broken fishing gear

[Bluefish]

lets say you are on a party boat, modest crowd, completely sober, you are walking along side the deckhouse and the boat takes an unexpected mistimed roll, you fall into someone else who falls into his rod and reel and there is damage and the rod or reel is totaled. you did nothing wrong as you both lost balance and stumbled into the gear but clearly you are part of the event. Are you responsible for replacing /paying for the guys broken rod??

[milhouse]

kind of a tough one.

i would offer if I lost my balance and caused the chain of events.

on the other hand if it was my rod that got messed up, I would be pissed, but would not take money from the person who fell into me.

[Cuz]

Part of the game. Accidents happen all the time. No one should be held responsible unless there was true intended malice. Lots of stuff can happen on the water whether people are careful or not.
The biggest mistake is fishermen, who have their rods in a rod holder, letting the sinker bang on the blank while underway. Then the rod breaks supposely for no reason. Try hitting yourself on the head with an eight ounce sinker all day. And your head isn't made of graphite or fiberglass/graphite.

[NoLimit]

If was a boat rod, there would be no problem.

If someone took it upon themselves to bring a light jigging rig that is fragile, then its not your problem. Party boats always have people stumbling a bit and that is the risk you take if you bring fragile equipment.

[Jay]

Shit happens. I agree with Cuz's remark. It wasn't intentional. Life goes on.

[Finnegan]

No way to make someone pay anyway. Let it go. If you very expensive gear, you always run the risk that it may break

[Angler Paul]

If you cause damage to someone else's property common courtesy dictates that you should pay for it whether it was an accident or not.

[BELLYUP]

Do the right thing. Based on what happened you know what it is.

[tombanjo]

I've been on both sides of the issue. Had a much beloved rod broken by a newcomer who thought he could use it. My fault for not securing it properly and he certainly didn't feel obligated to pay for it.

Another time I lost my balance as the boat took a roll just as I was stepping down the stair in the bow, went into a guy and we both went into the rail shearing off the handle of his $60 Zebco spinner. I felt bad about it and gave him $20 although I didn't feel responsible.

[AVA67]

Accidents happen all the time. Nothing you can do about it.

That being said, I think that if you are the cause of something being broken, you should pay for it, accident or not. If I am understanding the situation correctly, the only reason the person fell into his/her rod and reel was that you bumped or fell into them.

Many people, myself included put a lot of their limited funds into quality fishing tackle, and to have it broken through no fault of their own would s__K.

[Capt. Debbie]

Curious story. How come the roll made you fall, but not the rods owner fall?

Accidents do happen. And boat roll side to side all day long. Not sure exactly what is your "mis timed roll" ... since there are no "timed" rolls.

I don't know about anyone else's experince on this Board, but I've fished for decades and never see anyone hit another angler hard enough to have them snap a fishing pole even in 15 foot head seas.

Seems this is missing something..

Accidents happen true. But carelessness is not really accidental.

[slammer]

I fish on party boats alot if I knocked someone into somebodys equipmemt and it broke because the boat rolled I would pay for it.

[dakota560]

Like some have already said, the answer is a different as the people involved. Lot of different variables can factor into your question but in general if I caused a problem and the net result was something was broken, I'll take responsibility. Even if it's accident, how could you not if your actions caused it. That being said, in the case you through out I would ask the owner if the rod or reel had a warranty to mitigate out of pocket, maybe you could work that angle. I don't see whether it was intentional or not factoring into the decision as the outcome to the person involved is the same. If it's intentional, this is a completely different questions anyway!

Unfortunately more people than not don't take responsibility for their actions and probably wouldn't in the case you throw out but imo it's the right thing to do.

Dakota

[tombanjo]

[QUOTE=Capt. Frank]Curious story. How come the roll made you fall, but not the rods owner fall?

Accidents do happen. And boat roll side to side all day long. Not sure exactly what is your "mis timed roll" ... since there are no "timed" rolls.


QUOTE]

I assume he meant the shifting of one's weight along in rythym with the roll of the boat. Like in my case taking that step down off the bow just as the boat lurched in a chop, which is a bit more of an irregular thing then a roll. I've had people go into me in that manner just as I've gone into them many times. Not careless or drunk if that's what you mean although there's plenty of that going on. Difference this time in my case was the person bumped into offered no resistence even though he was inches from me. What should have ended up as an "excuse me/no problem buddy" wound up with a busted handle.

[nutleysigns]

accident ... that's all. some rod companies will replace the rod in case of an honest accident

[NoLimit]

Its amazing that the more you spend on fishing rods, the more fragile they are.

If you worried about someone bumping into your tackle, bring a boat rod - thats why they call them boat rods.

[Dino]

kind of a tough one.

i would offer if I lost my balance and caused the chain of events.

on the other hand if it was my rod that got messed up, I would be pissed, but would not take money from the person who fell into me.


well said.

[Dino]

Curious story. How come the roll made you fall, but not the rods owner fall?

Accidents do happen. And boat roll side to side all day long. Not sure exactly what is your "mis timed roll" ... since there are no "timed" rolls.

I don't know about anyone else's experince on this Board, but I've fished for decades and never see anyone hit another angler hard enough to have them snap a fishing pole even in 15 foot head seas.

Seems this is missing something..

Accidents happen true. But carelessness is not really accidental.


I dunno.. I think there absolutely are timed rolls... thats what the "period" between swells is.. its a period of time. once in a while you get a wave that is larger than the prevailing swell that day or off-period and it knocks you around.. buckets go flying and sometimes gear breaks... thats not carelessless to me... thats ocean fishing... no?