The Fall River report is going to start this way: We need to establish some rules of the road, aka etiquette and basic fishing friendliness again. People are really getting rude with the crowding out of anglers who were there 1st.
Here is a good rule of thumb for what is too close. Is my downstream drift overlapping with your upstream cast? Are we both casting to the same fish? Let’s say the average cast is 30 feet (that’s probably long but in places it can happen) so 30′ up means you might also drift your fly 30′ down. That means I should give you at least that much space AND never ever cast over a fish that is in that 60 foot zone. That is polite and that is what makes the world go round and keeps disagreements from happening on the river.
I also think guide services (I have one of the 7 USFS permits to guide the Fall) should not take a big group all to the same areas. If they have 10 people with 5 guides put one or two guides on the hatchery, one at the HW, one at the CG and one at the Tubes. Spread ’em out and I am going to encourage my FFP guide team to be cognizant about that. In fairness, a typical trip is one guide and 1 to 3 clients. But group trips occur and I see the issue that is being talked about in the forums. That said, the forum folks are blaming the guides a bit for overcrowding, and I am not sure that is entirely fair. Guides are taking the public fishing. Public just like you and no one owns the river so we need mutual respect. I am not aware of any FFP guide getting in a disagreement over water etiquette but we don’t want that to happen.
BWO’s, Midges, Little Black Stones are hatching and bringing fish up during the hatch. Bring 6.5 and 7x tippet!
Micro Streamers, Perdigons, Zebra Midges and Eggs are your good nymphs for the river.