I feel your pain.

i don't have a good answer. I use both a drift boat and a sled. I try to go out of my way to be polite, but sometimes just existing on a river is going to annoy somebody. It seems like on some days, no good deed goes unpunished.

Sounds like you ran into a couple examples of what I call nervous nellies. Folks who don't have their own fishing plan, and can't bear to think that someone else might get to a fish first. Roaring around, and cutting people off is indicative of that midset. All you can do is realize that the reason that they are behaving like that is that they aren't catching many fish.

Me, I like to get to a river about 8am. That lets the drift boats get down below me a ways, and get to their spot, if that is important to them. I'll work upriver at the beginning of the day, and downriver at the end of a day to cover water that they're not on. Maybe I'll rush to one or two spots if I think they're good. I've found that I can get plenty of fish, just by working slowly and carefully.

I do the same thing to drift boats with my sled that I do with my drift boat when I come to bank fishermen. We pull our lines in, and don't crowd them.

Now, if you''re plugging in the middle of the business drift in Fall City (300 yards long), and I'm free drifting, I am going to fish down to you, and then fish below you once I'm past your plugs. But I would find that to be reasonable behavior if you did it to me as well. What I won't do to you, but have seen done, is roar down on you at 45 mph, sweep in 40 yards below you, and start plugging your water. That would be reason for a discussion. Using golf words.

I'm eager for the winter season, but I'm not eager for the crowds that we know are coming.