Re: Smoky Mountain Etiquette
Great words of advice so far. Personally, I try to find out how much water the fisherman might be planning on fishing and then go a little further if it is realistic. When fishing smaller streams such as upper Little River, I can easily fish a mile of water in a few hours. Based on that, if it is not too crowded, I'll usually try to give anyone else a good half a mile minimum if possible. On larger streams I don't feel that I need to give that much room. If in doubt and it is not a bad time (i.e. the other fisherman is casting to rising fish in a still pool), go ahead and talk to them. Being friendly on the stream will help avoid any conflicts and make everyone's day a little better. On the rare times that someone has been rude enough to put in right above me, I usually cut them some slack. More often than not, they look like this is their first time out and don't know what they are doing. They probably have not heard of "etiquette" so I try to just be nice and go around them and upstream (or down) out of sight. Sometimes they haven't even seen me and then apologize when they do.
David
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