Ian Welch article; manners?

I've just read the piece by Ian Welch on this site about etiquette (or lack of) and thought I'd throw this to the forum. I fished a popular club water the other day, arriving at 0600; unloading my van BEFORE going down to the water's edge, aware that there were several likely looking pegs free, I was astonished to watch a car pull into the carp ark, a young chap get out and hare off down to the lake bag in hand. At no point did he acknowledge me, or ask where I was considering to fish, just marched off.....

Two minutes, later, he returns; I ask "....just reserved your peg?" to which he replies "...yes". We had words, during I politely told him I thought that was a bit 'off' considering he had just blanked me, to which he says "....we all do it on here and S********y". Not to my knowledge; every other angler I've met has had the decency to at least ask before marching off bag or bucket in hand...

Don't get me wrong, I often spend an hour walking the banks of a new venue and will find a peg then drop my rucksack off and then get my kit, but think that dropping or reserving a peg BEFORE going to look around is bad form.....

To be fair to the chap in question, he did discuss the matter further later in the day, and I accept that the 'bucket run' is part of his angling, but he did accede my point too, so we parted as friends, but what do YOU think??

one small day ticket carp water i fish gets a bit like this. it has 3 spot on swims that seem to produce fish every trip and if cars arrive at the same time then it does seem to be a bit of a race to the swim. when i do the power march round the lake i take all my tackle in one go, i am sorry if another angler might be slow in getting their gear out the car. i have come across people that run round with a single tackle bag just to grab a swim as i think they do take the **** but it is first come first served

its been going on for years,i remember people running with a bankstick in their hand to "reserve" a swim on the royalty, as soon as the gates opened it was a free for all, this was in the early 60s.

clint4782 said:

I ask "....just reserved your peg?" to which he replies "...yes".

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Was he German?

the blanker said:

i remember people running with a bankstick in their hand to "reserve" a swim on the royalty,

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Shame someone didn't sneek up and pinch their bankstick.


The last time I did any match fishing we used to have walk-offs instead of drawing fixed peg numbers. He who drew no. 1 would walk off first followed 15 seconds later by number 2 and so on. Even if two people clashed and thought of fishing the same peg, the one who had drawn the lowest number got priority unless, of course, he'd been on a full walk around and the present occupant, although having a higher number, had got a lot of his kit set up by then anyway. It was every so civilised - most of the time.

clint4782 said:

what do YOU think??

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Thank whatever deity that I don't fish such places.

I don't get much of this where I fish as I tend to fish waters that are a bity more low key and don't get hammered by anglers. I do occasionally visit a local commie though where I once arrived at a well known runs swim to have the guy on the opposite side of the lake tell me I couldn't fish there cos he was already fishign there, to which I replied something along the lines of "If you want to fish in this swim why not come and fish in this swim, how much of the lake do you want???" to be fair to the guy he then shouted over the method he had been bagging up on and he fished elsewhere. We both caught plenty and were both happy. I'm sure some other anglers would have been less happy to fish elsewhere though.

I can never understand why people fish the opposite bank on a lake, on a river or canal fair enough. Is it because they lack the ability to be quiet???

Jeff Woodhouse said:

The last time I did any match fishing we used to have walk-offs instead of drawing fixed peg numbers. He who drew no.

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I used to go on coach trips as well, we would use the same method of walking off. Some of the old coffin dodgers used to get quite abusive when you pushed them aside to get to the best swims first. No manners at all these old b*ggers.

Ray Roberts said:

Some of the old coffin dodgers used to get quite abusive when you pushed them aside to get to the best swims first.

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I know what you mean, Ray. Very rude, but I'd do the same now.

If I have spent all week preparing a swim in the hope that when I get time to fish it only to find a few other anglers were wandering around debating where to fish. id run like hell with my bucket to get the one id been preparing for. No offense would be meant, first come first fishes. I wouldnt hold it against anyone to beat me to another peg even if id pre baited in fact id tell them what went in and what I was going to fish. At least if they attempted my tactics and got a fish I wouldnt have lost out on the learn.

What does get my goat up.... the same people camping the same swims. You wander round and mr A tells you he is finished in an hour but oh....his mate is jumping in for the next three days until he can get some more time off then he will be back on that swim for another week. Id like to see LAWS I tell you......with sticks......and nails...... and ........salt!