Unfortunate.

[ResQ]

Well, took my sister down to the Skok to try to get her on some fish and teach her how to float eggs. We actually had the entire stretch to ourselves. I was astonished! We get down there and fish for about an hour and a crew of about 7 guys show up and start blatantly snagging! They hooked and landed 4 that came in tail first, tossed them all on a stringer. Then another that was hooked in the mouth but native (it was a giant hen). They commented on the fact it was a native and tossed it onto the bank. Away from the others. Then they kept looking at my sister and myself. They saw a couple roll and saw we had a couple bobber take downs. One guy said down their line, " Lets push them out!" Before I knew it, they were all on my sister, casting over her and on either side, until she didnt know what to do and went to the shore, then they came to me and I stood my ground for about 10 minutes and then didnt feel a fish was worth that. We ended up leaving and calling the local Game Warden. I really hope they went out there. Those guys were local. I have seen ( and was even generous to the old guy ) before. I know its the Skok, but COME ON! I took pictures and video of these jack holes.

[ResQ]

It really was unreal. I fish the Skok and this is the first time I have left disgusted. I could not believe the native keeping! My sister said she heard them saying that about another fish as well (being a native and keeping it). I did see the the monster adipose on the big one though. It was peaceful until they showed up. We went from hearing bald eagles to the constant whipping noise of rods. If they close this river down, this will be why.

[tnj8222]

I take it your bf was the one on Facebook? He said the guys threatened you. Guess that wasn't true? Lol it got deleted quick so I didn't even see the video.

[ResQ]

Who? Nope. I was with my big sister who was up visiting. We never posted anything on facebook. Just this rant. Well, she posted some pictures of my 7 closest friends fishing right beside me lol. So your definitely talking about someone else :-) We didnt get any verbal threats. Just the " Lets push them out " before they came up and shared company lol

[tnj8222]

Gotcha. Seems to be getting crazy out there. That river though, lol I just stay away from it. Really not worth the trouble that comes to it.

[ResQ]

Its fun and the kings are bright. In a couple years, this is the worst thing I have seen. It was pretty bad though.

[mizm05]

Sorry to hear that bud...I was in the middle of one of those lines a couple weeks ago. They had a flat out poaching operation going on. Line of guys ripping big bright kings out, high fiving each other, fathers teaching this behavior to their sons, and all the while they had other guys posted up on the road, and others going up and down river in canoes doing bird calls to each other if they saw anyone else coming. It really was surreal. I minded my business, landed a chrome 12 lb hen, and bailed.

No joke, they all knew each other and it was a planned and coordinated operation. Crazy stuff.....

[ResQ]

Problem (other than poaching/snagging) was we weren't in a line. We had nobody else around for 80 + yards! They came up and forcibly pushed us out.

[schu7498]

This year is the worse. Happened to me happened a lot of other people. I also reported a group of people doing the same thing. The worst part is they were keeping over their limit and all fish came in backwards. They even filmed themselves doing it and congratulating eachother on how good of fishermen they were. Oh and women doing it too. Decked all out in simms gear and everything. I hope the river gets shut down. Id rather have indians netting it and let no white man "fish" it.

[schu7498]

Give flossers an inch theyll take a mile and turn into full blown open snaggers. What i hated the most was seeing these people at my work.

[tnj8222]

Slash there tires? That's the kind of thinking that gets you shot! Over a fish? No thanks!

[Mike Carey]

Encouraging vandalism... that gets a big no...

[primetime]

As much as this makes you mad. You can't get involved with these type of people. It puts you in danger and also makes you liable if you do criminal acts in retaliation. This problem won't go away. The best way to solve or put pressure on this is when people seeing poaching is to call authorities. Like other crimes that happen things like this will continue to happen. You just hope that the fishing community can put pressure on the WDFW to regulate these fisheries better. Will this happen? Probably not. However, putting yourself in danger won't solve the problem. Contact authorities and let them sort it out. Other than that fish the right way and hope others start to follow suit!

[ResQ]

I say close the lower river to bait/spinner only.

[ResQ]

Spey??

[jd39]

Fished the skok for the first time yesterday, saw lots of the flossing/snagging i've seen everywhere on rivers unfortunately but everyone was generally getting along and lots of people also floating bait like we did. Guess i got lucky wasn't a bad first experience, will try it again next year.

[ResQ]

You know, I really dont have an issue with flossing. I did it for a while and there are still spots where that is way of the west. Its when they dont drift and use heavy weight and just make that awful whipping noise with their rods. Most times its ok there. Flossers have their spots and floater have theirs. Snaggers just go wherever. It was their strong arm tactics of bullying to get the whole section of river to their selves. One of the a$$ hats was an old guy that lives there on the river. He is the one that snagged, fought and kept a massive native. That fish was all of 30 pounds with a 3 inch adipose fin. I am assuming they were all related. Its just unreal.

[jd39]

I've only been bank fishing rivers for 2 years, so far flossing is the norm from my experience. Most of the time they all seem to be getting along and ok as people go, its just not my thing and i don't want to fish that way. A lot of the whole thrill/reward for me is getting the fish to strike and learning how to do that. Flossing doesn't cut it in that regard but to each their own, i just mind my own business when out.
What you experienced was crap and goes beyond technique squabbles, appreciate you posting about it, my friends and i were more aware and stayed ready to move in case knuckleheads came around. Not worth trouble/assaults for us so our game plan was to avoid confrontation unless we weren't given an option. Sucks to even have to worry about that to go fishing.

[strider43]

terrible fishing experience. I have never fished down there but I have had similar experiences in Snohomish county with snagggers and aggressive fishermen who try to take over the bank. I will usually bail out when it gets too crowded. I do usually comment to the rude people before I leave.

[Goldrigger1]

You can take action if you don't mind the work. Film it and go to the meetings with a group you put together. Regulators listen to groups. They especially listen to groups if you get on a blog like this or get published in the Times. Again, you need a group of legitimate people others will respect. That will get action.