I mean really? It's a well known that the scent of a dog can spook fish. Dogs go out in the water (some species do) and splash around and make noise. Combined with their heavy scent and the strong sense of smell fish have, it will put fish off the bite most of the time. Not to mention the pain it is to other anglers who may not want to deal with a dog running up to them and barking or licking, etc. The other day, I saw a guy sitting on a rock with his rod laying next to him while he was tying up. Another guy's dog ran over to him and after a few seconds, got tangled up in the guy's line and when it tried to run away, it drug the guy's G Loomis rod about 8 feet over some big rocks. Aren't dogs supposed to be kept on a leash?

A well-mannered dog does not not hurt anything at all....it is the dogs that are allowed to run loose that can cause havoc. Do not blame the dogs but blame owners.

Agree with Sparkey. Usually the owner, not the dog.

Actually, depends on the County. Some counties have leash laws, some don't. I know in Pierce, dog must be on a leash at all times, or under immediate control. But in Kitsap, at least in the Olalla area, dogs are allowed to run free. Have watched animal control seize animals on the Pierce side in GH, but the kitsap A.C. will drive by dogs they see. They will only stop if dog is dead, or if there is a complaint that dog has bit someone, etc. So, you'd have to check country ordinance (In Pierce, there is no exceptions, even for rural areas).

It may be their only friend.




herm

so they can poop in the river

i third the motion, well mannered dog(s) are welcome at the fishin hole, i don't think the fish really care, elk, cows, deer cross the river, there's gas exhaust in the river and/or residential run off & if i could afford a G-Loomis no mutt is going to be providing the locomotion for it, well mannered or not..

What's worse an ill mannered dog, or someone ill mannered kid? Nothing more better then having someone's kid throwing rocks in the water while you're fishing. I have never seen a DOG do that!

Don't blame the dog/kid…blame the parent/owner

Dogs are usually not the problem, it's their owners. A good dog is the result of hard work by an owner who gives a damn about his dog and how that dog interacts with anybody at anytime.

Years ago I had an Australian Cattle Dog that would fish with me, bank or boat. She got excited when I hooked a fish and never got in the way. A great companion. Once while camping on our private property on Lake Chelan, three guys in a canoe trespassed and started to set up camp near ours. A visit by me and her snarling teeth and they decided to move on down the lake.

While we're talking about dogs(nfr). My neighbor has two golden retrievers who spend 20 of 24 hours each day in a kennel. When the owners get ready for work each morning and returns home from work, the dogs bark loudly for an hour straight........and they never tell their dogs to be quiet. It's not pleasant. If you own a dog, love it, train it, be with it.

I got a new Cattle dog puppy a few months ago. She's with me 20 out of 24 hours a day. She's wonderful, hopefully you'll see her fishing with me on a river someday.

Just to toss a recent observation into this hot caldron of a topic that comes up every so often.
A couple of weeks ago on the Bogey I watched a guy with a dog catch brat after brat. He and his dog never moved from one rock on the hole. My friend commented on how well the dog behaved because he had a retriever too that he couldn't take fishing because it wouldn't stay out of the water. Anyway, the guy keeps his first fish. Then releases a few others. Later he passes his rod off to a young lady who I'm sure never caught a steelhead before and helped her land it. Aware that he is the only one catching fish on his side, he starts handing off fish after to fish to all the many "friends" he is starting to attract. All this time his dog never moves from his spot and is just as intent on fishing as his master. Now, I have no idea how many brats he caught that day but I'm sure he was still catching fish after we dropped out of the hole. I did happen to notice however, that each time he handed a fish off to someone else to play, he would sit down next to his dog and quietly pet him till the fish was landed and he got his rod back. It sure didn't seem like the dogs scent, which must have covered this guy, had any adverse effect on his ability to catch fish though.

Oh by the way, we observed a number of other dogs that day and we both noted well behaved they were and what a joy they were to watch. Wish I could say the same for a number of other compadres that would have done well to follow their example that day.

oh come on I wanna go too!!!! And I don't stink

The problem is very few dogs that I have seen on the rivers are well trained.

No one would mind if your dog wasn't barking, getting tangled in our gear and being a nuisance.

There was a big black mongrel on the Tolt that would snap at our lures on the back cast. I never saw him hooked in the mouth, but it’s a miracle he wasn't. He was hooked in the fur several times. He also would eat our bait, if given the chance. His owner thought it was funny.

Kids, dogs and, fishing buddies can all be great or awful. Depends on how they were trained.

You had me laughing with that one cowfish.

I agree 100% with Jacob , I don't hate dogs or kids BUT neither one has a place on a river bank if they are not kept under control by "Dad", I am tired of driving 100 mi. or more just to get to the fishing hole and have some jerks dog run up to me and jump up on me or try to bite me! I have almost been bitten two or three times. I go fishing to relax Not to have to deal with the guy who never has anybody that will go fishing with him because of his out of control dog. I agree that it is the masters fault that thier dog is out of control But try to tell them that and see what kind of reaction you get from him ,so what do you do? Just give up your fishing in that area that you just drove two hours to get to so some jerk can bond with his dog and ruin the fishing for everyone, I don't know about the rest of you but I go to Catch Fish and get sick and tired of having to deal with someone else's problem. As far as the scent of a dog they Do carry a chemical scent called L-serene , it alarms fish and makes them quite aware that there is a preditor in the immediate area, l-serene is released through the pores and in tests done by fish biologists Dogs tested higher than anything else ,ever wonder why the guy next to you was catching fish using the same exact thing you were and you weren't catching anything ?it could have been that you had a higher amount of l-serene in your system on that particular day . l-serene is produced from the amount of meat consumed so if you had taco bells El Grande beef burritos for dinner there is a good chance that you have a high amount of l-serene in your pores, I know some of you will say that this is all a bunch of bull but do a search on l-serene or talk to a fisheries biologist . By the way Mooch it is possible to take your dog fishing and cast upstream and out and catch fish because the scent of the dog is going downstream Not up, the person you talked about that was catching one fish after another when nobody else was had the Hot spot that day .I have caught a lot of fish standing next to other guys when they weren"t because I had the slot were the fish were holding, and the same thing has happened to me when someone else was lucky enough to be in the zone. by the way did the fella you talked about punch his card when he handed off his rod to all those other poor fisherman who couldn't catch their own fish or did he have them punch the fish on thiers so he could keep fishing and not give up his spot and make sure that he was the one that caught every fish in that spot instead of letting someone else have a chance of hooking and playing thier own fish!

Never had nearly as many problems with the relatively few dogs and kids I see on the river as I have with the relative horde of inconsiderate adult fishermen.

Can we blame their owners or parents for their rudeness?...

Most the folks on this BB that I have fished with have fished with my dog, Guinness, too. He's a 100 lb. black lab, who loves being outside, especially on the river. He plays around in the bushes behind me, or sits at my feet if I tell him to. He doesn't chase fish, or people, or other dogs, and he doesn't go in the water unless I tell him it's OK.

He especially loves going in boats, and really loves it when people catch fish. He hasn't really figured out the cnr thing, though...the look on his face when I release fish is priceless:

"What the $%@# are you doing? We got up at O dark 30 to just let 'em go?"

He's also the biggest ham in the world, sneaking into almost every fish picture when he's around...and not just mine and my partners', but anyone's. He loves the camera!

Other than that, he's a model fishing partner. He never low holes me, or casts over my line, or starts telling me his life story when I get within twenty feet of him on the river bank.

Unfortunately, he's going on 13 years old and has some increasingly difficult arthritis problems, so he only goes on easy trips with easy gravel bars to walk along.

Whenever people post the "Who would you want to fish with?" threads, I always think I'd like to fish with him more, if he was only up to it. It breaks my heart to pack the truck and see him sitting on the porch watching me, knowing he's not going to get to go that day.

All that being said, a poorly trained dog is a nuisance and a menace on the river. Barking, biting, swimming, grabbing gear or bait, or chasing fish that are being landed are all behaviors that ruin the experience of being out there for most of us.

Dog owners are like sled owners...the problem is not sleds or dogs, the problem is bad sled drivers and bad dog owners.

Some dogs just shouldn't be on the river...and some people just shouldn't own dogs.

Fish on...

Todd.

I was on a river a couple of years ago, walking through some brush to get to the bar. When I poped through, the river was about a hundrfed feet away, I noticed a guy and a gal there. The nex thing I noticed was two pit bulls tearing ass up to me and they were screaming at thr dogs to come back which made no difference. I new at that point this was not good. I took growling, snarling and teeth showing was not a good sign, so when the first dog got within about twenty feet, I shot it and the second dog stoped and turned away. I did not have to shoot that one.
Then they came up screaming at me and cussing at me also. At that point I told them if they have a problem they should call the sherif.
I love dogs and have always had hunting dogs. I don't mind dogs on the river at all, as long as they are under controll. I would hate to think how the situation would have turned out if I did'nt shoot.

I would do the same If I had two pitts running at me. Any dog for that matter comming at me like that would most likely get a bullet if we were on public property anyways.

I think I would've called the sheriff after shooting the dog to have the owner reported. Actually, I don't carry a gun, but would if I thought loose Pit Bulls were a possibility on my rivers. Dogs like that don't belong on public property off-leash. Grown men have been killed or badly injured in similar circumstances. What if you had a child with you?

BTW, Veterinarians love to have clients who fish take their dogs with them. It's good for business! Swallowed fish hooks, salmon poisoning, porcupine quills, foxtails, giardia, lacerations, etc. Sorry, just a veterinarians joke. Still waiting for my annual salmon poisoning case this year.

I hate seeing dogs on the river or at the lake. My daughter is scared to death of dogs. I mean REALLY scared to death. It's not that she hasn't been around dogs. She's seen grandmas 2 big dogs almost every day of her life. She just has this phobia about dogs.
So when people are letting their dogs run amock it really puts a damper on our time together.

When it comes to brats:
Yes, I would.
And yes, I have.

Bingo.

The latter.

To me any day on the river is a great day. Fish or no fish, dogs or no dogs.
But I do need to remember that what doesn’t bother me might be a problem for others. And like many others, I just try to be mindful of folk so that they can have as good a time as I am having, but unfortunately we don't always get it right out there.
One thing is for sure,I won’t be bringing my yappy Shelties anywhere near the river. But, I have been known to get away from the crowds with a good friend a time or two in the past.