BC Res Rant

We grew up in a Central Oregon Coast town that has two little reservoirs back to back.  The first reservoir is about 20 acres and the second I couldn’t find the exact acreage, but seems about double the size.  The first reservoir is bank fishing only with a guard rail for cars that lines the lake.  It’s pretty obvious that there is no boat access except for ones who would want to haul their pontoon/float tube over the side, which wouldn’t be that hard really.  The second larger lake has multiple access points on the south side of the lake with multiple places to pull off of the road.  The only real fishing in these lakes is for stocker trout.

(This is a stock photo I found online, but you can clearly see the blockages.  This is not even a quarter of the traffic during stocking times)

Admittedly, not the most exciting fishery due to the lack of diversity, it is still fun to put a small boat in and try to catch the trout once they’ve acclimated a bit to the lake.  We’ve been out several times with the opportunity to cast to rising fish, or just strip small streamers/nymphs for them.  When you just feel like going out and having an afternoon of fun that’s local, this is a great place to go.  That is, it’s a great place to go if you can manage to launch your boat.  The thing on my mind today is boat launch fishing etiquette.  I’ve looked all over online about this and there is a wealth of information on launch etiquette in particular, but not on people actually physically sitting on the boat launch in chairs fishing.  I’m talking, completely blocking the boat launch, cars parked in front of the boat launch, wall of asses in camp chairs with rod holders, and mini camp out set ups.  Whenever we come here to fish it’s fingers crossed that at least a car is not parked in front of the launch.  If we only have to ask people to move, they’ll grumble and give us the stink eye (if they actually have to move their car it’s like we’ve asked a teenager to clean their room), then resume blocking the launch after the boat is in the water.  Once they see us actually casting fly rods out there, the return to the launch is even less welcoming, if there can be such a thing in this situation.  I don’t even want to go into the animosity between bait and fly fishermen right now, as that could be a full post on its own (can’t we all just live and let live?).  Basically, it all boils down to the fact that a boat launch is where people go to launch their boats into the lake.  It shouldn’t have to have a fence around it for people to know that they shouldn’t be sitting there, or at the very least, should move their shit politely when a boat pulls up.  We shouldn’t have to feel like we’re disrupting their day by using a facility that is provided for our purpose.  I guess the part that makes me really pissed is the entitlement that seems to permeate the air here.  A - There are multiple access points around the lake.  Though the stocked trout do tend to congregate for awhile around the launch right after they are put in the water, after about a week they acclimate and move out into the lake.  I know this!  I’ve caught many fish at different (further) access points with power bait on a plunking set up from a chair.  B - I am aware that this is pretty much it for access by disabled persons.  It should go without saying (but I’m gonna) that these few spaces around the boat launch should be given to people with limited mobility/accessibility problems.  When all of these spaces are taken up, that does not default to the boat launch.

So, you can tell that this really fires me up, but no one else seems to talk about it or deal with it.  I would have taken a picture to post, but I wasn’t really into asking permission to publish.  I really haven’t been to too many other places where this was an issue, but there must be some out there.  

I guess I’ve said my piece on this.  Maybe I don’t know the other side of the story and some irresponsible boater ran over a bankie’s gear at some point, but I think that we should all just bury whatever hatchet is festering and have some mutual respect.  None of us own these facilities (which have almost been shut down due to litter and misuse of property), we are allowed to use them by the city.  ALL of us.