The Golden Rule has a place on the river too …

Out & About, by Howard Delo

I guess some people lapse into the twilight zone when they start the engine of their boats, or when that big salmon finally is netted or pulled up onto the riverbank. Either that or they rank as some of the most inconsiderate and brain-dead people still breathing oxygen, or perhaps it's stupid gas?

My wife and I were on the Kashwitna River the last weekend in June. We made a special effort to get up early and be out on the river to try for a king salmon. We were on the water by about 5:15 a.m. and still were too late to reach a particular fishing hole first.

We moved upstream and began "exploring" different spots, finally ending up with the bow of the boat nosed up on the bank near a junction of two channels. A good hole lay downstream from our location.

After fishing for a while and watching other boats respectfully moving both up and downstream past our location, we had the joy of dealing with a boater who didn't grasp the concept of what a boat wake is.

This guy was driving upstream in a small, inboard, aluminum-hulled boat and acted like he owned the river. He wasn't going fast enough to have the boat up on step, where his wake would have been minimal. Instead, he was plowing ahead at a speed that generated the maximum wake his boat was capable of producing.

He passed us without even a nod and when his wake hit, we took several gallons of water over the transom and stern side of our boat. This guy could have cared less about the potential problems he was making with that large wake. He either didn't care or was ignorant that, as the operator of the boat, he was legally responsible for any problems or damage his wake created.

I said some very unkind things in his direction and turned on the bilge pump. I found out later he had done the same thing to every boat he had passed coming up the river, including one guide boat. This guide is a member of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, has participated in numerous river rescues, and knows his stuff. He also happens to be a genuinely nice guy with a good sense of humor.

The guide had signaled our brain-dead boater to slow down and watch his wake as he approached the two or three boats fishing near the guide's location. "Brain-dead" ignored the signals and slammed everyone with a big wake. Boat radios all over the river lit up with what the irate guide called this guy -- in hindsight, I guess I was actually rather polite with the names I had called him. "Brain-dead" showed no respect for the other boaters he encountered that day.

Later, I was talking with a friend who had floated the Little Willow that same weekend. Inconsiderate boaters nearly swamped him three times. This guy is no novice to floating the Little Willow -- he's done it since he was a kid. Apparently the name "Brain-dead" applied to more than a single Kashwitna boat operator that weekend.

My friend also mentioned encountering a large group from Outside camped on the river. He personally watched them catch and land two kings, kicking the fish up the bank through the sand. After photos, the fish were dumped back on the ground and kicked back into the river. Further downstream, he found three kings either floating on their sides or belly up in the current.

These fish had been so roughly handled they were dying. My friend was still mad as he told me about the incident days later.

Is this obsession with catching a king salmon so strong that we lose all respect, not only for our fellow anglers, but also for the very resource we want to enjoy?

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist living in Big Lake. Send your comments and ideas to editor@frontiersman.com, or call (907) 352-2268 and leave a message for Howard.