Angler blocking footpath, I know I was unreasonable, but would this annoy you/what would you have done??

[Patienceisntvirtuous]

I realise this might need a diagram! I was out running with my dog today. There's a footpath off the main road which leads to a dam. People fish on it. The footpath has a fence either side of it right up until the dam, give or take about 4 feet of land comprising of grass and another footpath (between the end of the dam and the fence). An angler was sitting at the dam, with his fishing rod to his left propped up on some apparatus completely blocking the four feet of land which I was to run across, right next to the fence. No way around it without going for a swim. It was poised about a foot and a half high.

I stepped over it and my dog jumped over it. Dog is huge, didn't touch the rod just cleared it. I didn't take a flying leap, I stepped over it carefully. Then continued my run-but he shouted after me that I shouldn't step over it, he'd have moved it (he hadn't said anything like this before I stepped over it). I shouted back that it was okay, and he responded that had I broken a section of his rod it would have cost me £250.

It's then when I was unreasonable, I shouted back that I wasn't waiting for him to move the rod, I've as much right to the path as him.

And he was blocking it which isn't great. Further up from the footpath would have been fine, no fence there and grassy areas surrounding so I could have just avoided.

I imagine he'll spend half his day repeatedly moving his rod, sitting in the spot he was right opposite where the footpath emerges, It's a regularly used-route.

Would you have hung about while he moved it (again he never said 'hang on I'll move my rod')?
I had no reason to think he would, and I wouldn't have asked either because I didn't know it was possible without a lot of faffing about. It wouldn't have been an especially quick thing to do, a long fishing rod with various elements and garments attached to it.

Anyway no harm done but I perhaps shouldn't have argued back with him.

It's a power play isn't it? You have to wait on his convenience. Not playing within the aggressors rules - as the OP didn't - is experienced as aggression.

Hope this helps! Very crude but I never was the best at using 'paint'. There was only a couple of inch gap between the fishing rod and the fence, I couldn't have fit down there to pass.

@Discovereads voila (above) sorry, it wasn't something I felt I could explain well.
@RedSkyAtKnight

@GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing that's so true. I read about (and joined) an 'experiment' some women were doing while walking down narrow paths or corridors. They'd see a man approach, not veer from their walking direction, and wait to see when the man veered to the side so they didn't collide. Very few of them did until the last minute! They just expect that the woman will be the one to apply the inconvenience to themselves.

Definitely a public footpath

@QuebecBagnet what
an idiot! If it was so well disguised and the same colour of the path he can hardly blame someone for not noticing it!

@Nat6999 maybe he didn't see me until the last minute but if that were me (not that I'd ever block a path, period) I'd have said straight away 'Hang on, let me move this out of your way' or such. He obviously DID see me if he'd anticipated that he'd move his rod.

@TimeforZeroes selfish fish bastard this thread has amused me!

@Hearthnhome your DP sounds like one of the considerate, unselfish ones.

@Rosehugger they do have to pay (there are signs up indicating this)but it is in a public place.

@SlouchingTowardsBethlehemAgain sadly I agree. He really didn't seem to expect me to say anything back to him! I'm forever steering my dog away from bait buckets.

@TheOrigRights yes, It's that isn't it. I'd have had to stop for a minute or more had I waited for him to move it, and he had other equipment attached to it or around it, and I suspect he'd not have been happy at doing that either. I've no idea why he picked this particular spot-I know angling has a lot of complicated 'rules' around where you're most likely to catch, perhaps that was a particularly good spot.

@luckylavender yes I could have asked him. I'd not have thought he'd have sat where he was expecting every person who wanted to pass to ask him to move his rod. It's quite a busy walkway, so perhaps I subconsciously thought he expected people to step over it rather than inconvenience him each time.
@CustardySergeant really? I'll bet my Dad's on it :)

@getoff that's a refreshing post. I've had more than my fair share of such encounters you've mentioned!

@HairyMcLarie that's so inconsiderate!

@Kanaloa I do agree with that :(

@thehideandseeking I think you're definitely right. He wasn't so mindful of what was going on around him, surely had he been preparing to move it he wouldn't have been still sitting down!

@Tara336 common thing then! I must say this hasn't happened to me before although thinking about it I have usually just managed to maneuver
myself around the anglers on the dam-but this is the first one where I couldn't have done without actually getting into the dam, or climbing over a fence (impossible with Dog).

@Harrystylestutu that's hilarious! I know some anglers and I am sure they're more considerate than the one I encountered.

@RincewindsHat good point!

@YouSirNeighMmmm that's how I feel too. He wasn't even thinking about anyone else when he decided to place himself there. Expecting that he's important enough for others to have to change their behavior for him. And yes @JennyForeigner , he thought something like 'I'm going here, if anyone wants to get past they'll have to wait while I shift my stuff'. I didn't. Silly me. :)

I am not one to continue any thread of mine that has depleted in interest but I have to admit I'd like at least one person to appreciate my wonderful diagram 😂

The duck is magnificent

I appreciated it!! 😀

Thank you, I am satisfied now. Perhaps I should pursue a new career involving drawing ducks 🤓

I think you'd have quite a successful career in duck drawing - human drawing, not so much...

On the canal near where I used to live, cyclists felt they owned it. I was almost pushed into the water several times and often forced into the nettles by cyclists (always men) who bolted at high speed along the towpath and expected the peasants to leap and clear their path.

Just being a man guarantees me a level of respect and politeness that some women apparently have to live without

such bollox.

*The comment is not tainting all men, it's tainting men who are confrontational to strangers in public places.

I'm a man and I feel the "he wouldn't say that to a man" comment that appears on many threads here is nearly always justified.

This forum has been an eye-opener for me, with regard to the various comments women have to endure from complete strangers. Not just from men, but also from other women, also from old people of both sexes. Some women have even had comments from teachers, nurses, postmen and delivery drivers that I could just not imagine being on the receiving end of.

I've gone through decades of adult life and cannot remember strangers on public transport or supermarkets or anywhere else getting shirty with me. Just being a man guarantees me a level of respect and politeness that some women apparently have to live without*

i am a man too btw and have received lots of intimidating and rude comments by strangers over the years. It doesn't give you any protection.

"i am a man too btw and have received lots of intimidating and rude comments by strangers men over the years. It doesn't give you any protection."

Fixed it for you cutoff. Why don't you start a campaign against these men instead of NAMALTing on a site where 99% of users are women?

I regularly run/walk along canal towpaths and I've never had an angler behave like this. They always move their rods. I've never had to ask. If they didn't, I would step over them. Not sure how you can damage something by stepping over it anyway.

Well, quite! I'd have had to have been particularly clumsy to touch the rod as I stepped over it and even if I had, I doubt I'd have broken the bloody thing. They're designed to be transported/bent/thrown about in water after all.

Agree about the NAMALTing, @phishy

*"i am a man too btw and have received lots of intimidating and rude comments by strangers men over the years. It doesn't give you any protection."

Fixed it for you cutoff. Why don't you start a campaign against these men instead of NAMALTing on a site where 99% of users are women*

you are missing the point, my point was that these MEN target males just as much as females. Look at the stats actually-most violence is man on man,.