Right rod to rocks/shore

💩 definitely happens sometimes. Lots of places are pretty much "combat fishing" and not that different than some of the meat hole spots on the more popular rivers. It's just disappointing when that 💩 is caused by local guides who should be pretty motivated to be paying attention. That being said, in 10 years of fishing the North Island and plenty of time fishing other spots before I moved up here, I've only had two fish tangled in the riggers of other boats that swooped in behind me. But both times if was due to aggressive fishing/boating once we had our fish on and into the second good run and after a good deal of arm waving. Made for interesting conversations during the untangling. The guests were a definitely not impressed. Felt sorry for them.

Regardless, it doesn't make me want to go down island to fish spots where there are >50 boats and sometimes >100 boats... I don't fish the Stamp or the Vedder during steelhead season for the same reasons. I feel sorry for nice people trying to get into this sport but start their fishing in areas where it's super busy.
Like you, I prefer when possible to go somewhere with fewer boats. Where I fish, that isn't always possible at times. It can get really busy.

That said, if everyone plays by the Right Rod to Rocks rule its really easy to fish in areas with a number of boats. Despite best of intentions, its also pretty likely under those circumstances for someone to slip up - if we are kind to one another and work together its fairly easy to carve out a good day on the water.
 
With the RR to Shore, does this still apply when fishing off shore but still within sight of land? Thinking of spots off the West coast and even some places on ECVI where you're not focused on structure close to shore - Kitty Coleman etc.

Last time I was on the "Highway", it seemed like it was just chaos at the "hot spot". Fortunately only about 20 boats, not 200, and people were relatively spread out, but people were on tack N/S, E/W and every direction in between to take passes over a couple rocks that come up to ~150ft out of 250ft of water. And there was definitely a "feeding frenzy" mentality on most boats - if there was a fish on, at least 2-3 boats would make dramatic course changes toward the boat with the fish on. This happened for each of the 3 days we were out there and just seems to be how it's fished at that spot.
 
i think its a 27' plus grady disease. it has spread throughout the coast too. cant see over the pilothouse ;)
We were commenting this year that Grady's are increasingly the BMW/Tesla's of the boating world. Definitely did not come standard equipped with turn signals or rear view mirrors. No offense to any polite/respectful/socially-aware SFBC Grady/Tesla/BMW owners of course.
 
With the RR to Shore, does this still apply when fishing off shore but still within sight of land? Thinking of spots off the West coast and even some places on ECVI where you're not focused on structure close to shore - Kitty Coleman etc.

Last time I was on the "Highway", it seemed like it was just chaos at the "hot spot". Fortunately only about 20 boats, not 200, and people were relatively spread out, but people were on tack N/S, E/W and every direction in between to take passes over a couple rocks that come up to ~150ft out of 250ft of water. And there was definitely a "feeding frenzy" mentality on most boats - if there was a fish on, at least 2-3 boats would make dramatic course changes toward the boat with the fish on. This happened for each of the 3 days we were out there and just seems to be how it's fished at that spot.
Offshore is a whole other world of hurt - generally when we are on the Big Bank people try to tack up/down (east/west) with the current. There's always going to be someone going across the usual tack - so head on swivel time. As for people who zero in on boats playing fish - well, you can't fix stupid.
 
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