Learning to share the stream with other anglers is an important skill. Photo by Dustin Coffee
As tens of thousands of anglers wade into trout streams over the next few weeks, there’s a good chance a few of them might have forgotten their on-stream manners over the long winter. Writing in Garden & Gun, T. Edward Nickens talks to Orvis 2024 Fly-Fishing Guide of the Year Dustin Coffee about how we can all share the river, ensuring that conflicts are rare and the future of trout populations is protected:
“You see that truck or you see a wet bootprint on a rock,” Coffey says, “and you think: Dadgummit, what now?” On small, less populated streams, if he has a solid Plan B stream in mind, he keeps driving. Otherwise, it’s time to be Mr. Nice Guy. Coffey suggests avoiding the temptation to power-hike upstream and try to get ahead of the angler, which is my standard move. “The next thing you know, you’re eating your lunch on a rock and here they come,” he says. “That ruins the day for everybody.”
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