BoB R,

Thanks for commenting. Personally, I have no problem WHAT-SO-EVER idling next to the boats or bankies. Just keep in mind, doing so will be a lot slower and not much quieter. Have you driven jet boats not on plane in fast water? Not exactly efficient when you're not on plane. If you ever see a guy out there coming up river pointing frantically side to side, looking like an idiot, trying to ask you which way you want to be passed on, that's probably me. Big problem comes when the guy running the motor, or oars is fishing one side and someone else in the boat is fishing the other. I get pissed at my guys when they do this because its taught for other around us to know what to do. When other boats are around, EVERYONE in the boat needs to fish the same side. This is sidedrifting, anchor fishing, float fishing,etc. Plug fishing is obviously different.

The problem is and the point I was trying to make is that every situation and EVERYONE is different. AND... it varies from river to river. Some people want you to idle by and some will get pissed and wave you through frantically. A lot of older guys even want you to run over the hole. Some people want you to run past as far off the fish as possible, even if its right next to there boat. Some get pissed that you come closer to their boat. I agree completely that if you have a jet, and its clear where everyone else if fishing, stay away. But now what if you can stay farther away by running faster? ie, cutting the very very inside shallow section of a gravel bar while a boat is fishing the deeper slot? Go slow and idle over the slot? Doubtful that will go over well.

As far as being in a hurry. That's completely dependent on the person. Personally I don't think its that much of a hurry to get back to the top of the drift you just pounded. If its the break of dawn and you know there's fish in a slot, sure. That might be a hurry.

And another thing, I've seen a few posts about throwing rocks..... If you have an ETIQUETTE or RESPECT problem with what the operator of a boat did, flag them down and ask them to take it to the beach or come talk to you. Throw punches if you really feel like it, but do it like a MAN. That being said if someone is a little girl and throws rocks at my friends/family, you will have a very bad day from that point forward. If you hit someone in my boat, the cops better be on the way and you'd better start a recovery crew to pull your sunken boat out of the river. So if you're actually stupid enough to throw a rock at someone over a fish, just think about it for a second.