Fishing Etiquette

[fishgb]

Berlin said:

And the guy who went to lunch and left his gear behind would have found it nicely packed away and sitting just off the peg when he got back. If he'd had a single word to say about it he would have been swimming it he was talking to me. If he got out and had more to say about it he would be back in the water but bleeding the next time.

Carl,

I agree with "Cothi" what you are suggesting is "assault" and could end up being a very unpleasant (and probably costly) experience for you. Not to mention the possible "damage" you did to his tackle when you touched it...........

and with his friend the fishery owner as a witness??

gb

[Berlin]

What can I say, He just fell in

and of course I know what constitutes assault so nothing of that nature would occur.

Carl

[Sewinman]

There seems to be a new macho attitude on the board at the mo. Full of hard men with hard words. Maybe it is a kind of internet bicep flex for Tarpon's benefit.

[Berlin]

Interesting theory

Maybe we should ban women from the forum? Or Maybe just the attractive ones?

Having met Jo, I don't think thats sort of thing would impress her, but I'm sure she'll correct me if I'm wrong.

Just for clarification. If the guy came back and stated he was fishing there, then WAS is the operative word.
However, I wouldn't be fishing there because it was a Hot Spot. There are hot spots everywhere (even if they aren't induced with a tin of sweetcorn)

If someone leaves their pitch for 5 or even ten minutes to help a friend land a fish, go and get something from the car, or even get a sarnie to bring back then no problem. But if they swan off for an hour expecting their place to still be vacant then sorry, they have forefitted the spot. Leaving your gear lying all over the place is certainly not a way to justify this.

If someone tried to encroatch on someone spot whilst they had just popped off to help someone land a fish (and I've seen it happen) then I'd be just as defensive of the guy who had the spot already.

Its not about fishing the hot spot. Its about people being greedy. Whom ever it is.

I used to think that fisheries that sounded a horn every two hours and you had to move, was a daft idea. Now I'm not so sure!

Cheers,
Carl

Carl

[T.P.]

Anymore talk of women being banned from the forum and you'll all be going swimming!! ;D

I think this whole etiquette thing, rights to fish, cormorant interferance is all I sign of how keen as anglers we are to catch fish. Being a girl I can't exclude myself from some slightly questionable behaviour when it comes to reacting to a lack of fishing etiquette.

I believe you should treat fellow anglers how you would like to be treated. So if someone is in a spot you want to fish don't crowd them, afterall if you'd got there first you wouldn't want them to crowd you.

I have shouted some very obscene abuse to inexperienced boaters who anchor too close to me and have witnessed on several occasions full on arguments between fishing guides about crowding people on flats and have heard many stories of this resulting in fist fights back at the dock.

To me a lack of etiquette often shows a lack of experience. If there's a spot you want to fish then get there early, if someone near you is on the fish then remember the spot and come back another day before they've got there.

The problem is that there are far too many people out there who don't learn the etiquette of how to fish around other people.

As for the guy who goes to lunch what's wrong with asking him politely if you can use his peg while he's gone, I think there's more mileage in being charming rather than sneaky.

At the beginning of this thread some questionable tactics were mentioned - who cares how another angler catches his fish? My success is based on my own catch and my methods, if someone wants to give themselves an advantage which I might consider a 'cheat' then that's their choice. I wonder how many of you have your own secretly designed fly that's your advantage in catching fish - do you feel like you're cheating because your neighbour is using a well-known pattern?

So if you I see you out on bank somewhere I might say hello, ask you how the fishing is but I'm not going to try and steal your spot, try and steal mine and it might be hell hath no fury!!

Jo

[MikeConnor]

guinea said:

I have just written and deleted a long reply before I posted it. I'd rather not say something I might regret later.

Needless to say I was disappointed that certain people were too stupid to understand that my argument was against the pricing model and less than honest fishery owners.

I don't feel the need to defend where I fish and I don't need lectured on what the spirit of angling and fishing is.

"Its not about catching". Do you think I need to be talked down to like that? I explained in a previous post that catching is not my only motivation.

Don't be so judgemental when fishing. What I've noticed in my years of fishing is that every branch has its share of bigoted idiots. Sea fisherman looking down on mackerel bashers, course fisherman looking down at pole anglers, carp anglers looking down at boillie bashers, fly fisherman looking down at everything. What is comes down to is letting people decide what fishing means for them and letting them get on with it.

Judgmental? Not at all. It is none of my business what you do, or how you do it. Indeed, whatever you do, I hope you enjoy yourself doing it.

You asked for opinions. I gave you mine. You obviously did not like it.

And?

TL
MC

[MikeConnor]

Berlin said:

And the guy who went to lunch and left his gear behind would have found it nicely packed away and sitting just off the peg when he got back. If he'd had a single word to say about it he would have been swimming it he was talking to me. If he got out and had more to say about it he would be back in the water but bleeding the next time.
Hogging a peg is nothing more than greed and I cant stand greed

Carl, I am surprised at you! You would be guilty of assault in such a case.

I would just walk away and fish somewhere else. I detest confrontations. They can lead to extremely unpleasant situations.

Furthermore, such situations often arise because of the concentration of anglers at such places, and the attitude some have.

Another good reason to avoid them.

TL
MC

[Berlin]

Mike, I agree.

Of course, if a confrontation was forthcoming, it would be self defence, not assault.

He'd ask me to leave, and I wouldn't. I'd stand my ground. Where it went from there is entirely up to him.
One things for sure, I bet he wouldn't leave his gear there for an hour again.

Cheers,
Carl

[MikeConnor]

Although it may be very tempting to try and "educate" people to behave in a polite and civilised manner, it never works, for the simple reason that the people concerned have no manners and are not civilised.

Were they so, then such situations would never arise.

Many times, I and others have been called to the river bank, ( although actually more often to the lakeside, there seems to be more potential for disagreement there! to quell a disturbance, or resolve a dispute.

Invariably, someone feels hard done by, or cheated in some way. One often then finds very angry people, throwing various accusations around, and behaving like children.

Things like "He stole my spot", or "He cast over my line", or "He threw stones at my boat", "He rowed through my swim in his boat", " He sent his dog through my swim", etc etc ad infinitum, ad nauseam, and other ridiculous ( even if true, they are still silly!), accusations are then made, in order to somehow justify the subsequent silly antics of those involved. Often it is quite impossible to discover how such things occurred at all!

These things often escalate out of all proportion when the "offender" is confronted, as such people also tend to be pre-disposed to aggravation, this partly explains their selfish and rude behaviour in the first place, and may well end in a fist fight or worse.

It is just pointless.

Often, we have merely expelled all those involved from the water in question, and occasionally banned them, after taking particulars, depending on whether or not an actual offence took place. In most cases, such people are then charged with the relevant offence, and we have never lost a case yet.

This, as you know, may have very serious consequences here, losing one´s fishing licence for life for instance.

It may well sound unfair, but it is often quite immaterial who is initially "right" or "wrong" in such a case. While some things may be morally repugnant, they are not necessarily illegal.

If and when people start fighting, threatening others, or otherwise causing a disturbance, we simply take the necessary steps to end this. We do not wish the disturbance to occur at all. Such things merely upset others who are there for a nice pleasant and peaceful day out, they may also lead to far more serious problems.

Unless the person concerned is doing something illegal, dangerous to himself or others, or specifically forbidden by the fishery, then you have no right to interfere with him at all.

Were he actually doing something as described above, then you still have no right to interfere directly, your option would be to inform the relevant authorities. This is in fact your ONLY option, unless you or others are in danger of life and limb.

You may not like his behaviour, or his attitude, but there is nothing you can legally do about it. Nor is it worth it to even try.

TL
MC

[grayling]

Can just visualise in my mind's eye 'Berlin' and I on a pool on the Tweed, Salmon leaping everywhere 'Berlin' armed to the teeth with his Fly gear and little me with a Telescopic Woolworths Spinning Rod adorned with some ironmongery. 'Berlin' properly in a gentlemanly way, very courteous , asks, who would go down the pool first thinking obviously about etiquette , and me... knowing full well it should be him....looking around incase another angler had happened upon us....would reply....You or I, and pause...."I f.....ing do". ;D

Grayling

[JonMartin]

I started fly fishing in my teens in the late 1970's when there were very few commercial fisheries about and those that were, were populated by anglers whose idea of a fishing waistcoat was a 40 year old tweed jacket.

The only raised voices you would ever hear would turn out to be part of a heated discussion on the relative merits of those new fangled carbon rods.

Nobody ever complained about the state of the fishery, the stocking levels or the number of fish caught and however awful the season had been it was considered good form at the end of it to write to the riparian owner and thank him for taking your money.

In my opinion what has changed is societies attitude to bad service and value for money. Who, back then would send food back to a restaurant's kitchen or kick up a fuss in a shop or threaten legal action if the wheels fell off the latest British Leyland heap they'd bought. Now thank God it's all very different.

It's the same with a days fishing - people want what they think they've paid for and the higher the price the greater the expectation - alas, in the pursuit of this end a small minority don't mind buggering up others enjoyment if they think the others are standing between them and what they perceived they are "owed".

[dunc85]

All this talk of fighting, stealing spots etc and there was naive little me thinking fishing was meant to be relaxing

[fishgb]

dunc85 said:

All this talk of fighting, stealing spots etc and there was naive little me thinking fishing was meant to be relaxing

RELAXING - Good Grief man!

If it's relaxing you want you had better take up pole fishing on the local canal.......

Berlin apart.... crawling through cow pats, nettles and worse, falling down steep banks, getting hung up on barbed wire, having a bloody heart attack when a pheasant explodes form under ones feet... trying to wade upstream without disturbing the fish, attempting - for the umpteenth time to retrieve the fly from the tree that the fish is lying under without disturbing it etc. etc.

AND THEN, having staggered back to ones car in the dark, then finally arriving in civilisation - someone inevitably asks "did you have any luck?" (like it was a game of bingo?).

Relaxing?? fishing on stillwaters is relaxing I suppose, but not on rivers. Except maybe for some of the carpet slipper bits of the Test.

Do some “combat fly fishing”, on rivers, even if one does see someone else (oh horrors!), one is too knackered to think about raising much more than a wheeze let alone throwing him in. Leave your gear on the bank where I fish and it will be stomped into a pulp by a bunch of heifers……

Relaxing – sheesh!

gb

[The Famous Grouse]

GB, man, you gotta chill. The mojo is bringing you down, man. You're going to keel over from a blown gasket at, like, 25 or something.

Maybe some tai chi or yoga or something? C'mon, man. Breathe in, breathe out. In. Out. Slow, now. From the energy center. Again. . .

Grouse