Ethics
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I am doing my annual revisions to my class handout for beginning anglers and in that handout I have a part on ethics. I have taken some items from other handouts I have done in the past, as well as from items I have read over the years.
For the purposes of improving on this, I am looking for 1) any point that I may be overlooking and 2) good examples for each point.
Any help would be appreciated.
There is a certain code of ethics to any sport and fly fishing is no different. When fly fishing please keep in mind:
•you might want to mention ethics with respect to boat traffic in runs while wading.
most boaters try pick a different run and go around waders, however it is not always possible if you are wading in the only passable run. If i am in a boat and that is the situation, I typically wait for a second and ask permission to pass through.
This is greeted with mixed results from wade fisherman. Beginner anglers do need to know that they should expect boat traffic if they are in the only passable run on a busy river.
When approaching a stream, do so quietly as not to disturb the fish or other anglers.
Here is what came to mind while reading this.
Imagine being in a fine (5 star) restaurant having a nice candle lit dinner and some loud drunk people come crashing through the door.
Dan, I cannot praise you enough! This is something a lot of older as well as new anglers could read and follow. As someone who runs a drift boat on the crowded Delaware River, I can say that Adam makes a great point as well.
With all due respect, I do not agree with the concept of “yielding the hole”. Often when I head out on a trip, I am thinking of one particular spot or maybe even one particular fish. I am also willing to get up in the middle of the night, freeze my ass off, forego coffee and breakfast, and even sleep in my car to get to that spot. So please forgive me if I am an hour into fishing the hole I busted ass to get to and I am not quite ready to yield the hole to someone who had a shower and a nice breakfast that morning, and has moved in on me from upstream just as the fish are looking up…
Likewise, if I see an angler steadfastly working a hole, I’ll get out of the water, walk around as slowly and quietly as I can, and try to ask or maybe signal in some way to them to see if they mind if I work below them. I would never stand around and expect an angler to yield a hole or run to me. He has his position for as long as he likes. I will head downstream a good distance and then work in well below them…
YMMV,
With all due respect, I do not agree with the concept of “yielding the hole”. Often when I head out on a trip, I am thinking of one particular spot or maybe even one particular fish. I am also willing to get up in the middle of the night, freeze my ass off, forego coffee and breakfast, and even sleep in my car to get to that spot. So please forgive me if I am an hour into fishing the hole I busted ass to get to and I am not quite ready to yield the hole to someone who had a shower and a nice breakfast that morning, and has moved in on me from upstream just as the fish are looking up…
Likewise, if I see an angler steadfastly working a hole, I’ll get out of the water, walk around as slowly and quietly as I can, and try to ask or maybe signal in some way to them to see if they mind if I work below them. I would never stand around and expect an angler to yield a hole or run to me. He has his position for as long as he likes. I will head downstream a good distance and then work in well below them…
YMMV,
^^^^^^^^ +1
It’s not golf.
If a person is in a great run, it’s up to THEM when to move on. Get up a little earlier if you want your choice spot.
I concur on the two previous yielding the hoe posts. While I don’t think it is fair to stay in the same place and monopolize a hole all day, if someone is there before me, they get to decide when to move.
So, I guess it would be wrong to walk about 50′ upstream and urinate in the water with the guy hogging the hole watching?
No, seriously, good list.
So, I guess it would be wrong to walk about 50′ upstream and urinate in the water with the guy hogging the hole watching?
I prob wouldnt do that if he was chucking streamers.
If you come across a salmon egg jar, beer can, corn can, whatever – don’t just b*tch about the all the bubbas on the river, pick up the trash and pack it out with you.
Good list!
The problem I often have, however, is that I’d like to fish a long run, but there are exit points on the banks as they are lined with bushed that have thorns.In the past when I’ve passed behind anglers in the water some got real mad and accused me of disturbing their water; so now I’m reluctant to fish the run.
Should I be?
I mean if someone were to wade past me, I’d just wait a few minutes then start fishing again.
Randy
Good list. Ethics needs to be a part of every angler’s education. Unfortunately, apart from respecting another angler’s space, one must discern what the other angler is actually doing. I am a very aggressive, step down angler tossing streamers, soft hackles and wet flies along the length of the river. If I am in one spot longer than a minute, it is usually because my boot is stuck on something. When I encounter an angler parked on a spot nymphing or tossing dries I exit the stream and re-enter a reasonable distance downstream from their parking spot.
What is exceptionally irritating is the angler or two who saunters past me along the bank, clearing seeing how I am fishing and enters the stream (albeit as reasonable distance) and parks below me effectively cutting me off. Within minutes I am now intruding on the angler’s space, must leave the stream and abandon 100s of yards of productive river. On more than one occasion, anglers having done this apologized by saying: Sorry I didn’t mean to cut you off despite having done exactly that. To respect another angler’s space you really need to discern how they are fishing and act accordingly.
Mike,
While I understand your point, I would like to respectfully disagree. While you may be an aggressive downstream fisherman who covers many miles of stream a day, it is you who needs to understand not all miles of the stream belong to you.Should a fisherman enter the stream a respectful distance below where you are fishing, I would argue he/she did nothing wrong and it is you who should exit the stream and move around.
Unless one is fishing on private land, the streams belong to all of us and we need to be respectful of each other and share.
One thing that kind of bugs me about some of my fellow fly fishers is the attitude that if another fisherman is within a day’s hike in any direction from where he’s currently standing is too close and encroaching upon “his” section of stream.
Again, not wanting to be argumentative, but we all need to give a little and for the original post about teaching newcomers about ethics, I
I think that’s the message I’d like to share, in addition to all the other great points here would be along the lines of the philosophical aspects of fishing:*chill out, this is supposed to be for fun. Getting angry and arguing with someone is no fun and it ruins your day as much as it did his.
*Share the water and give the other guy the benefit of a doubt.
*In most cases, the other guy has as much right to be there as you do.
*Be good ambassadors of the sport, especially with non-flyfishermen.
*At the end of the day, it’s only a fish and the fishing should always be more important than the catching (unless in a tournament, the guy with the most fish doesn’t necessarily win).
*It’s not an Xtreme sport, it’s fishing.
jeff sluder
Todd- My point about yielding the hole is given simply because it is common on the Guadalupe for an anglers who will get into a spot on the river and camp out in that same spot for hours, quite often they don’t even move more than 30 feet in 2 hours. Maybe I just have issues with anglers who plant in a spot and camp out as I prefer to move and see different types of water. More than anything, I don’t like it when people stand over fish and try to catch every fish in the run.
Similarly, it is not uncommon to see a couple of guys trying to “spread out” in an area that can comfortably fish 4 or more anglers and when someone comes in quietly and respectfully and asks to join them are given nasty looks or worse.
I agree, if you have walked for miles and have gotten to a spot and someone shows up 20 minutes later, they need to go around and respect that you were the first one to arrive. However, for my class purposes, I am talking about fishing a tailwater where the furthest hike that most people make is about 400 yards. For those who are members of the Guadalupe River TU lease access program, many times the hike is under 200 yards.
Excuse me. New York State is the birthplace of fly fishing in America.
Theodore Gordon is buried in Manhattan. The Angler’s Club is also here.
Go Columbia (football)!
Randy
Ethics is common sense and is a touchy subject with most . Lots of opinions of right and wrong.
I think its pretty simple, if I get to a hole first, I will fish it as long as I want and may not move 6 inches in 8 hours,my choice. Why would I even consider leaving the hole until I am ready. If somebody has no other way around I am happy to let them pass, if there are other ways around I would suggest somebody use them, and if they refuse we will see how their swimming skills are 😉Excuse me. New York State is the birthplace of fly fishing in America.
Theodore Gordon is buried in Manhattan. The Angler’s Club is also here.
Go Columbia (football)!
Randy
you are getting over zealous here. There are different situations everywhere that you fish. If you want to be entitled to a hole, you have to work to get to it. New York rules don’t apply to the rest of the country.
I agree with dan, hogging entire runs is only permitted in steelhead holes imho. the more populated the river, the more open you should be to someone fishing into your hole. This only applies here on the east coast.
Out west, theres too much water to crowd folks over a hole.
This is a fascinating thread for me. Based on your profile pictures, it appears that I was learning to fish the streams of the Chattahoochee National Forest while most of you were learning to crawl. That was nearly two decades before “the movie” and you could move as slowly or as fast as you wanted, because there were never any other fishermen. The ethics of the day – probably established in the old East Coast fly fishing clubs – said that you always fished ‘through’ a pool. Yielding it to anyone waiting after a reasonable period of time. (This still applies on many Pacific North West steelhead rivers and the Atlantic salmon rivers of the east.) BUT, the guys that wrote these rules weren’t competing with fifty other TU members for the same pod of rising fish. Fact is, when I was fishing in North Georgia, TU only had about 25,000 members!
While ‘yielding the water’ and all the old rules used to make a lot old sense. They just aren’t practical in crowded waters of the East anymore. On the other hand, be careful of crowding people in the West. A native Montanan and a sow grizzly with cubs have about the same comfort zone.
I would love to be able to fish the ‘old’ way but it just isn’t practical anymore in most places. We all have to remember that the purpose of the exercise is to have fun – it isn’t always about sticking as many fish as possible.
The times they are a changin.
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