Buzzkill

 If it was the lady with a golden retriever, she's a cool local lady.  Told me enough info about number of anglers on her walking path, tells me if anyone up or down river from me has caught anything.  She's never let her dog jump into pools while I was fishing, but if she did, I wouldn't get annoyed in any way.  She probably honestly lives 2 mins from there as I see her every other time I'm there.  

 

I never got any bad vibes from her, but I can see how she might get offended by some sport fisherman's attitudes.  You have to understand it from the local's perspective, people park in front of their houses day after day and trash their beautiful parks and leave dead fish on the banks.  

 

As a fishermen, I'd say to avoid spots like that if you are bothered by locals (please respect them) or loogans (respect is optional lol).  Most guys have waders, so it's not hard to move to a spot on the river that locals and lesser loogans can't get to.  And if the crowds and hoopla still bother you, then you probably shouldn't be fishing on such a popular trib.   

She had two dogs, one might have been a retriever of some sort. I have no issue sharing the water, I just expect some common courtesy and respect. I do get that a lot of anglers may be disrespectful to her or others, but it wasn't me and I was more than happy to pack up and move on to somewhere more productive.

A simple, " Hey do you mind pulling your line out of the water while my dog cools off for a bit or takes a quick swim" isn't too much to ask. If her dog was in the water, and I came to fish, I wouldn't walk into that situation and pitch my hook in the water until the dog was out without asking and I would have a little common courtesy doing it. 

I am actually a "local" in the area and if someone parks in front of my house, its not my property, all of the power to them. If they litter they will hear about it it whether they are on the water in my view or elsewhere as litter sucks anywhere, but I don't think it was the same lady as she seemed genuinely unpleasant overall. 

Not bothered by locals, just rude people in general whether its an angler or passerby. 

Rant over

Have a nice day everyone. 

Recent encounter at this location was with a lady walking her dog. I was fishing the pool by myself and the lady comes up to me and says I am letting my dogs off the leash to swim for a few minutes. I thought she could have asked, instead of just telling me she was going to let her dog in. Maybe she encountered push back before and was being rude because of that but whatever, I took my line out of the water so it didn't hook her dog. 

While her dogs are swimming in the pool I'm getting ready to move because the dogs would obviously spook anything in the water. as I am securing my line to my rod and locking my pin she comes over and asks if I am fishing for trout. I was quick to the point that I was and she asks if any where in the pool. I said probably not anymore. She then asked why, and I said they usually don't like dogs too much. As much as this sounds sarcastic, I really was mild mannered, annoyed but again not being rude. 

She proceeds to flip out, you need to share the water, your fisherman are all the same, I will let me dog swim if he wants to swim. So much anger, I am just looking at her she is yelling and spitting and obviously looking for an argument. I just look at her until she stops, she is breathing heavy, visibly upset, catching her breath, one of her dogs in actually sitting beside me and I'm scratching his head with my free hand. 

I wait for a few more seconds and in a calm tone let her know how nasty and unattractive her attitude is, how I took my line of the water with no push back and how I never complained that her dogs where off the leash when in reality some people would freak out as they are afraid of dogs. I told her the water is supposed to be a peaceful place and her attitude ruined it for me, not her dogs, so I was leaving in reality I just fished a few pools down. 

Its not always anglers that cause issues on the river bank hopefully she now realizes that. 

What was the bait/lure or setup you were using when you caught a fish very different from what you were targeting? Something that completely surprised you. 

Cant wait to get into some of these this year!

By no means a pro here but I have run straight braid and had no issues finding fish off the piers. Lots of hook ups and landings so far. I even used a steel leader one day as I packed the wrong gear and its the only thing that had a swivel on it with me. I just told anyone that asked that it was incase a pike came along.. lol