what you can to not encroach on this guys space.
 
75 yards is pretty far but…….if I had a long stretch of water like that to myself and was planning to work my way up to the spot you entered I would probably shake my head too. Maybe that guy had his eye on some rising fish that he was working towards. If youmade the effort to apologize though I would acknowledge your apology and probably say something like, "hey there's room for both if us." Who knows, when you entered the water I may have just moved on in search of more solitude.

I don't like being crowded but it ain't worth getting upset over it.

PocketWater - Don't try to compare the combat fishing for Erie steelhead to any other experience. If there was 5' between you and another guy you're lucky someone else didn't try to squeeze between you. lol
 
@McSneek hahaha. It was my first time up there, and I had walked pretty far away from everyone and literally didn't see another guy within 100 yards of me either way. I was working this one hole, hooked into one and landed the thing in about 3 minutes. Nice fight. I was pretty pumped because it was my first steelhead I had landed after breaking off a few on a previous trip. I decided to keep it and smoke it so I gave it a bonk on the head and went to go back into the hole and there was a guy already casting into it. The guy appeared out of nowhere because the whole process of me landing the steelhead couldn't of been more than 4 minutes.

On my previous trip this older guy with spinning gear literally walked up to me and was standing almost shoulder to shoulder to me when there was open water all over the place. I just looked at him and kept casting my fly rod like wtf are you even thinking. Kind of crazy up there. I was certainly not used to the rudeness I encountered up there.

By the end of the season I did find a nice section of one of the streams where I fished about 4 hours and only encountered a handful of fly fishers the entire time so I am hoping that is normal for that location and not just an odd day. Going to give it a go this fall/winter there with my fingers crossed.
 
As a regular of the Lehigh......it all depends the water you were in. If you fished the Btown ramp it is not uncommon to see more then 1 angler fishing the run. If you were fishing below the Btown island, I would kinda be upset if you started fishing it as well, due to the severity of the wading conditions there. Even if you think you gave plenty of room, you might not have been giving enough wading room because of the difficulty of traversing the run. All depends on the water. Always best to ask I feel like.
 
What! You saw another fisherman on the Lehigh! Just kidding, sort of, it's not your problem and you were courteous, that's the best you can hope for in an onstream meeting, I wouldn't let it keep me up at night.
 
Becker, I'm sorry about your mom.
 
You guys are kidding about 75 yards being way to close, regardless of the stream or location of holes. Guess I must get head shakes all the time. Good thing I can't see them.
 
Some people can cover 70 yards in ten minutes. They have a right to feel you are fishing for their trout.
 
Doesn't dound so bad. I had a guy casting over my line earlier this year. There was not a single other person on that stretch of the brandywine that day. I just walked away. Anything I had to say would of come out very aggressive and hostile.
 
75 may be too close. I fish fast and I fish upstream. I cover over a mile sometimes of stream, on small streams often more than a mile. If it's a big stream and not that many people around, no need to be that close.
 
man I honestly don't know how you do this with 'normal' in mind. Personally I'd move...wait...I DID haha!

The mad scientist sockeye runs we have (think Russian/kenai) is one thing....but trout! NO way! We are truly spoiled up here!

When we fished raystown area I was flabbergasted by the amount of people. Still had fun, and its a beautiful part of the state, don't get me wrong. but yowazer there was peeps on the water that day!

Etiquette is only defined by what you do and how you hold yourself. The fact that it was 'too close' for this guy, he made it known, and you made the attempt to move and offered some friendly advice goes to show your character. We've all had people too close! Lord knows I've put a hook into two people now fly fishing over my lifetime.

For those of you who have these guys walk in on you without any etiquette......start Belgian casting! They'll get your drift quick. Those Purdy casts make you feel good....that flailing keeps people at bay.

Fishing the run at YB, reminded me of chasing reds up here......absolutely nuts!
 
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