OPINION

ETHICS & ETIQUETTE:

Aren’t there two sides?

BY SCOTT LINDEN

It was the year of “the movie,” – “A River Runs Through It” – where Brad Pitt inspired everyone to try fly fishing. My home water was crawling with wader-clad newbies straight out of the Orvis catalog, frothing the water with their casts, untangling wind knots and pulling flies from tree limbs – when they weren’t poaching my pool.

Have you ever dealt with “that guy?” If you said “no,” could you be him? In the heat of a stalk, the adrenaline rush at hitting the hatch just right, when a pheasant flushes between your legs; it could happen to anyone. (My rap sheet is long and lurid.) But that’s the point. Difficult as it is, being self-aware not only helps you maintain civility; it makes the experience richer for everyone.

Etiquette is defined as “the customary code of polite behavior in society.” Ethics put the emphasis on moral behavior. Both loom daily in the field, where there are no referees, no spectators. Let’s explore and examine others’ – and our own – behaviors, to avoid being “that guy.”

I’d slammed the tailgate and cut my dog loose when a shiny 4WD skidded into the parking area in a cloud of dust. The driver pretended to ignore us as we set out down the overgrown skid road in search of ruffed grouse. He grabbed a shotgun and nonchalantly followed, avoiding eye contact so judiciously he stumbled every few yards on fallen limbs and rough spots.

How about this: You got up so early you shouldn’t have bothered going to bed. Scent-free and stealthy, you’re shivering in your ground blind hoping that eight-pointer you patterned all summer shows up. A twig cracks, leaves rustle and in the distance you see a headlamp bobbing your way.

Or: You and your partner are skulking toward a trembling, bulge-eyed shorthair on point. A covey of Hungarian partridge screeches skyward – BANG! Your bird drops and you race for it, but you’re overtaken by your buddy going to pick up his … er, the same bird. A couple beers into the campfire, everyone can tell a story like those. Hunting and fishing are a string of subtle, complex and aggravating details jumbled together. But no matter the quarry, the place or the people, one guiding principle can make virtually every encounter, each situation, turn out positively. Both parties may not be completely satisfied, but neither is hair-on-fire crazy, either.

Yep, among myriad shades of gray, clarity is at hand. Sometimes, ire is the righteous response. Or forehead slapping. But usually in the woods or knee-deep in a steelhead run, The Golden Rule is a pretty good compass for thoughts and actions.

“Treat others as you would like others to treat you” may date to Confucian times, but is especially relevant now. In a game where you’re often alone, the fewer rules there are, the easier it is to follow them. This one is immutable.

A friend took me to a public-ground chukar hill loaded with birds – easy walking, close to town and with bonus valley quail in the creek bottom. I’d driven past without a thought for decades,

Walking that proverbial mile in their boots is one simple way to be an ethical hunter or angler.

and would be still if he hadn’t insisted on returning a favor.

Can I go back without him?

Carrying with safety on, pointed in a safe direction – Hunter’s Ed. 101, right? Not so simple on a block-and-drive pheasant hunt or skulking toward a bugling elk.

Approaching a tempting pool where someone is working the other side? What if a big rainbow just sipped a mayfly on your side?

Your buddy’s shorthair busts a covey out of gun range – do you correct the dog? Pulling into an isolated valley you find a hunter off-loading his dog. What do you do – or not do? Say it with me now.

Walking that proverbial mile in their boots is one simple way to be an ethical hunter or angler. Hell, even I can remember one rule.

Powering upstream, you round a bend and find a fellow angler painstakingly working into position for a cast. Do you stomp past on the streamside path?

You’re glassing a hillside when a shot pierces the air. Well-hit and going down soon, the buck stumbles into your sightline and pauses. Whose deer is it now?

Sometimes, what you don’t do bollixes The Rule. From mooching someone else’s lunch to not carrying a survival kit, you’re forcing someone else to pick up the slack. Bringing your fair share of the booze, pitching in for gas, helping someone gut and carry, there’s that pesky rule again.

Oh, and no whining. Ever.

Etiquette, ethics, civility, sportsmanship – it sets the stage for a peak experience, and it starts with looking at both sides. Many years ago, the mayor of Las Vegas, William H. Briare, said, “Our city’s reputation depends on you, me and us.” I bet he was a hunter or angler.

BHA member Scott Linden hosts and produces the upland bird hunting television show Wingshooting USA and the Upland Nation podcast. He is the author of “Training and Hunting Bird Dogs” (Skyhorse Publishing); a third printing came out in paperback in the fall of 2021. His authority website is findbirdhuntingspots.com.