I have zero experience on the Cumberland river in a boat but I am familiar with some of the area from bank fishing 35 years ago. I will give my answer based on fishing a reservoir or creeks in a reservoir...there is too many variables to give a specific answer. I base my decision on how close the other boat is too the bank when I am passing them, what type boat they are in and how close I will be to them when I pass.

Example...up in a creek if a 14 ft jon boat is within 20 ft of the bank and I need to pass within 125 ft of their boat I will bring it down to idle speed. Now if the same scenario had a pontoon or a 20 ft bass boat I will trim up the bow as high as I can increase my rpm's as high as I can and go buy as fast as I can as long as its safe to run the area. Reason being my boat has a pad and its capable of getting up on the top layer of water. Giving it full positive trim and max rpm actually makes a smaller wake than if I were to cruse buy at 4000rpm. That 12 ft jon boat is going to get rocked pretty good if I do that but that pontoon or 21 ft bass boat will rock very little. Heck the pontoon probably will not even notice I ran buy. Hence the reason I say there is too many variables to give a specific answer. The jon boat and pontoon were in the same scenario and I had two totally different answers.

Now with that being said the common courtesy thing a person can always do is idle buy. Even with that being said you still have the judgment call of what distance is close enough to run and what distance should I idle. The worst thing to do is bring back your rpms to the point your boat sits lower in the water. I have seen people slow down thinking they are doing you a favor but in reality they are generating a bigger wake. If your going to slow down then slow all the way down to idle or let her rip...now when I say let her rip that only applies to boats that are capable of getting up on pad. A deep V, pontoon, deck boat, run a bout or any boat that is not capable of generating a small wake when running wide open throttle should go to idle speed. Again just several more examples of how there is no set answer because there is so many variables.

Now I will throw out a curve ball...there is times when I want someone to buzz an area to stir up the water. The overwhelming majority of the time I had rather someone not buzz an area I am fishing but I have seen times when stirring up the water made the baitfish active and stirred up the crayfish. People are not mind readers so they don't know if I actually want or do not want them to buzz the area. Now this does not happen often but I have seen when buzzing an area stirs up the baitfish or crayfish and in return this fires up the predator fish. There is times when this works but more times than not it has no effect or shuts it off. Heck I have seen boats coming in the distance and wished they would buzz the area and they would start to slow down once they got close. I will throw my arm in the air and wave them though. Some get what I am doing and keep it on plane and move on through. Some have no idea and think I am waving to get them to stop. I have actually had a couple to apologize saying they were sorry for not stopping sooner. I just laugh and tell them I was trying to get them to run the area and not shut down. Sometimes they understand and sometimes they look at me like I am crazy.

In the end going to idle is the most consistent way to be courteous. What makes it hard is the judgment call of what's too close and what's far enough away to run. This is where I base my decision on how close to the bank is the other boat when I pass them, what type and size boat are they in and how close will I actually be to them when I pass....too many variables to give a specific answer