And there in lies the "argument".... It isn't that people are crowding it's that when an angler is working a run (starting at the top working through it covering it all) and someone "jumped" in the middle. This is the ettiquette that is considered "bad form" essentially you have butted in line and are covering the run (quite often the meat of the run) ahead of the angler who has been working the run in a grid like fashion. Unlike salmon fishing were you find a open spot and give others room, steelheading is more calculated and for a lot of steelheaders a planned out approach to covering water. When someone "jumps in" below them in the same run instead of working from top to bottom WITHOUT asking. Think of it like being at the movies, if your in line and slowly moving towards the counter and someone jumps line in front of you, would you think that's ok as long as they didn't "crowd" you?
like I said above , where were LOTS of room , we talking about 300-400feet away from each other .... why I should hike up and ask a guy if I can fish middle section ? if I will see him moving torwards me doing couple casts here and there , I have no problems to let him make few cast at a spot im fishing and letting him go below me ...
also , like said above , if you arrive first on a run - cover "honey hole" first and start from up , I don`t complain in this example , im just saying if you see a guy above you rushing to cover as much as he can and he is getting closer - just let him pass and do a few casts ...
I always ask if I can join a run if I see it might be a "tight" situation , but when lots of room , and I don't see an angler moving down quick - why I can`t fish below him ?!