When there’s too many other flyfishermen

[wildtrout2]

What do you do when someone knowingly cuts you off, especially on a small stream?

I've only had that happen on one occasion. One early morning on a small Class A, I was already fishing my way upstream, when two guys showed up on a trail near the mouth of this stream. They saw me and quickly went upstream of me. This stream is too rough to be leap frogging, so I just left. Thankfully, I almost never encounter another fisherman in my travels.

 

[Bamboozle]

Good point. In lake situations bait angling groups often sit close to each other based upon the locations of “cut-outs” in the vegetation/shrubs. When lure fishing in lakes and on the move, the same approach is used; the anglers just move right past each other and keep fishing. There is no obvious attempt to establish great distances between anglers, although depending upon fishing speed and direction of travel, the lure anglers usually eventually separate anyway. The protocol that generally limits the distance between anglers is simply the desire to not cross each other’s lines.

Last summer was fishing at Scott's Run Lake for sunfish from the bank, sitting comfortably sitting in my "fishing" chair with two other anglers nearby.

Far to my right about 15 or so yards away was a guy sitting on a 5 gallon bucket doing the same thing. In between us was a wading angler...

That happened to be a Great Blue Heron.

The three of us fished for several hours without hassling each other even though the heron got there first and caught the most fish.

Nobody was fly fishing either so maybe that had something to do with it... 😉

 

[Bamboozle]

What do you do when someone knowingly cuts you off, especially on a small stream?

Throw rocks into the pool they are fishing...

Been there, done that.

 

[wgmiller]

With 86.000 miles of rivers and streams in this state, there is PLENTY of water to fish. So much so in fact that it would take many lifetimes to cover it all. Sure, most of it isn't "blue ribbon" trout water or even trout water for that matter, but there is a metric shi* ton of fishable water in this state. There are some streams I visit where I expect to run into other anglers (Penns, Spring, etc.). When I embark on angling trip my attitude and expectations are predicated on when and where I'm fishing. I'd have to say that if I hit a stream and there were too many fly anglers there, I'd move on to my next destination. As a general rule, I fish alone and enjoy not seeing another angler. My stream time is mental therapy and a time to "reset", not have social hour.

 

[wildtrout2]

As a general rule, I fish alone and enjoy not seeing another angler. My stream time is mental therapy and a time to "reset", not have social hour.

This^

 

[5footfenwick]

I've only had that happen on one occasion. One early morning on a small Class A, I was already fishing my way upstream, when two guys showed up on a trail near the mouth of this stream. They saw me and quickly went upstream of me. This stream is too rough to be leap frogging, so I just left. Thankfully, I almost never encounter another fisherman in my travels.

My Dad and I hiked in a little over a mile to brookie fish a little creek that’s an trib to a stocked section about 4 years ago. We start fishing and after about 100 yards of walking upstream we hear this rustling in the brush behind us. This guy comes sprinting out of the woods, cuts right between the two of us fishing and continues running untill he is about 50 yards ahead of us. He then starts casting and fishing his way up stream. Never says a word to us. Ran past us at full speed maybe 15 feet away from us. Full sprint carrying his fly rod. We both started laughing out loud. We turned around and headed home for the day. I’ve never seen anything like it since.
~5footfenwick

 

[wildtrout2]

My Dad and I hiked in a little over a mile to brookie fish a little creek that’s an trib to a stocked section about 4 years ago. We start fishing and after about 100 yards of walking upstream we hear this rustling in the brush behind us. This guy comes sprinting out of the woods, cuts right between the two of us fishing and continues running untill he is about 50 yards ahead of us. He then starts casting and fishing his way up stream. Never says a word to us. Ran past us at full speed maybe 15 feet away from us. Full sprint carrying his fly rod. We both started laughing out loud. We turned around and headed home for the day. I’ve never seen anything like it since.
~5footfenwick

That's funny, kind of. My encounter was similar, because I too had hiked a bit over a mile to get to the stream I intended on fishing. These guys were very aware of the consequences of being downstream of another fisherman, so they all but ran to get upstream of me. I was bummed. That's only happened to me that one time.

 

[HopBack]

I don’t mind at all when I see a bunch of fly fishermen because it lets me know exactly where not to go. I also don’t plan any trips around any famous waters, Penns is the exception and even then I only do it one a year or so and I seek solitude.

In a couple of weeks Jifigz and I will be in Colorado and I have planned for us to fish exactly 0 famous waters. I won’t spend money and time just so I can fish next to someone else. I’d be happy if we didn’t see a single other fisherman during the entire trip but I’m a different breed. It’s also never been my thing to sit around and listen to stories from the days escapades but again there is nothing wrong with that, Just one of my idiosyncrasies.

 

[[WR]]

It's starting into salmon season on Puget Sound. This is a "Pink Year" with an estimated 7.8 million Pink Salmon expected to show up.

That means everyone and their sister will be throwing buzz bombs, spoons, jigs, flies and anything else Pink, orange, or one of several other colors from every square foot of public access to the waters there, including the public fishing piers.
It's known as extreme combat fishing on several levels.

About 20 years ago I fished the Wauna Pool on the slack to falling tide. At high slack, we're talking about maybe 90-100 fishermen on a 3 acre pool. At low tide its down to about 6 feet deep and 20 X 30 ft dimensionally. And there's still usually 20 or more people trying to fish that.

I like coming back to PA and fishing again. 🎣 For all the complaints I hear, most I've met have been pleasant helpful and considerate. And I don't have to worry about getting smacked in the face with a rod tip by some ancient granny who doesn't have a license