Lessons in Etiquite

Friday July 22nd, 2005
The flight arrived with no hang ups. Bill had the beers waiting with the river calling. We headed over to the Madison River to fish the evening away. The main affilation with this section of river is the famous 3 Dollar Bridge. And to all those from Colorado reading this get lost. You don't know how to find this spot so don't ask!! The fishing was a little slow but we gave it our best. There was plenty of cloud cover, and on a plentiful rock bottom river this tends to stunt any evening caddis from hatching. There were plenty of people parked at the bridge area. We actually go further downstream to escape all the madness. I swear if I ever pull up to a fishing hole and there are more than 5 cars I'm going to find another spot to fish. The fish are everywhere but idiots think that if you go where that guy is you are going to catch more fish. Trust me it doesn't work that way. Escape the crowds and enjoy the solitude.
It won't be long and the damn place is going to turn into Colorado. Too many people that don't know what they are doing. Colorado has its solitude you just have to know where to find it. Ahh. There should be a fishing etiqute class designed specifically for the same idiots that don't think anything through in regular day to day affairs. When you spot a gentleman fishing a hole or a seam or a rising fish...stay as far away as possible. Don't approach him and say"how are the fish biting?" Or the redneck response of "What kinda fishin' pole you got?" First of all you sound like an idiot and secondly nobody wants to shoot the shit. Shoot the shit occurs over a beer while you are scouting a river ..or awaiting the heat of the day to pass or finishing up on a long day. Not on the river. Walk well enough around the guy so you don't spook the fish. This past trip I had the a-typical fly shop special walking the bank. I thought without putting a large bill board above the fish next to the bank that I'm fishing too, I would throw a few casts in the general direction and hope he can figure it out. NOPE. Just keeper coming...why don't you just walk in the hole and see if you can step on its head. I don't want to come across as some kind of fishing a-fishianto(spelt wrong for humor) but, its no different then the very same guy on the cell phone that just cuts on over without even looking...or Courtney's famed frustrations with the mini van moms and their A student stickers. If people would just pay a little more attention and respect others we could be so much better off. Courtesy really does pay. People notice it. I go out of my way to address people who pay some attention. The slimey guys appeared to be taking emergers and were exposing anything but dorsal fins(backs) and Tails. This is a clear indicator that the fishing is going to be tough. Its almost imposible in may people's minds. You are literaly trying to immitate an insect that has left the bottom of the river and is shooting straight for the surface. Nothing you dangle or drift can immatate that. There is one theory by a german feller that makes some sense but just adds to the difficulty category. It somewhat makes sense if you have a consistent fish rising in a given feeding lane. You either cast directly over him or directly below him and at the last second slowly raise the rod tip to illude the fish into thinking its an emerging fly. Obvioulsy you have to have some sort of a nymph on for this to work. The other way to approach emergers is to have a dry fly that sits real low in the film of the water. Sometimes not greasing a fly can help this happen a little easier. And now days with all the synthetic materials used for tying it doesn't help your cause. Fly tying commercially is going to poop. They are actually doing it overseas like freaking running shoes in sweatshops. Cheap ass materials and they look pretty. People buy them because some fly shop owner tells them...these will work. The next time the fly shop guy tells you to buy something...politley ask for a look into his personal fly box. I bet he says he doesn't have it. Even though he's about to run to the river in one hour after he gets off. The truth of the matter is he wouldn't be caught dead with most of the garbage that he sells. Old School I am and I know it works. So go on your merry ways and remember ettically speaking pay some attention.