I find calm and respectful communication usually wins. If I get hauled down river to land a fish, I really dont mind a guy taking a handful of casts in "my" spot while I am away. You bet I will politely ask them to vacate once I arrive back.
I move around a lot, a few casts here, move, a few cast there, move...so I also expect the same, if a spot is vacant for 5 minutes, then my personal feeling is a cast or two doesn't hurt anyone. I admit I am an assertive person/fisher but I can fit into just about any reasonably sized spot and mesh with who ever is there.
About a week ago I had a few choice words with a guy who felt I beaked him out I guess...I would like to know what you guys think. There was a guy fishing off a little cliff with a back eddy infront of it. He was casting on the upper outside edge of the back eddy, catching the current and then drifting down a seem on the outside and below the eddy. There was also a older gentleman maybe 30 feet above the back eddy. They were both float fishing. I walked in between them with a blue fox to fish the back eddy (water neither of them were fishing. The guy on the rock starts throwing me the hairy eye ball immediately, even though we arent even fishing the same water and I am making eye contact with him and casting after each of his cast! Anyhow, I get a coho on a blade 5 casts in and then after that, nothing for 10 minutes. I saw some nice springs rise so I decide to get my bait rod which is 50 feet up the beach. As I do that I can see the guy on the cliff has a chum. He cant land it there and ends up snapping off. When I return with my bait rod, he is standing where I was. He has just snapped off, nothing but a float left so I say something to the effect of while you retie, I am going to float a chunk off roe thru (he was fishing yarn)...the guy lost it on me...starts spouting off about how unbelievable I am, blah blah blah....I think that while there is a crowding issue on the vedder, people have to learn how to share the river?!? So did I beak him out or did he beak me off?!?
That altercation was at he end of my day and the words exchanged really just left a bad taste in my mouth as I started my hr+ drive back to north van...not the way I wanted to end a trip!