Friday, June 12, 2009

Three Days of Poor Etiquette

I was a bit tied up with work for a few weeks, after some serious long hours and no sleep it was time to hit the road. Grizz, Spicy (Nick G), and I geared up and headed out. We knew we might have some weather ahead but nothing prepared us for the events that took place for the next 3 days.

We poked around a few spots, checked some ice off lakes and enjoyed three days of rain, wind and snow. Fishing wasn't off the hook… err… on the hook, but it was fun and yes some catching was had. Every fish we hooked on this trip was well earned, conditions were not ideal but they presented a great problem solving situation. Making your brain think a little bit harder is a good thing sometimes. It was a great learning trip!

The biggest factor we encountered was the other fisherman. Everyday we were "high holed" by some punk. For years, we have never had issues way out here in the back woods with other anglers, hell most of the time, on this river, you never even see another person. That has always been the beauty of it.




This stretch we picked a legal access point. It was a long, long walk in but it should be worth it. Knee deep in mud we trudged around the swampy vegetation, skirted deep pools filled with quicksand type silt, and encountered a down pour before we finally reached the spot. Slowly working our way up stream we rounded the bend and ran smack into a group of people. What the hell?? Where did these guys come from? How did they get here? So now this run was beat, we decided to hike back to the car. That's when we found out he answers to our questions. They parked down lower, jumped the fence and trespassed in order to get ahead of us! License plate… Colorado.


This spot guys were actually running, no, sprinting to get to the water before us. Interesting is that we were already fishing!!! They raced down to get to the good stretch above us. There was another guy already fishing on the opposite braided channel at the head of the run. I was coming up the bottom. These guys proceeded to wade right above my run, right through the fish only to run up to the good run above me. The run I am slowly working up to.

I did what any other guy would do, I yelled at them!! They acted like I wasn't even there. I was pissed by this point. My two options were to either shove my rod up you know where or wade away. I was so mad I had no choice but to wade away. I linked back worth the guys from the other braid and we actually watched more guys show up, run to the water

and all weeded out the old man. After getting back to the parking lot we couldn't help but to go look at the license plates… yep, just as we thought. Way out here, in another state, we are getting "high holed" by our own!! Utah license plate after Utah plate lined the lot, figures. I expect to see this on the Provo Rivers but not out here. What a shame!

Last spot on our list is a busy one. Knowing that we showed up early in hopes of finally getting some good water, lucky for us the camp ground is still sleeping. We rigged up and hit the water. I guess we must have woke some folks because the next thing we knew some dude walks right up to the best hole in the river, cuts us off and "high holes" us!!! Once again the lack of respect is disheartening and is now trying all of our patients!!! License plate… Utah!! Again!

For three days we dealt with sheer lack of angling respect. I guess the only thing to do is what we do back home… flatten the situation by releasing hot air ; )


4 comments:

kolobflyfishing said...

That sucks about the ass holes with no respect. I have to take customers golfing a fair amount for work, and had the same experience a couple days ago. I drove the green on a par 4 that I have never even come close to in my life. I yelled FOUR as loud as I could, and waved sorry when they turned around swearing. They took my ball and hit it off into the desert. I guess I shouldn't have hit it, but it is very likely to ever drive the green on this hole. I was in the right with the etiquette, but these assholes thought differently. I feel for you though, I fish down south, so very rarely have these problems. Sure sucks though, next time cast a pike fly into there eye:)

BLUEANGLER said...

Walk away?! You guys are too kind! Brothers...

I thought the Provo training have given you some steel heart... What I suggest next time is to "Czech them out"... catch fish just right below their feet and give them a smile... "hand tie, size 16...eh..." : P

wyoflyfish said...

We call that getting "Colorado'ed". Too bad about the others lack of respect bg. We are pretty lucky here in that we can usually get away from that sort of stuff... but it sounds like you were well off the beaten path already. Wonder why that water was so crowded? Was there a recent news article that surged people there?

Cutthroat Stalker (Scott C) said...

Bryan,

Most of the places I fish that isn't a problem. But once, on the Blacksmith Fork, I had three guys jump in the river right on the big bend hole I was approaching. I didn't care much about that hole because I've fished it enough to know that it looks great, but fishes poorly. Still, I was pretty pissed at the lack of etiquette. I've found that the best thing to do in these situations is to tell them the problem. They may be newbies and have no idea about river etiquette. Or they may just be jerks and need to be told anyhow. I try to let them know I'm pissed without being too confrontational (but I was ready to pop the one dude if he so much as moved toward me). Anyhow, they backed off and left. But you said you yelled at the one guy and he just ignored you--that's frustrating!

-scott c