Courtesy: Give A Guy Some Room!

[Oceanista]

One would think that it goes without saying but after what happened last night, I guess I'm wrong. We were trolling for bass and hooked up to a big fish that was not coming in easily. Some white hulled Regulator with downriggers thought it would be cool if he trolled 20 yards away from me while we were fighting the fish. After REPEATEDLY pleading with him to just move away, he finally did. Then he came back. Then the expletives started flowing, as the son of a bitch was following us around VERY closely. I guess he got the hint eventually and we didn't see him again, but come on, people. My throat is still sore from yelling at this clown. It's a big ocean, is 200 yards clearance too much to ask? It's a good thing I didn't have my slingshot on board, because I had plenty of sinkers at hand.

[Capt. Debbie]

I feel your pain. Had some clown run over my best bird/cedar surface combination off Spring Lake Hotel after hooking a Spanish mackerel on it. I was insane mad.

But 200 yards? The USCG uses 200 feet for wakes and buoy distances. I think that's ample.

[Oceanista]

Maybe 200 yards is a bit much, but if a guy is literally SCREAMING at you to go away, just GO! Observe from a safer distance.

[stevelikes2fish]

You can't fix stupid

[bunker dunker]

oh its striper time again and the fun is just beginning.

[tjd24]

oh its striper time again and the fun is just beginning.

You ain't kidding !!!

There had to be 20 boats trolling into bait showers this morning. They did a fine job of quickly putting the fish down & out. If they could just read their FFs, they see that there's more fish under the surface than on top.

No need to drive into the birds.

[irishc]

oh its striper time again and the fun is just beginning.

Well said!

[torchee]

You can't fix stupid

boat, surf, party boat ...... some people don't get it .

I was battling a 30lb+ striper on the beach and this guy walks up next to me and casts, puts his pole in a spike and sits down.

I was pleading with him - telling him there is no way for me to stop this fish.

Our lines tangled, his pole and spike went down and I never laughed so hard when my buddy walked up and cut his line....

[BigRock44]

You ain't kidding !!!

There had to be 20 boats trolling into bait showers this morning. They did a fine job of quickly putting the fish down & out. If they could just read their FFs, they see that there's more fish under the surface than on top.

No need to drive into the birds.

AND the big girls are often deeper and on the outskirts...

[TheFishSlayer]

One would think that it goes without saying but after what happened last night, I guess I'm wrong. We were trolling for bass and hooked up to a big fish that was not coming in easily. Some white hulled Regulator with downriggers thought it would be cool if he trolled 20 yards away from me while we were fighting the fish. After REPEATEDLY pleading with him to just move away, he finally did. Then he came back. Then the expletives started flowing, as the son of a bitch was following us around VERY closely. I guess he got the hint eventually and we didn't see him again, but come on, people. My throat is still sore from yelling at this clown. It's a big ocean, is 200 yards clearance too much to ask? It's a good thing I didn't have my slingshot on board, because I had plenty of sinkers at hand.

Reminds me of an ******* I saw lay fall by the naval pier. Couple of boats casting into Somme birds and here comes along this shmuck On his boat alone trolling while standing in the bow casting with his boat still in gear. True story didn't bdlievd what I was seeing until he finally ran back to the helm

[TAB95]

You can't fix stupid


No you can't but you can punish it.

[JBird]

And so it begins. The Fall bass run. **Sigh**

Here's a clue: If you see birds working stop f***ing trolling and get some jigs on. Nobody, NOBODY worth a squirt of piss trolls through working birds. That's lazy or stupid or inconsiderate or all of the above. It's bad enough with every yahoo googan moron zooming around like idiots. DON'T TROLL THROUGH WORKING BIRDS! Trolling is for when the fish aren't up on the surface and you have to go to search mode, NOT for when they're up on the surface begging you to throw a popper or swim shad or diamond jig or spoon or fly or jerk bait or swim bait or sweat sock with a hook! Get it?!?!?!

[bulletbob]

And so it begins. The Fall bass run. **Sigh**

Here's a clue: If you see birds working stop f***ing trolling and get some jigs on. Nobody, NOBODY worth a squirt of piss trolls through working birds. That's lazy or stupid or inconsiderate or all of the above. It's bad enough with every yahoo googan moron zooming around like idiots. DON'T TROLL THROUGH WORKING BIRDS! Trolling is for when the fish aren't up on the surface and you have to go to search mode, NOT for when they're up on the surface begging you to throw a popper or swim shad or diamond jig or spoon or fly or jerk bait or swim bait or sweat sock with a hook! Get it?!?!?!



Yep... I have personally seen guys go rocketing through working birds at full power while boats on the edges were casting jigs.. Never stopped to fish, just wanted to infuriate people.. There are only a few, but sad to say there are some people like that.. Crashing into the center of working birds has been going on for as long as I have been fishing. People are either ignorant, or just feel as though, "Hey this is where the fish are and they are as much mine as they are yours", and don't give a crap what anyone thinks.
In the NY Bight, there are a lot of people competing for the fish, and people get aggressive in taking a piece of the pie... bob

[Gerry Zagorski]

I remember the incident I had with one boat that will remain unnamed... We're out there with everyone else playing nicely, all taking our time and working the edges of the birds taking our turns and repositioning the boat when needed.

This one boat pulled up full steam, stopped the boat in the middle of the birds and 6 guys ran out of the cabin like it was on fire and start casting their jigs. When it happened the first time I wrote it off as ignorance or a mistake.... When he continued to do the same thing over and over it was clear he didn't care about anyone but himself..

When I finally had the chance to confront him he explained he had people on board that did not know what they were doing and could not cast so he had to put them right over the fish. So essence he made his problem everyone else's problem.

Not knowing what you're doing is one thing. Knowing what you are doing and doing it deliberately at the expense of others is far worse. Kinda like the guy on the highway that is about to miss his exit and is all the way over in the left lane. Rather then take the next exit, he's going to swerve over 3 lanes and cut everyone off.

Have some patience, common sense and some manners... The world would be a much better place with more of the 3.

[pgoins]

I know exactly who he's talking about. He's a good guy and would be surprised if he was that close. He fishes more than everyone on this thread combined. And Im not exagerating. He's a machine.

When we were in the bay catching yesterday there was a small CC trolling through birds at about 8-10kts. Thought I was on the YFT grounds ;)

[Chompers Fishing]

Earlier today we were alterted by one of your members that goes by the name "Oceanista" made the following inaccurate statement. "Some white hulled Regulator with downriggers thought it would be cool if he trolled 20 yards away from me while we were fighting the fish. After REPEATEDLY pleading with him to just move away, he finally did" anyone that has fished for more than three days in the NY Bight knows that is us that he is referring to our boat. We are not members of this board so we had to apply for registration.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Unfortunately "Oceanista" left out a few details.


https://c8.staticflickr.com/6/5638/30530034431_c583eb799a.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/NvQpzZ)

1. He did not respond to us hailing him on two separate channels via VHF.
2. All boats in question were fishing in a very tight 3' chop and somewhere around 20 knots of wind.
3. As you can see in the diagram we were 100% boxed in as we were vessel "b". At first we took both engines out of gear. But the sea state and the wind were pushing us down sea. We immediately went hard over to starboard risking cutting off both of our own down riggers.
4. "Oceanista"boat "a" was backing down into a boat that was at the end game with a thresher boat side.
5. Boat "d" and I were both on the same course, and we were 100% boxed in. Aside from us clearly being the stand on vessel. And at the same time making maneuvers to avoid collision.

We have caught a ton of big bass in our day releasing both a 46# & 47# fish in the last week alone. We all understand these situations are dynamic and quickly develop. But anyone that knows us on the water knows that we are an open book, with our knowledge and resources with whoever asks. A good friend once told me. “There are many a fish in the ocean, and if I can’t catch them all I would rather it be a friend off my transom rather than to share the moment all alone.

We are not looking to debate this scenario, though we did want to shed some light on some important details as the OP make us out be a boat, and fishing crew that we are certainly not.

Tight-lines & Screaming Drags,
James

[bunker dunker]

wow,it really is bad this year.we have gone to the "madden board"{lol}

[WhaleFart]

Man you boat guys have it made, people are jerks eveywhere. You don't know the struggle of us surf guys, the insane crap I have witness on the beach is far worse then any guy plowing into birds and fish on top. No man women or child is safe from idiots when there is a blitz on the beach, I have seen grown ass men, run full speed, in waders, to cast over my shoulder while I'm fighting a small bass on the beach. I will never forget one guy who had about a $1500 set up between the lami rod, vs reel, and plug bag come running over to where I'm fishing because I'm fighting a few small blues and he's catching squat. Long story short the guy was moving faster then God intended him to and he got tripped up in his boots, face planted into the wash, plugs and lures flying out of his bag, and reel totally busted from the sand that got packed into it. I'm not confrontational but I have told many of fisherman to simply piss off.

Rant over
Whale fart

[Harpoon]

Sounds like #prostaff issues.

[Oceanista]

Thanks for your insight and thoughtful diagram, but your rationalization doesn't matter. You expected us to talk to you on the radio with me on the rod and my buddy at the helm, fighting a 150 lb fish on 20 lb tackle? Sure, we didn't have anything else going on. Fancy some tea, neighbor?

You should have just gotten away from us. Pull up lines, make harder "collision avoidance maneuvers" or whatever. Just get away. We too were on a thresher and at NO POINT were we backing down on the other boat. At worst we were running parallel to it. You were not "boxed in", that is 100% Grade-A horse shit. You had nothing between you and Long Island to the north but choppy water. You should have been working your steering wheel and throttles instead of snapping pictures. We saw you. Then, after leaving you came back. Oh, right. You were boxed in by 2 boats. Here's something you can add to your open book: "If someone is screaming at you to back off, back off. Ask questions later."

The bottom line is, regardless of all your reasoning, is that you should have just given us plenty of room. It's really that simple. A friendly "sorry" would have sufficed.

[Chompers Fishing]

Well your entitled to your opinion....not really sure what you were expecting us to do...as I said we initially took the motors out of gear. And the sea state was pushing us, as I stated our engines were hard over to port turning towards "long island" with 40# of lead directly under the boat and running lines back there is only so much you can do. I maintain that situational awareness is required of all boats on the water. So yes, while you are hooked up to a fish I would expect you to maintain an appropriate lookout. Just because your hooked up to a fish does not provide you carte blanche to do whatever you want...and especially trying to make an example with erroneous statements.

[Oceanista]

There are several erroneous things here, none of which are my statements:

-Your diagram
-Your expectation that we could chat on the VHF
-Your proximity to my boat
-You taking your boat out of gear while you were upwind and that close
-Your returning to the scene after you left the first time
-Your insistence that you were somehow in the right


We maintained appropriate lookout: WE SAW YOU AND WERE PLEADING WITH YOU TO GIVE US ROOM.

What were expecting you to do? EFFING BACK OFF AND LEAVE US ALONE. Which you did once. Why did you come back? Boxed in? Give me a break.

Yes, we were HOOKED UP TO A FISH, BACKING DOWN ON IT, WHICH MEANS THAT OUR ABILITY TO MANEUVER WAS LIMITED. Whatever half-assed reasoning you're going by that you were the "stand-on" vessel, an ounce of COURTESY and BASIC SEAMANSHIP would have allowed you to easily distance yourself from us.

Advice: if you piss someone off, man up, apologize and try to learn from it. That's how you gain respect. When I told some of my salty friends about what happened, the first thing they asked is if it was YOUR BOAT. Seems you like to get up in people's business. If you want to debate this further, I'd be more than happy to. I don't like having enemies on the water, but I dislike being painted as a liar or an incompetent boater far worse. PM me and we can meet to put this to rest.

Adam

[Chompers Fishing]

Well, I think we can agree to disagree and I'll leave it at that...not really sure why you think we came back but like I said we shall agree to disagree.

For future reference vessel engaged in fishing with rod and reel does or trolling does not qualify as a fishing vessel and are not afforded the benefits of a vessel restricted in its ability to maneuver.

Once again, we did everything that was safe and prudent to avoid your vessel. And a survey of the other three boats on the scene would likely verify our accounts, as we see them fishing nearly every day.

Finally if you knew who we were, I would have thought that you might have reached out vs. attempting to start a witch hunt. As we are certainly about as easy to find and as approachable as anyone on the water. I have surely been asking around as well, but I could not find any that knew a small beige robalo with outriggers straight up in the air.