I have always had luck with Coley's rule #1... Start a conversation and or politely ask if it is okay to hop in and fish. Confrontation just isn't my thing anymore and as much as I enjoy fishing and catching fish, getting in a fight just isn't worth it! Not trying to go to jail over a frickin fishing hole...

When I am in a DB if I am within ear shot of a bankie, I will ask which way they would like me to pass and if there is something out of their reach that I want to fish, I will ask.

I find a simple courteous conversation/question will usually prevent any conflict...

Another entertaining, yet cognizant, post from Coley. Since he's not a cop, he should consider becoming a writer. I have but one question from his rules of the river, which has nothing to do with rules. Where the hell can someone find a $35 first fly fishing kit?

I observe rule #1 routinely. I might go looking for solitude on the river, but if I see another angler, obviously solitude ain't happening. So I ask him where he's fishing and if he's working downstream through the hole. It cracks me up when he says, "Hhhrrrrmmmphhhh, mumble, mumble, hhrrrmmmmpphhh." Ah, another non-English speaker, I see.

After I had been seriously fishing for a few seasons, I wondered why there is so much asshatt behavior on salmon and steelhead rivers. Once I came to understand that the average fisherman is a social misfit and an asshole, it all began to make some sense. Having reset my expectations accurately, I enjoy many a memorable day, made so by the above average people I keep running into.

Sg

Matt's spot on.....


My method is launch late on rivers that are mainly DB.....

That way all the crowd has raced eachother to the takeout and I have it all to myself........

As fast as some of these new DB racers go, they miss most of the good water.....

Once I came to understand that the average fisherman is a social misfit and an asshole, it all began to make some sense.

Sg

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum I glad that I found it. So I'm kind of new to forums but I'm not new to fishing. My grandmother loves steelhead more than I do, bless her soul she is now fishing in another life. I made a movie Smokin' Fish. Some of you have probably seen it on PBS playing lately. Anyways, when I was making the movie in my village, Kluckwan, Alaska and fishing on the River this forum reminded me of the first 10 minutes of my film. Fishing etiquette was always something I regarded as sacred. You never take another man's spot, and you never use another man's equipment without written notarized permission.

During quite possibly the most beautiful fishing scene on the River overlooking my village using a sockeye net shortened and modified for the River and for subsistence fishing I nearly got shot. Schmitdy Junior and other relatives and friends were having a couple morning beers and of course all we could talk about was how many fish with caught and how we were smoking them. We were in my relative's trailer, Tiger, a bad ass veteran from Vietnam all rambling on about fishing.

Schmidty Jr said my friend Luke and I could could fish his net and was probably already full of sockeye. If it wasn't there then we could just go ahead and put our net there and catch what we needed as this was a hot spot. This was right after we were talking about how Luke and I were not catching much fish. He told me not to argue enter going down to the river and pick his net. Note mistake number one: we do not get it in writing. Note mistake number two: this written document was also not notarized.

Luke and I went down to the river got in our canoe and hand-lined across the Chilkat River and had lined it all the way up to the net. We got out our fancy camera, HD cam, second-generation, and started filming amazing footage of my village from across the River. I'm not trying to sell you anything but if you didn't get a chance to see it on PBS we have a trailer of it here, this way you can see what I'm talking about: Smoin' Fish Movie. Anyways we were filming having coffee and enjoying the scenery. Their net was not there so we put our net there.

Not long after that, maybe one minute Sr. was on the scene with another person driving the boat. The first thing I heard was F##k YOU! I'm not sure if I ever heard such terrible obscenities in my life. I thought I was most certainly going to get shot. This is a man I have no nearly my entire life. Not only was I shaking in my rubber boots but I was in fear that my life was about to end. I tried explaining to him, almost at the top of my lungs, due to the noise of the outboard engine that his son said we could fish there for a few hours. This was mistake number three. Never trust the son after a few beers especially in the morning.

Luke and I quickly packed up our gear and headed down the river thankfully without getting shot. I was pretty pissed off and walked up to Tiger's house. I told him what it happened and his son laughed at me and said oh yeah I forgot to tell my dad and then laughed some more and offered me a beer. That seemed to call me down a bit before I went back out fishing. I never did go fishing in that spot again.

Cory Mann / Gutchquena

Off topic a sec....I don't know why Merg thinks a bunch of men want to see him shirtless, but here's a handy tool to put an end to that.

Idiot!!

What a jack a$$!!

Idiot!!