Posted on 05/21/2007 11:11:59 AM PDT by JZelle
A newcomer to tidal Potomac River bass fishing recently sent a blistering note to a popular Web site, the Bass Fishing Home Page. With tongue in cheek, the e-mailer wondered what happened to common boating courtesy on one of the nation's top bass fishing waters.
He signed his name Tony, and although some sorely needed word clarification has been added, here is the note from www.wmi.org/bassfish:
"[I] was wondering. Just moved or should I say [got] stationed here from Ala. [I] just want to get the rules right. Is there no common courtesy on the lakes and rivers here? Is it OK to be on plane 3 feet from another boat and start fishing 10 feet ahead of him on the same bank ... or is it OK to be on plane in front of someone fishing a point? Just wondering so I can join the crowd."
The comments stuck with me. Here you have a new boater on the Potomac thinking he was still in Alabama, where courtesy and even helpful advice among fishermen is not unusual. How sad. It apparently didn't take long before Tony noticed it's not the same around here.
The difference in proper behavior and common courtesy on the water between Deep South states and the Washington area is enormous.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
JFK called Washington DC a city with Nothern charm and Southern efficiency.
Lots of yankees in that area. You can’t expect them to act like southerners.
If all one knows about the “north” is folks from NYC, Philly, and Boston, allow me to suggest that you know JACK about folks from the north.
There’s a lot of rural territory in them thar northern states, and the people are every bit as kind and decent as those from the rural areas in the south.
I think the Yankee interpretation of the courteous thing to do, while fishing up north is to bring your own ice saw and turn the other way then they push the body with concrete boots over the wale of the boat upstream from your favorite fishing spot. (They favor shotguns over grenades and dynamite, beer over moonshine.)
Can't be said enough. Folks in all rural areas have far more in common with each other than with urbanites and city folks.
It’s not a northern lack of courtesy. It’s a modern lack of courtesy.
DC is below the Mason Dixon line.
It’s not a northern lack of courtesy. It’s a modern lack of courtesy.
_______
While you, I and a few others might recognize this undeniable fact, those still fighting the War of Northern Agression seem unable yet to grasp that.
Mason-Dixon line?
“The grits line” is the dividing line.
“DC is below the Mason Dixon line.”
For that matter, Cape May County, NJ is south of the Mason-Dixon line too.
Not true. This type of behavior is unheard of in most of the south...unless it's a northerner on vacation, that is.
Not true, Sorry, spent pleanty of time in densely populated parts of the North and South as well as sparesely populated parts of both...
I can tell you this much UNEQUIVACABLY... while it is true the level of courtesy does go down as you get closer to densely populated areas, whether it be the south or the north, there is ABSOLUTELY no question that the general level of courtesy is far far higher in the south than the north.
Yes it is unfair to compare rural Alabama to NYC, but Atlanta GA to NYC and in the courtesy dept hotlanta wins... Small town south vs small town north as well, general level of courtesy the south wins, hands down EVERY time.
I’m not condemning all northerners as clods, but apples to apples, courtesy generally is more practiced and respected in the south.
This guy needs to get further away from the DC Airport and Federal Reserve.
I’ve had a number of run ins (off-water) with bass bros and found them so arrogant that I gave up bss fishing for fly fishing. Thoroughly disagreeable people with an apparent feeling that they own the water.
I had a gun pulled on me in Frisco Texas simply because I was from the north and met nothing but hospitality in Longview.
That really sucks, but I guess it was bound to happen. Whenever something gets too popular, its going to attract that element too.
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