River Etiquette

I may not have mentioned this, but from my house you can see the River Dee, through a gap between the houses opposite. Normally all you see on the river from my viewpoint are various ducks, swans, the occasional Heron & various other birds of the maritime variety - aka shitehawks.

I was therefore, somewhat startled earlier to find what looked like two halves of people floating by on the water. A closer look via binoculars re-assured me that they were fully intact (I presume) male fishermen, having a wee chat while up to their waists in water.

As you do, I went to get my camera. While I did this, the chat ended & one of the men resumed his stroll upstream. You can just see him through the trees to the left.

General fishermans etiquette is that whoever is already fishing a spot gets to stay there & you find another place to cast. Generally, you fish moving upstream so that any disturbance you have caused is not likely to affect the fish you may next encounter (water runs downstream, after all). You would also try and avoid disturbing any fish upstream of the person you have passed.

Maybe they just weren't expecting to catch anything anyway.