I suppose one of my biggest disappointments is selfishness and self-focused behaviour - both in myself and in others. There's some built in irony in being a fly fishing guide - fly fishing itself an be a self focused activity for those who simply want to have their time on their chosen water.If you know Stauffer Creek, you know that for most anglers it is a challenge, and many folks see the fish as temperamental. It can be that but most days you'll engage trout. It's a winding, willow and alder lined spring creek. It has few access points and is locked in private property, save for riparian fencing. The land owners are friendly, mind you.
The creek is home to brown trout. Like browns everywhere, the larger fish tend to pick their times to feed. They can be shy at times and don't respond well to disturbance. One study of a back country river in New Zealand noted that once caught or disturbed, the browns went off the feed 2 - 3 days. I'm not sure how one determines how a trout is not feeding, perhaps a stomach sample in destructive sampling was used in conjunction to electro-fishing. The point is that browns can be shy and don't quickly return to feeding, generally.
On a spring creek such as Stauffer, while the larger browns certainly do show to feed, they do not stay in feeding lies forever and they do spook easily. Once spooked, they aren't to return to prime feeding lies until conditions are favorable once more. During peak hatch periods, where daily hatches occur, that might be the next day. It might be that night if conditions warrant an evening prowl. Trout, especially large browns in soft water such as Stauffer, don't have to feed daily and will often wait for positive conditions to feed. Ergo, a larger spooked trout on Stauffer will likely be spooked for the day.
Bringing the above together: Recently, I came across a fellow who planned to hi-grade Stauffer, marching a full mile and a half of the stream - as the crow flies. Considering the twisting turns, that's likely about 2.5 miles of spring creek. He was disappointed that I was to fish in the middle of his planned beat. Now, I recognize that we each have our hopes, our desires to fly fish on our terms. But, to take a stream such as Stauffer - per above - and simply march through it on your own terms in search of the best trout in the best water... I'm hesitant to call someone a little selfish, but isn't it?
It was easy enough to set up avoiding one another, but what if we hadn't crossed each other's paths until mid day, or not at all as he skipped up and around us, leaving us to fish disturbed water? I met up with that same fellow a week later and did drum up the nerve to ask him if perhaps he might be a little selfish in taking on that much water, given the extent the water and trout are disturbed.
Again, we all have our hopes in fulfilling our desire to conquer trout or to enjoy our time on our trout waters in our own ways. But, we have an obligation to consider others at least as equally as ourselves, because even though we might have the time of our lives, we might also be killing the next fly fisher's day with our actions. If there is only one pie and we take it all, it leaves little for the other. The day I ran into the Stauffer Marcher, we worked less than 900m of water and had some great engagements. It all worked out, but it reminded me that we have to consider the water, the fish we are disturbing, and the other anglers who have as much aspiration for a moment on the water as we do. Stauffer is certainly not a stream that you can simply march 2-1/2 miles on without having at least a mildly negative impact on others. We simply need to pick less water, enjoy it for what it is, as a sign of respecting something for what it is rather than forcing our will on it.
