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3. Be careful where you park (even if it's legal!)

I went to my cabin on Sunday and a bunch of my buddies from NJ came up and we spent most of the telling fishing stories that we experienced over the last forty years. On Monday five of us decided to go to a certain section of the upper main stem Delaware. One of my closest friends and I decided to park on the side of a public, but dirt, road. Where we chose to park was at a point where there was a defined pull-out big enough for one vehicle and where thirty years prior I used to park for two weeks in September.

Anyway his car was totally off of the public road and there were no "No Trespassing" signs on any of the trees so we thought "Well this looks like a great place to park". Fast forward to 7:00 p.m. and as we walked back to the car we could see a piece of paper stuck under the wiper and something red all over the drivers side of the windshield.

When we got directly to the car is was apparent that some mean and vicious person had spray painted red paint all over the drivers windshield as well as both side view mirrors. The paper had these hand printed words;

No Parking and No River Access

Wow, it is a public road and there was no signage anywhere to indicate either no parking or no river access. for some lucky unknown reason my friend had a metal paint scraper in his trunk and after about twenty minutes of scraping most of the paint was off of the windshield and mirrors. The next day he got a new single edge razor blade and removed the rest of the paint.

Our other friend parked about 1/4 mile away and while there was no paint on his car someone had thrown about fifty big headed roofing nails under his front tires and all around the area in which he would be pulling out.

I'm offering this to anyone who might be thinking about a trip to the upper Delaware and be thinking "Well it is a nice dirt road and I'm sure I can park here." Well if this SOB is around it seems it doesn't matter if you are legally parked he doesn't want you there.

Wow Matt, that is unfortunate. The respect people have for each other and others property is long gone. That looks like surveyors paint, they kind you mark boundaries with.

Its a shame...you guys are just fishing.

CJ

Sad comment on our society as it exists today.

Yes, I was shocked and disappointed to see that vandalism on my friends car. Now that you mention it looks like surveyors paint might explain why it was so darn hard to scrape off of his windshield. The really sick thing is we were on a public road, albeit not heavily traveled, yet still public. We learned later that many of the people who have built high end houses over the past 10 - 15 years don't like seeing fishermen's cars parked anywhere along the river and blocking their view. I guess some of them are willing to engage in vandalism to dissuade anglers from parking along the road that parallels the river.

Matt, with that photo as evidence, I'd report it to the authorities and press them to question people in the area. That might cause someone to think twice about such vandalism. If they want to post it, that's one thing, but such illegal acts should be investigated.

It was good to see you over the past days up on the Delaware, and thanks for your advice and the flies.

Louis,

That is a very good idea about reporting that incident to the Hancock police. I'll have to ask my friend though since it happened to him and his car. We though were of the opinion that if we went to the Hancock police they would either blow us off with some platitudes or not really want to drive down in the boondocks to question anyone.

It was nice to see you too. Wish I'd had some time to fish with you - maybe some of your good luck would rub off on me. I'm thinking maybe I should be getting some tips from you instead of you getting them from me.

I just loaded the car and am leaving tomorrow morning around 7:00. It seems like there is no rush as I've not been seeing consistent rising fish until 4:00 or 5:00 and I think you saw them even later than that. I think we are going to float Buckingham to Long Eddy.

Matt, in Tennessee we have a saying, "Even a blind pig finds an acorn every now and then." The fishing sucked for me Tuesday, but Wednesday was one of those "once in a blue moon" kind of days. I just got lucky, I guess. Still, talking with you gave me ideas, and helped me sort out how to approach the water and crowds. But I'll never achieve the kind of knowledge you have of the river and its fish.

Thank you Louis, that is very kind of you.

Sorry to see this Matt!

Many years back we had some issues at one particular access site on the mainstream Au Sable. Some of these places may have a homeowners association and conversation with them may pay off. For the most part folks aren't like this, but one bad apple screws it up for everyone.

Rusty went down and had a chat with them and with the help of the state a solution was reached and a better parking space was created to get the vehicles off the road. It is a little bit of a walk but not bad considering no one gets any hassle to their vehicles now.

There is one fellow who lets his dog run a little too free down there still, maybe to intimidate anglers, but he's too smart to let it get near enough to bite someone...

Louis is probably correct in hinting that just letting it go doesn't fix the problem. Yes its a hassle, but...

Side note: The fishing this year and last on the Au Sable has been brutal! We aren't sure if the last two winters have killed off fish, or what's going on, but it is noticeable to me and others up that way that get to visit the river more than I do...? There were some minus 30 below nights up there in February this year!

Spence

I'd park there, then hide and wait for the jerk to show up, then I'd bust him, take his driver's license and wallet to the police. Course, it'd be more fun to shoot him. ha ha ha ha ha You could follow him home and give the police his address, and I'd park in front of his house and make him clean my window off.

Dad and I had a good June. Biggest fish in the boat was a walleye--damn near 30 inches, but we threw streamers through the high water and did quite well. Had some good Hex fishing too, but the Holy Water really does seem to be the most affected by the brutal winters. It'll come back... as long as they stop this fish farm thing.

Matt, that area is notorious for having incidents like that. A couple years back I was just standing on a bridge checking for bugs and rising fish. Just using the bridge as a barometer for feeding fish, if there were some I would park in a state fishing area and walk and fish. This is a public road and bridge but the area around is posted. I was standing on the road when 2 guys in a pickup truck came by yelling and swearing at me just about everything you can imagine. Real friendly stuff, now in my younger days I know I would not of put up with the verbal abuse but at 62 I smiled and got in the car and left. Not sure what possesses people to act this way but I do my best to stay away from situations like that. Not on my worst day would I behave like that, and I gave them no reason to either.

Gene

Amazing.