When was the last time you were involved in, or witnessed, a fist-fight while out on the river? How about the story?

Was it kick ass?

I've personally come close a couple of times to being in them, but I have yet to witness one. Any combat fishin' turning real life combattin'?

Monkey-flipper.

For all the years I spent in hoglines growing up on the Willamette it amazes me that I never did see any fistfights, especially between boaties and bankies. Guess I just got lucky.

Fall of 2000. Mouth of Toutle. I was camped on the Bar fishing up the Cowlitz. Sunday Morning Snagger Fest (Predawn() Saturday night for you I'm sure Redneck :p ) there was one hell of a fist fight over who knows what. I think it had to do with someone sleeping in the wrong car or with the wrong person in the wrong car. Who Knows. I think they were so drunk it was fortunate that only the poor Coho were getting Snagged.

Hey Hey Yall?
I have a package here for you.
Need your addie.
If you don't send it, I will start a good fist fight with you on the river.

J

Early 80's on the sky my brother and I are bank fishing. Guide comes into the water where we are fishing pulling plugs, brother starts yelling at guide, giude gives us the finger, brother pitches rocks into guides glsss D-B. guide row"s like mad to get out of drift,brother wants to go to Sultan to waite for guide.No brother if we go to Sultan we go to jail.We never had trouble with that guide agin. Brother is still nuts,now lives in different state.

This winter, North Oregon coast, Small river, steelhead fishing.

My buddy arrives at his favorite hole, A guy bank fishing leaves the hole with his limit. A driftboat is anchored in the hole, The guy leaving comments on what D-head the driftboaters are to my buddy. Buddy starts fishing, guys in driftboats cast over his line and start flipping him S***. My buddy is a calm guy, just shrugs it off, Keeps fishing. Well he gets a fish on and the driftboaters cast over his line and purposly foul him and fish is lost. Buddy is Pissed. Starts yelling at Drift boat, drift boat says bring it on, so buddy tries to cross tailout to kick some butt. But falls in crossing. They really start laughing and calling him names, so He says, drift down here to tailout and finish what they started, they tell him to F-off. So he picks up a softball size river rock and hits one of them square in the chest, knocks him out of the boat. They are trying to fish the guy out and my buddy continues the rock throwing, putting a nice dent in the aluminum drift boat. The guys in the boat think he's crazy and won't leave the hole so He says he's going to his truck and driving to the other side of the river to finish up. The guys rowed out of the hole and downriver very fast. He just left for home and hasn't fished that river since. Ruined his day, and vibe for that river.

Aaron

I've been close a couple times. Once by a knucklehead casting Buzz Bombs and another knucklehead that wouldn't move off the launch while I was trying to launch. Honorable Mention goes to the guy who obviously forgot the "pee bucket" for his wife at Humpy Hollow last year.
Heard the slap to the face at 75 yards followed by some great language that would make a Navy Boatswain's Mate proud! These folks had most of the flotilla cheering and clapping!

Downriggin'

River fist fight: haven't since I grew up.

Last offer to: from 'Fly's boat on the outer OP the previous season to an out-of-line jerk trying to intimitdate us out of a spot (either a 'second childhood' thing or too much of Uncle Joe's Long Island Ice-T).

Nice try, RT. Like that will EVER happen, let alone that it happened already.

last summer drinking up at brownscreek, boxed his ears in. Ben

Over on the west end infront of a particular hatchery had a drunken idiot come down and threaten to kill me if I crossed the river and stepped foot on his property.That didn,t bother me but he proceeded to pull his pants down and take a dump right there on the side of the river.Then he proceeded to talk smack about my wife who was right there through all this.I lost it and crossed the river and did my thing.He was so drunk that he kept falling on his butt when he would try to hit me.I crossed back over and left.Of course my wife was not impressed!That was a turning point for fishing hatcherys and crowds on the rivers for me.

OK DJ. That reallllllly pisses me off! So, you and me doood - Meldrum Bar at high noon Saturday. Right on the rocks in front of all the fishermen, so they can watch me whup your flabby a.. ... oh wait, nevermind - I've grown up. Besides, I'll be fishing the Sauk with Justin Saturday. :p

Twq years ago was fishing silvers on the Kalama there by I 5. It was about the biggest joke ive ever seen fished snagged in the arss laying all over the banks.Then a boater wanted to drift threw so he could take out at luanch. Someone hit the guys kid in the boat the father rowed over and beat the crap out of these two brothers.It was pretty sad to see people fighting over fish. The kalama river camp allows this to go on every year its a shame nothing but a snaggers fest no respect for the sport.

Close as I've come in a long while was shortly after Tuf-line came out. I was bank fishing with my brother in tidewater on a small river for fall chinook, just downstream from a bridge. This is a popular spot so there were guys lining the bank about every 5-10' all the way through the hole.

Just about the time that the tide is about to go slack, this Yahoo decides the best spot to fish is from the bridge! Of course, he messes up everybody's drift for 20 yds downstream and, in a few casts, hooks a fish.

From our vantage point about 50 yds from the bridge, we can see that this guy is using a fairly light spinning rod and is in no way controlling the fish. He is yelling obscenities at everybody to pull in, he's got a #%$&$ FISH ON!! After about 10 minutes, his GF comes down under the bridge and nets the fish, about 15 -20lb.

I could not believe that the rest of the bankies let this lout get away with this. To top it off, not five minutes later he does it again only with a much bigger fish (the bridge really is the best spot to fish from, you can control a bobber right through the best water, it's just that nobody else can fish).

Again, the fish is running wildly downstream and butthead is yelling FISH ON %^$#@#$!! and ordering everybody to pull in. We let this go on for a few minutes but everybody is getting impatient knowing that the bite will only last through the slack and gills-for-brains is taking up the whole river. About this time the fish came rushing past us with herring-breath's line about 15' in the air. I couldn't help myself......I pulled back with my bobber stick and flung my rig high and handsome across the river. Just as my bobber flew past his line I stuck my thumb in the reel and watched that 50lb Tuf-line wrap around his line. One good pull and FISH OFF!!!

Smelt-dick throws his spinning rod down and comes charging off the bridge determined to kick some butt. His mind changed when he broke through the brush to find my short but broad self taking my jacket off in preparation for his arrival. He realized that I had about 15 years and 50lbs on him and decided, without further words, to take his fish and GF and depart.

About thirty guys laughing their a$$s off at him did not help his demeanor.

The closest Ii've ever come to a fiight was aabouut 6 years ago on the Nooch. Was fishing my favorite salmon slot. My Dad and I were on our yearly fishing trip aand will normaly come straight out of the cabin and right out onto the bar. . Alot of times we'll head out before daylight and wait for the sun to come up. Standing in the water with our coffee cups. Iit's notorious for guides and other DB's to try and aanchor in tha spot at first light, so we wait. We had been slaying fiish that week, and sure enough people who had noticed were waiting to get into our slot. But to their dismay, we were already there. As he came into the area I was fishing he dropped his anchor and long lind his rope abouut 25 feet below me. He had completely iped ouut my drift where he haad anchored. Iit was a year that Kings were allowed aand no chums. Ii ask thiis guy to please move since I was fishing there. Hhe looked up and went back to setting up who I think was his clients. I asked one more time and he says "I ain't gonnaa move, I saw you guys keeping chums, so I an'tleaving". I proceeded to tell him "Why would I keep chum when I'm nailing Kings? My fish are in my fishbox, you show me any chumss.". He said he was gonna stay there and there was nothing I could do about it. So I let him know that I was going to low hole him then. SInce ther was a big root wad blocking the rest of the slot for bankies, he thought he was safe. That's until I walked back to camp, and grabbed my cataraft. ou should've seen the look in this guys face when I proceeded to drag my boat down to the shore. I told him "Ok MF, I'm gonna low hole youu all the way to Black Creek. Unless you want to settle this on shore. Ii hope you can get your gear out of anchor line, cause thtas where you'll be fishing through until you get off thisriver". Hhe pulled anchor and lleft witout saying another word. In fact, never saw the guy on the Nooch again.

Two years ago on the Wind a guy thought he owned a rock and when another guy got on it to fish along side him he blew up. He took off his coat and put up his dukes before the other guy could even figure out what was going on. It didn't matter though because the rock owner proceeded to slip and fell into the water. It was pretty funny.

Odviously I was not there.And it appears that it didn't happen on A river. But it Is A prime example of how incredibly stupid people can be even after how many thousands of years? Perhaps A hatchery Homo. slipped into our native gene pool.

Florida Fisherman stabbed by Swordfish
News item; Seems a couple of Floridian fellows were having a heated disscusion and a having consumed too much hooch it turned ugly! One of them went home and grabbed his stuffed swordfish off the wall and returned to the scene of the disscussion and proceded to stab his drinking companion with the fish! It wwas reported that the impalee was recovering from the wound . No mention of the hangovers.
I'll bet they were disscussing the merits of "Indicator Fly Fishing" as we all can attest thats the easiest way to start a fight known to man.

Wasn't on a river, but I nearly saw a fight about 6 or 7 years ago out on the Redondo pier. Bunches of people casting buzz bombs and plug cut herring for salmon close to shore, and bunches of people in boats cutting far too close to the front of the dock. One yahoo came in from the north (the launch is on the south side of the pier) and when he cut across the front of the pier no more than twenty feet out, shearing off lines and making people lose gear, about a dozen people on the pier decided they'd just about had enough. They all ran down towards the shore and the smaller floating dock used for launching boats, and when this guy caught a look at the reception party, he turned around and decided Des Moines might be a better spot to come in.

Fishing at Reiter back in '91. I like to fish with my dog, and he's generally very well behaved.

Some other folks' dogs, unfortunately, aren't.

So this yahoo's german shepard is not only running up and down the river barking at everyone, but he's really getting ornery with my dog, who happens to be a 100 lb. black lab. Goes by the name of Guinness.

I ask the guy to control his mutt because he's starting to ruin a few peoples' days, and his response is to tell me to leave and take my dog with me if I don't like it. Then smart guy tries to take a kick at Guinness, but totally misses.

I calmly inform him that if he tries that again I'll toss him in the river.

He lines up attempt two, which Guinness sidesteps.

Before the guy even has his balance back I've got ahold of his wading belt from behind and his ass off the ground.

In he goes.

He comes out sputtering, takes one step towards me and stops. I'd like to think he stopped because he realized he was an ass, or because I'm 6'3" and weigh about 190# and just picked him up and tossed him, but I think he probably stopped because of all the folks clapping and laughing their asses off after watching the entire episode.

Dumbass and Rover hit the road after that.

Fish on...

Todd.

TODD,
I have a black lab hound mixed that is very well behave itself.She goes just about everywhere with me.
I was building a house out on BB island and the friendly neighbor liked to feed all the local animals.There were deer, racoons, birds,squirrles and such.My dog got on the scent of one of the coons when I wasn't looking and flushed it out.Of course the coon went straight for the friendly neighbors yard with the hound on its tail.I didn't catch all this but next thing I knew the friendly animal lover was in the front yard swinging a baseball bat at my dog.Of course my dog was not making it to easy for her to connect and it was actually quite commical.I made her heel up and went over to apologize to the friendly nieghbor.I asked her what my dog did and she explained that she loves all the little animals in the neighborhood and my dog scared one up a tree.I laughed and said my dog was a little animal too and would not be in her yard again.

The irony to me was the fact that she was slowly killing these animals by feeding them anyways.

If anybody ever took after my dog without good reason I would of done the same thing.

Hard not to agree with you on that, LC.

A bit off topic, but here's the priority list for people not to mess with on my watch...

1. My girlfriend
2. My dog
3. The rest of my family
4. The rest of my friends

The rest are on a case by case basis...

Fish on...

Todd.

<---beating chest and posturing at RT, finishing with a satisfied *snort* as I return to eating insects from my mates hair.

The South Santiam has a lot of self proclaimed steelhead experts. You know the type, They fish one hole on one river and they call themselves experts. This one "expert" who we all call sea lion because he is kinda fat and is aways wading/ swimming after fish that he snags.

A good friend of mine just had tota knee replacement surgery and was pretty much house bound for about 4 weeks. Anther friend and decided to lift his spirits by taking him down the river in his own boat. Since the guylives less than a block from the put in we used an engine hoist and a safety harness to laod him in the boat at his shop. Then we drove him to the river and launched him and the boat. We would worry about getting him out later. The guy wieghed about 250.

We get on the water and Im rowing the boat. We pass up the first hole because it is full of bankies. at the top end of the next hole we anchor up and start fishing. Down the river about 40 yards is sea lion and his buddy. Well sea lion hooks up, the fish makes a long run straight up river. Sea lion doesnt know what a drag is and lets every fish he puts a hook in almost spool him. The fish runs clear up by us and as it goes by we all see that it is a dark springer that is hooked n the dorsal fin. We tell sea lion to break it off, its just a nasty nook thats snagged. Sea lion tells us to mind our own buisness. At about that time the fish hangs him up on something directly across from the boat in the spot we are fishing. Sea lion decides he is going to swim out and free his line. I tell him he is not going swimming in our spot. He tells me to F%&@ OFF! He strips off his vest and hangs it on the front of the boat and starts to wade up stream and out so he can free his line. The guy who owns the boat pushes the vest off into the river when sea lion wanst looking. I tell see lion if he doesnt stop Im going to stop him. He calls me some nasty names and continues. By this point I had enough. I told him to leave or I was going to hit him with an oar. Hi goes off again with cussing and name calling. He shut up fast when I tried to rip the oar out of the oar lock. Catarct oars fit tight in Willie Hell for Stout aor locks. The oar didnt come out the first try by the second try sea lion was out of range. He runs off screaming and yelling. I put the oar back in and pull anchor and start heading for the bank. I guess the sight of 3 seriously pissed off guys in a boat made sea lion chnge his mind about fish that hole for the day. By the time we got to shore the little weasel was running to the trail leads back to the parking area.

I dont think he ever his vest, it sank like a rock when it got "accidently" pushed off the boat.

2 days later I saw him again. I was launching my boat and he was n the other side of the river at the top of a steep rocky trail arguing with someone. Iguess the guy e was arguing with had enough because next thing I know the guy tackeld Sea lion do the steep trail. I didnt stick around to see how bad he got hurt. Im pretty sure he was in some pain becaue he was still laying down 5 minutes later when I drifted ou of sight.

The guy got his ass whooped 3 more times that summer and he is still a mouthy punk. Maybe someone will kill him this year...........

Sounds like I could have fun in Oregon. I hate sea lions.