Incident with bank fisherman & jet skiers-

lou_a

This is about the incident that happened between myself & 2 folks on a jet ski this past Saturday.

I did not want to post this when it happened cause I was still a little angry at the time. I don't want this as a bash fest on the jet skiers, as they have no reason to read a fishing forum and won't be able to defend their viewpoint on this. I do want a little input from other bank fisherman as how to better handle future situations that may occur, but hopefully, won't.

Recap from my viewpoint-

I was checking a rod I had set up down the bank and noticed 2 folks on a jet ski appeared to be having an issue with one of my lines. It appeared they themselves (not the jet ski, were caught up in my line. I went down to investigate and when I arrived, the female was screaming at me, and the fellow was behaving reasonably, but was telling me I should lower my rod. I told him he should drive his PWC a little farther off the bank, and he would not have an issue with my line. I guess he thought I was being flippant, and got pissed off, starting calling me "stupid" (for not seeing it his way) and other gems. I got pissed off at this time and started screaming back, basically with "Yeah, I'm fishing here, drive a little bit farther out and you won't have an issue with my lines".

It was at a point where I thought the knuckle-chucking was imminent, and, at that point, it was fine by me as my blood was boiling. He then gave me the finger, told me to shove it, and threatened to steal my equipment next time he saw it. I proceeded to tell he that I would shoot him if I had to, to prevent that from happening. He drove off, and I went about my business, but I was pretty pissed off, I had ruined my mobile phone the night before, the fishing had been lousy, and this was the icing on the cake.

I probably would have lowered my rod some after they left, but I felt compelled to tell him how to operate his PWC after he told me how to fish. Anyway, I coulda/shoulda handled it better and will entertain suggestions by the good folks on this forum.

My rod tip was approximately 8 or 9 ft in the air and I had cast out my high-low rig into the wind with 2 chunks of gizzard shad between 40 & 50 yards. I figured my line was going under the surface of the water @ about 15 yards off the bank. I made this depiction (at the bottom) which shows a rod 9 ft (3 yards) in the air (blue boxes), cast out 50 yards (yellow boxes), and lying on the lake bottom at approximately 18 ft (6 yards). It shows that my line intersects the water surface (thick blue line) at approximately the 17 yard mark. You may have to be logged in to see it.

The rules for PWC state thus

it is unlawful for any person to:
operate PWC within 50 feet of another PWC, motorboat, vessel, platform, person, object, or shore except at headway speed without creating a swell or wake (Headway speed = Slow, idle speed, or speed only fast enough to maintain steerage); and

Here is the link to this:
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/boat/laws/pwc/

9ft height to 18ft depth-la.bmp

cheapersleeper · Posted: Wed, May 21 2008 06:39 pm Post subject:

You know, I don't have much to add to this but I was commenting to a friend at work about jet skiers and boaters and how they were so close to the shore all the time. I was mentioning that I had no idea why they would want to be so near shore and he said: So they can be seen.
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Deadweight · Posted: Wed, May 21 2008 07:31 pm Post subject:

cheapersleeper wrote:

You know, I don't have much to add to this but I was commenting to a friend at work about jet skiers and boaters and how they were so close to the shore all the time. I was mentioning that I had no idea why they would want to be so near shore and he said: So they can be seen.

Exactly...and that is why they will come within 10 feet of your boat at well. Whole fricking lake and they have to be right there.

jjason · Posted: Wed, May 21 2008 08:22 pm Post subject:

Lou, If I ever need a lawyer.....again..... Im going to call you.. just cant fix stupid in some folks

cliffoa · Posted: Wed, May 21 2008 09:36 pm Post subject:

They were wrong and you were right..nuff said. What to do next time? Probably the same thing. One of them is going to have to be injured to learn. My Dad always said "If you don't listen, you have to feel". I finally get that.

shawn · Posted: Wed, May 21 2008 10:02 pm Post subject:

I think y'all both acted stupid

should have just cut your line and ignored them. no reason to stoop down to that level.

polebender · Posted: Wed, May 21 2008 10:20 pm Post subject:

mixed emotions on this one. an argument always has the chance of exploding into something worse. lots of nuts out there. Lou, for your safety, I am glad it didn't go any further.

i am guessing they learned their lesson and hopefully see that it could have been MUCH worse.

on the other hand, some folks need to be TAUGHT a lesson instead of learning it! just hard to determine where that line is.

i always look at something based on whether or not something good can come out of it. I don't see that anything you said to this moron was going to help you or him in any way and I would have left it alone based on that, but I have been there in a situation and the anger got the best of me. good news is that we learn from our mistakes (even though you were within your rights, etc).
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www.4footcat.com
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Deadweight · Posted: Wed, May 21 2008 10:21 pm Post subject:

shawn wrote:

should have just cut your line and ignored them. no reason to stoop down to that level.

You can't be serious.

AIRBORNE · Posted: Wed, May 21 2008 10:25 pm Post subject:

"Stupid"...I honestly hope you're joking....it probably wasn't the right thing to do, but Stupid is pretty harsh...for Lou anyway...the Jet Skier was stupid...if you see a freakin' pole on the bank pointed in the direction that you want to go, you should probably go somewhere else...common sense has to kick in sometime...Heck I'm proud of you Lou for not taking wading out there and taking his head off!

cheapersleeper · Posted: Wed, May 21 2008 10:38 pm Post subject:

How far can you throw a gizzard shad? A few silver missiles would have encouraged them to leave.
_________________
"I was getting too many snakes in the house, otherwise I would have stayed,"

Drawout · Posted: Wed, May 21 2008 11:44 pm Post subject:

You should have set the hook !

Southpaw · Posted: Thu, May 22 2008 02:04 am Post subject:

Lou I have a secondary avatar for you. Switching to it for a few days might make you feel better.

jetskifishing avatar.jpg

Bruce · Posted: Thu, May 22 2008 06:02 am Post subject:

Lou...sorry to hear that..... you don't happen to have their registration # written down...... wonder if this the same one that pisses off Fishin1 the other day....they were skiing over his line and causing wake on the bank.....guess I need to start bringing my 16' surf rod and 6oz weight.

fishin1 · Posted: Thu, May 22 2008 07:33 am Post subject:

yeh , tuesday was a different type of day for me lou.....fished in a place that the wind was blowin into until about noon then the wind took a 180 degree turn . i figured

, what the heck try it out and maybe there will be some fish still hanging around

. well got down to the bank , set up , got my bait out and then realized i had left my knife layin in the back of the truck . walk back to get it and comin back down , i see this ski boat headed my direction . nice and peaceful (3:00 in the afternoon) for about 10 minutes then the nice loud boom booms and waves start rockin . they were about 75-100 away from the bank though . well bout and hour later , here comes one of his buddies in his boat and one of his buddies on a jet ski . well they would all make a long run around a point and be back as soon as the waves from the intial pass had quit crashin the bank . well between one of their runs , there was a ponttoon boat that decided to run the bank , trollin . i was kinda sittin in the shade and had my 2 poles in their holders , and yes they were stickin skyward , with the bright green flourescent big game , which should look like a lazer beam out about 50-60 yrds out and line about 20 - 25 yrds entering the water . well needless to say , i'm glad i had my clicker set . he seen what was fixin to happen and he turned it a hard right but it was too late . he snagged one of my lines . by the time he got stopped and backed up a little , my line was just about gone . he ended up being apologetic and nobody hurt , but i was boilin . it was just one thing after another happening . then here comes the skiers back but this time they were skiin side by side and the jet ski following behind riddin the waves , weavin in and out . i just dont know how

they could be missin all the stumps , just under the top of the water . i tried to warn them but i guess they thought i was cussin em out or something cause all i got was a bunch of single fingers , sayin thanks and you're #1 . oh well about 5 minutes later i was sittin there on my bucket workin on a c.a.b. and right in front of my foot

. i said to myself , i think somebody has been tryin to tell me not to fish here today and i guess i shouldn't have with 1 little 3 lber to show for it . finished that beverage off , packed it up and went and caught some scaley

. it was a tuesday afternoon i will never forget ................

i think you handled your predicament very well and i'm glad it didnt get any further outta hand , cause he would've been sorry ..

some of the operators of boats/skier/jetskis need to pay closer attention of what is in front of them as well as the 50 feet all the way out from them as they are moving . its like they get tunnel vision as they look out in front of them . the 50 feet to their sides gets to 40 then 30 then 20 instead of the 50 feet where its suposed to stay while they're moving .

you know , when we go to the lake , we never know what we'll
see or catch today

you catch a water flee and i catch the boat .......
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A good friend will come and bail you out of jail...but, a true? friend will be sitting next to you saying, "dang...that was fun!"

anyfishwilldo · Posted: Thu, May 22 2008 09:20 am Post subject:

Lou, I think pointing the rods up high is the best way for others to see someone is bank fishing. If they come that close with your rods up they are wrong & ignorant. They need to be the ones to learn better. Lowering your rods want make it any better. This happened to Coco once from the shore at Lavonia where a jet skier ran over her line & it was in a rod holder pointing almost straigh out. Not sure what it's going to take for them to learn, I'm not built like Fishn1

so I might not get too rowdy but I have been known to lose it when someone gets just stupid on me, especially when I'm fishing & just trying to relax.
...Don
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Big Brad · Posted: Thu, May 22 2008 09:56 am Post subject:

Well my point of view is that the jetskier was wrong. PERIOD! We can all say that violence isn't the way to handle it, and cooler heads prevail, and your right, but when your in the middle of the situation, it's hard to stop and think that. When you have someone cussing and yelling at you, natural instinct is to get mad and return the favor. Luckily I'm a big fella and most people tend to back down once I stand up. Lou I'd of handled it the same way. You can ask DavidP or anyone else who fishes with me, when it comes to jetskiers, or skiers buzzing by us, It makes my blood boil... Total lack of consideration, and knowledge of boating rules and regulations..
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BigBrad
North Texas Trophy Cats

Extreme Hooksetter!
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Tommy Boy · Posted: Thu, May 22 2008 10:44 am Post subject:

Drawout I agree set the hook... It might just be the younger fire in me talking but I do not tend well to STUPID people.. If ever im fishing and some Special person rides next to the boat to be funny I send a SLAB there way. Some people need to learn from there mistakes. "The only pain that matters is the pain that one inflcts." Lou_a your a better man than me, Coodos to you for not letting your emotions get the best of him..
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Ready for my PB this year!

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