Being sociable and showing good etiquette

Fishing alone is great, you can focus on the job in hand and you will have the run of the river. Fishing with friends is fun too and it’s nice to be a little sociable every now and again. If fishing with friends, or your on a busy water, you need to follow good etiquette.

With a regular fishing partner this is all quite natural. It starts before you leave the house, like who drives; taking it in turn without really discussing it. Perhaps, if a meal is involved, usually on longer sessions, then KG will bring his pork based products one time and I will make a butties another. Often a treat will be slipped into the food bag, like a nice cold can of Stella! Sometimes we like to share a ‘proper’ meal like Dynamite Stag Chilli and Rice....then text each other the next day comparing bowel movements!

When selecting how to fish a beat a natural system forms, in our case its short sticks. If we divide the beat into two then the one who draws the short stick gets the longest walk to start. On some waters, like the upper Dove we alternate pools between the stone weirs. This is a lot more sociable and we will stop for a brew on a regular basis. A word of caution; if you have been drinking Stella avoid wading and dont stick your finger in the top of a lit Kelly Kettle!

We always fish up stream; this is good etiquette and should be followed by all river anglers. It is a sensible approach to stalking Trout but also saves on any confusion.

A good example from this recent outing was some numpty who decided it was OK to work his way down stream. The guy had little water craft and no manners. The inevitable happened and a pool that I was working up, nice and steady, ended up getting spoilt because he just jumped in at the top, scaring any decent fish for 50 yards downstream – I can’t stand rude people! If you fish rivers do everyone a favour; start at the down stream end and work your way UP RIVER!