By Don Steese
For The Daily Item
April 20, 2008 12:13 am
—
Just returned from a few days chasing trout in Clinton and Potter counties. The fishing wasn't as great as it sometimes can be, but early-season angling can be unpredictable. I was a bit put-off, however, by the antics of some of my fellow anglers.
We headed out on Saturday morning to a small stream near our camp. This particular stream was, at one time, stocked by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. They quit stocking it a few years back, which was OK by us. There's a good population of wild trout in the stream and the masses don't flock to unstocked streams, making for some very pleasurable fishing conditions.
Unfortunately for us, the word has gotten out that, although the commission no longer stocks this stream, the local sportsmen's club does. This year there seemed to be as many people on the water as there had been years ago. It's a small stream and just a few anglers can make it seem crowded.
On the first morning, I spent the better part of an hour finding a section of stream that seemed to be overlooked by the masses. I started fishing at about 9:45 and by 10 was fishing a pool I've had good luck on over the years. The nicest part was that I had the water to myself. That didn't last long!
I was in the process of landing my first fish of the day when an older fella and a little tyke (his grandson) walked up to the pool. I thought they'd probably watch me land the fish and move on upstream. Not to be the case! "Grandpa" proceeded to cast directly to the spot where I'd picked up the trout. A couple times he cast over my line and I had to untangle us. I caught a couple more as did he, without exchanging so much as a greeting. These two were joined by two other male family members, so we now have five people fishing a pool that's hardly big enough for one. I should have just reeled in and left but these guys were just so rude that I couldn't make myself do it. I'd have said something about their rudeness, had it not been for the little guy. They, in time, left, and so did I.
Upon meeting up with the other members of our party I found out that something similar had happened to another member of our group. He'd been run out of a pool by a bunch of guys who were not only casting over his line, but were wading right through the middle of the pool he was attempting to fish!
In defense of anglers in general I'll say that this kind of thing has happened to me only a couple times in my life. Most folks you run into on the stream are very well mannered. I just hope that what we ran into isn't a sign of the times. I also have to wonder if "Grandpa" really wants to pass the message to his grandson that it's OK to be a discourteous slob "¦ as long as you're catching fish? Apparently so.
n Don Steese, of Northumberland, is a lifelong outdoorsman. His column appears weekly in The Daily Item. E-mail comments to jdsteese@yahoo.com.
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.