REVIVING RIVER ETIQUETTE

A Guest Opinion Piece by Phil Gonzalez

Sometimes it’s the disappointments in life that are the most memorable. Fly fishing

Phil Gonzalez on the Bighorn River

being a challenge, it becomes the most memorable whether we succeed or fail on our time spent stream side. So long as the experience is memorable, then it is a satisfying one no matter the outcome.

Reading stories about fly fishing legends Ted Williams, Lee and Joan Wulff, Joe Brooks, Ernest Hemingway and others that came later, broadened my visions of catching monster fish in faraway places. I would read all the monthly outdoor magazines I could get my hands on. I often dreamt of the day I too could fish in faraway places like they did. Seeing broad smiles on their faces, holding world record fish they caught in foreign waters was always my wish.

I was hungry for knowledge and not everything I learned was something that worked for me. If you learn from one person you not only learn their good points, but you’ll also learn their bad.

Looking forward to another day on the Bighorn River, full of rising trout gorging themselves on Pale Morning Dunn’s (PMD’s), I anticipated experiencing another day like the one I remembered from last season. A cherished experience it is, remembering the success of days on the river, and the not so productive days as well. After all I waited for this day to arrive with great anticipation.

The morning weather forecast called for another beautiful day with partly cloudy skies, no wind and few clouds with no sign of rain for the weekend. It seemed as if mother nature reserved this day for me. I felt privileged.

I slowly waded into knee deep water. I was looking and waiting for the PMD mayfly hatch to come alive. Finally, a nose appeared, then another. The rhythm of rising trout was beginning to show promise. I was looking forward to catching a few rising trout with my size 16’s and 18 PMD patterns I tried on cold winter days. I watched as the rising trout consumed another PMD off the surface creating a small ripple on the surface as they picked off another small PMD.

Each rise would last a microsecond and all that remained was a small ring on the surface before another nose appeared. Resembling snowflakes falling from the sky, the air became full of PMDs touching down on the water like tiny sail boats with their wings fully extended preparing a soft landing on the water.

The sound of voices broke the morning silence. Looking up I saw a drift boat with two anglers and a guide floating down the river. As they drifted closer, I could see they were hugging the bank and were going to float right over the pod of rising trout.

Getting their attention, I mouthed to see if they would pull out further from the bank and give me enough water space and not put the pod of rising trout down. I know they saw me and as they got closer, I voiced my concern again, that they were going to float over the pod of rising trout. The only response I received were the swirls made by the oars as they drifted on by.

In every sport known to man, there are a set of rules that come with the sport. From the time of my youth, I learned to follow the rules of the sport and how to play the game in a sportsman's manner or you become labeled a rogue player and no one wanted to associate with you. 

Fly fishing is no different. It’s an individual sport with no written set of rules other than the rules of life that you should have learned from childhood. Showing respect for others and showing professional behavior and etiquette. The word etiquette means “The customary code of polite behavior in society or among members of a particular profession or group.” The word professional means, “A member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity”.

Showing respect combined with professional manners comes with the title of being a guide on any river. Today, it seems to be a an increasingly lost professional behavior, and etiquette is not practiced by some guides to its fullest. I hear a lot about how crowded the Bighorn is and you can’t fish from the bank with comfort because you are going to get floated over by a guide’s boat. In some cases, they will float right over the water you are fishing. Furthermore, some guides these days will float over a prime stretch of water back and forth repeatedly. You will see three or four guide boats practice what I call a daisy chain aka "row around."

I have witnessed in salt water where a female tarpon will have a number of male tarpons follow her in a circle that is known as a daisy chain. Take a stretch of water where this is practiced and is floated over and over three or four times. After no fish are caught, they drift down stream to another spot and repeat the same style of daisy chain fishing over and over. The poor guy on the bank doesn’t have a chance. How do you think the trout are going to respond? They will move out further into the river and find a secondary lie where they are not pressured. I can’t help but feel the stress that is put on these trout. Then I hear, we’re not catching enough fish for our clients. I can fully understand why.

I feel if we get back to the basics and practice etiquette and show respect to our fellow anglers' things will change in favor of the sport. It’s frustrating to experience what just happened but it happens much too often. I don’t know if these cases are due to lack of knowledge, experience, lack of understanding what river etiquette means or if new guides just don’t care. In either case this kind of disrespect has no place on rivers that we appreciate and recreate on. As a guide (and most guides would agree) It is your responsibility to know and show respect and apply the rules that fall under the word etiquette.

As a retired fishing guide myself, I’m certain that I’ve made the same mistakes, rowing too close to an angler fishing from the bank, floating too close to a rising pod or cutting someone off, etc. But it didn’t take me long to learn after hearing some choice words coming from an angler that were deserved. The gist of it all is simple, there is enough river for all to fish. Whether you are a guide or not, it takes many seasons of long days on the river learning from experience to feel comfortable enough to be called a guide.

Phil Gonzalez is an accomplished angler who has been fishing the Bighorn River since the 1960's. His passion for the Bighorn led him to become a fishing guide and lodge owner on the river after it was declared a state recognized water. An international angler, Gonzalez has taken more than 40 different species on the fly, everything from giant brook trout in the mountain lakes of Chile to yellowfin tuna off the coast of Mexico. These experiences solidified his vision for what was possible for Fort Smith and the Bighorn. Read more about Phil and his history on the Bighorn here.