Wildside - Outdoor Etiquette

Fishy antics no way to enjoy outdoors

© Zane Mirfin, Wildside Column, Fishy antics no way to enjoy outdoors, Nelson Mail, 28 March 2009

I shouldn’t have gone fishing this morning, but I went anyway.

There were jobs to do at home, kids to walk to school, a school camp to attend, magazine and newspaper editors to keep happy, customers to call back. Then there was Aimee’s upcoming 40th birthday party to organise, and lots more in-between guiding trips. But the fishing was great – sitting out in the pre-dawn glow of Tasman Bay with my father Stuart, watching the eastern hills come alive to the colour of a golden sunrise, while prodigious numbers of snapper bent our light rods. As we motored for shore, the fish box filled with our quota limit of nice-sized specimens, we marvelled at how fortunate we were to have the water to ourselves on such a beautiful day.

Fishing has always been a passion of mine, but as fellow local guide Peter Carty observed in the book New Zealand Masters on Fly Fishing, ‘‘Fishing is a disease. It’s not usually fatal and there’s no known cure for it, but the therapy is wonderful’’. I couldn’t agree more, although my wife and family might not.

There have been times when I probably should have received treatment for my addiction. In fact, I can almost visualise standing up at a meeting of Fishing and Shooting Anonymous and saying. ‘‘Hi, I’m Zane and I’m a fisherman and hunter’’.

The passion and energy that we devote to our outdoor sports is what drives us as individuals to perform. This performance and competitive instinct is also where things often go wrong. Over the years, I have enjoyed the company of many fantastic people I’ve met on chance encounters. I’ve also been on the receiving end of a few people with the manners of lavatory rodents.

I’ve run into a few boaties recently whose behaviour suggested they hadn’t engaged their brains. They jammed up the boat ramp, zoomed past anchored boats actively fishing, and did not give other boaties some space while fishing at a favoured position they had arrived at first. Small stuff, but frustrating, and many of the transgressions I’ve observed lately could have been easily avoided with a little thought, consideration and brain power. Other people have rights also, and it’s a lot easier if we can all get along and share the great outdoors amicably. Rules and regulations will never really solve conflict in the outdoors between recreational users, but education and ethics might.

While I was doing a masters thesis at Canterbury University in 1990, called Trout Fishing in Nelson – Management of a Recreational Resource, I commented that ‘‘ethics are moral precepts that keep people from breaking the law when no one is looking’’. Ethical behaviour in the outdoors is just like ethical behaviour in life – it is an individual thing, and the definition varies from person to person. In this modern age of increasing pressure on resources, it is important that outdoor users accept the importance of ethical behaviour, because failure to do so can lead to increased conflict between user groups and individuals, which unfortunately often means decreased satisfaction for all.

You’ve had the Billy Graham sermon now, so what can go wrong out there on the seas and rivers and in the bush?

Over the years, I’ve witnessed some shocking behaviour between groups and individuals, probably caused by greed, fear, egotism and stupidity. Screaming matches, ugly confrontations and vandalism aren’t fun, and I admit to coming close to a punch-up on several occasions myself when testosterone levels became overheated on both sides. One time, I lost my temper on a boat ramp; another time, someone backed their boat into my vehicle. Last year, a group of kayakers paddled over a pod of rising trout we were enjoying on the Motueka River. Most of the time, though, I try hard to keep a level head, because mistakes do happen, other people have rights, and often people don’t realise what they have done or perhaps why they have upset someone else.

Many times, though, skulduggery is deliberate – such as when trout anglers ‘‘jump’’ in front of another angler to get to the best water, when whitebaiters claim multiple positions, or when duck shooters ‘‘skybust’’ – shoot at a range of birds so they don’t fly into the decoys of other hunters.

None of this is very pleasant, but things can get worse – like the time the Murchison mechanic was adamant that my vehicle brake hoses had been cut up the Maruia Valley, or the time I was salmon fishing with my friend Ross Millichamp on the upper Rakaia River. Ross is the manager of North Canterbury Fish and Game, and we were using his jetboat, towed by his Fish and Game truck. No salmon caught was disappointing enough, but when we arrived back at the truck, tyres had been let down and abusive messages scrawled on the dusty windows and doors. All in all, a sad, cowardly and despicable act by some desperate individual.

Life is just too short to go around upsetting other people and having to deal with aggression in the outdoors. My advice is to have fun and always strive to use common sense and show courtesy towards other users of the resource. Talk with people, and work out a fair and equitable plan so everyone can have a good experience. ‘‘Honour agreements and don’t tell lies,’’ is what our mothers taught us, and this has always been great advice.

Think long-term in the outdoors, and always remember that the toes you stomp on today may be attached to the butt you have to kiss tomorrow.

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