Stream etiquette....

[MOBass]

I started fly fishing a couple of months ago and was wondering about proper etiquette. You know, how close do you get to a guy that is already fishing a spot, when do you ask what a guy is using, how much clearance you need to give for a backcast.

I fished a spot this weekend and was comfortable with a guy moving in pretty close and sharing the same water as we could both work it without getting tangled and the fish didn't mind. I would not have got anywhere near that close because I just wasnt sure if I could key my fly out of someones ear. Fish a little, learn a little I guess.

One thing that I was very unsure of were guys shuffling their feet on the bottom to get shrimp and other stuff stirred up. The fish went on the feed around them and they could catch them less than a 10' away on just about every cast. Is this normal, legal, bad form? I will stick to standing flat footed for now.

I hope someone can shed a little more light on this.
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[davetclown]

thats a tough set of questions there,

if it were me I would welcome you to get as close as your nervs would allow (from getting hooked by a fly) some folks go there for the solitude of the sport.

I would be mort than happy to show you every thing in my box and even tell you what I hooked my last fish on. some folks would tell you that they hadent gotten a bite when they have a stringer full hanging from their hip.

as for kicking up mud I am with you on this, I like to see water when I am fishing, the only mud I want to see is in my cup in the morning. I realy hate fishing only to get hooked up on sea weed floating down from some one up stream pulling it up and letting it flow down stream for their fellow anglers. I see this as a form of sabotage against fellow anglers. one year I could not hold my line in the water with out snagging a weed every five minuts.
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[MOBass]

The thing that bothered me about the guys kicking up the bottom is that they were using it to get the critter out from under the rocks to put the trout on the feed. Then they would fish a scud under an indicator to catch the fish that were feeding. Seems a bit like cheating to me. If you are going to do that why not put on some corn and throw a handful out and go for it. To me half the fun is casting to a fish I can see and watching what he does as the fly goes by and then changing things until he bites, leaves, or I give up. I didn't catch as many fish as the kickers, but I enjoyed each on of them.
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