Never fishing the Clack again!!!!

[rob allen]

Well today was my first time ever floating the Clack, and the last! We floated fromsome park down to Barton, we were fly fishing for steelhead. We get to a run known as the peacock hole when an older man in a black and silver Alumaweld sled with a black and red merc headed down river turned deliberatly out of the main current across the river and and ran through the heart of the run fast enough to make a lot of wake and noice but slow enough to make sure he spooked every fish in the shallow run as he neared the bottom of the run he turned and looked at us then gunned the throttle back over to the other side to the main channel.
Later down river there was a very similar sled parked infront of a luxury riverside home.
It appeared as though he just has a thing either against drift boats or against fly fishers. There was no way his actions could have been viewed as anything other than a diliberate attempt to ruin the run for us. I'll never fish the Clack again.

[Thumper]

Geez. One somewhat rude guy and you write off the river forever? If we all did that we'd run out of rivers real quick.

[NEUTRON]

Thumper there has to be a middle ground here,
it doesn't sound as though the behavior was
"somewhat" rude; it's unacceptable but what
should you do? what's sad to me with the
population growth in the NW over years due to
the economy, places to fish for salmon and
steelhead have become fewer with many more fishers. The places I refer to are NF clack
upper Sandy and tribs, Molalla etc. Most of
these had hatchery summers but because of ESA
they aren't there any longer. The choices to
get away from the crowds are more limited.
I guess I need to be smiley when I'm out there images/icons/grin.gif , it supposed to leisure time.

[Big Willie]

I don't drift the Clack this time of year. A few, but not all, sled drivers are a**holes. A bud of mine has been up there quite a bit and has seen an increase in bad boat etiquette (sp?). All it takes is one jerk in a sled to ruin your whole day. Please don't take this as sled bashing. It's not, some people just need to be more curtious.

[Salmonator]

I say cut an egg carton in half and carry a six pack of eggs with you. The older the better. And when they do it again let fly. No one gets hurt but I think the sled will get the message along with a rotten smell in the boat for the rest of the day...

[DK]

rob allen, never been to the clack so i don't know what i'm missing, but as far as the sled if you give up fishing the clack then he succeded in doing what he wanted running you off the river, don't give in maybe now that you know where he lives leave him a nice note if you know what i mean ?

[FallRiverGuy]

I think Eggonator is right, show his rudness how much he stinks. images/icons/grin.gif Really though, don't let someone run you off the river.

[Artwo]

Bad boat ettiquite (sp) is not just limited to the Clack. I fished the Sandy last weekend and while backtrolling all the normal holes in my DB we delt with sleds flying thru a full throttle all day. Not all the sleds did this, some would slow down until they past everyone in the hole and then went on they'er way like they should do. Don't get me wrong, bad boat ettiquite is not limited to sleds only, there's plenty of nimrod DBer's out there as well. Some of the most common problems are:

Not slowing down while passing thru a hole that others are fishing.

Anchoring in the middle of a drift while everyone else is backtrolling (this is my personal pet peeve, this drives me crazy).

Dropping into a hole below another boat fishing the hole (you should at least ask if it's ok).

Powering thru the middle of the hole while others are preparing to backtroll the hole.

I have owned both sleds and DB's and to me it all boils down to just plain being courtious to others out there trying to enjoy their day just like you are. I try to offer advise to those that seem to be newbies but if you pi$$ me off out there your going to get an ear full.

Just remember, we're all out there for the same reason.

JK

[rob allen]

What got me the most is that is guy wasn't simply being rude. He went out of his way to ruin our fishing. He did it as a mean diliberate act He did it with malice and without provocation. He litterally turned his boat 90 degrees came across the river and went through the heart of the run. I was absolutely in awe that someone could be so mean and hateful.

[SteelieSteve]

The other side of the coin - I fished a popular stretch of the Clack this morning from the bank. One sled and me had a lot of water to ourselves. Once he got down close enough to talk he was friendly and was giving me depth readings and spotting fish for me(which would have helped if I used dynamite) images/icons/grin.gif The fish wouldn't bite anything but It was nice to have his friendly help though I knew the fish were there becuase they were rolling and jumping yesterday, also when they would not bite anything. images/icons/rolleyes.gif

[rob allen]

good point steve. I didn't intend to say that all or more than a very few sledders are rude or mean but this one guy was enough to seriously turn me off from the Clack.

[FishinMission]

Hate to say it..but this guy was just plain ignorant, or he was ****** you guys were fishing a spot HE wanted to. Who knows??? Much as I hate to say it...some people out there on the water don't have a "clue" as to what's going on. You all know what I'm talking about. We've all seen them. Either way.....BAD manuever. Don't give up on the Clack Rob....it's a good river. If you're on the river alot....any river...you'll see this type of activity. Trust me. images/icons/grin.gif

[ 05-09-2001: Message edited by: FishinMission ]

[jawbreaker]

If someone did that to me and then had the gall to park in broad daylight just downstream.......lets just say the owner of that boat would have to go buy another plug and a very large bilge pump.
Among other things images/icons/grin.gif