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Posts: 1137
Location: Holly, MI | I posted this elsewhere but got to thinking, I'll bet there are some good stories (or bad stories) about the hassles of the power loving crowd you have encountered while trying to fish. I did actually have a jetsli hit me one time. He was looking over his shoulder for his buddy and saw me at the last second. It was a stand-up jetski. He bailed off and the ski just washed up against my boat. No real harm but I think he had to change his shorts.
Here is what I started with..
Jetskiiers can be as bad as mosquitos but they are not as bad as the big boats on St Clair. I hope I dont offend somone but I'll describe the typical boat that almost runs us down. We are parked drifting casting, or trolling on a course and here comes about a 40 foot old ChrisCraft Romer, huge old giant non-planeing hull pushing a wall of water. The driver is 50-60, has a drink in his hand, Elvis sunglasses, and dyed black hairdoo and his fat wife is sitting near him in her purple and yellow flowered tent. His two ugly daughters, who should not be allowed in public in a bathing suit are lying on the deck or hanging off the back scaring the fish. He makes no attempt to veer around us in the slightest and his near miss all but swamps us with his 2 ton wake. He has been a sales rep at the widget factory for 35 years and owns the world, especially this lake. It is only 26 miles across so there isn't much room for him to give us a break. If there was only some way to hook up some torpedo tubes under the boat and drop that sucker to the bottom. I'm sure the blubber on his family would float them well and they would be safe. These guys break down once in a while too and want a tow. Ha! David towing Goliath. One guy we towed out of the Shipping Channel was scared because a ship was bearing down on him. He actually anchored in the shipping channel when his boat died. Duh, drift out of the channel first Bozo. Then as he is thanking us he admitted it has died 3 times this year with a dead battery. Some guys never learn.
There, I got that off my chest. I feel better now. This crap does really happen tho.
Lets hear some more from you guys.
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Posts: 1335
Location: Chicago, Beverly | WOW!! Here goes... Was up on the Manitowish Chain one year.. was fishing a point.. been working towards this piece of structure for about an hour... nice weed bed leading up to it and then the point goes out to like 25' of water... Well, here I am in the northwoods, middle of the week so I think no problem from pleasure boaters.... YEP, wrong as usual.. I am within casting distance of the isalnd this point come off of when a skier comes by..between me and the island.... so I do what any respectable Musky Fisherman would do, flipped them off and called them a bunch of A**holes..... Couple minutes later they are working their way back around the lake...and agian btween me and the shore..... except this time the skier looses it(I did launch a cast his general direction right before he fell but stopped it short)... So I reel in and place my next cast right about 3' from his head and precede to explain to him just how sharp my hooks are and how good my aim is when he comes back by again... Rest of the week I could fish anywhere and they would avoid me like the plague..... I was casting a 10" suick by the way... I have heard of a guy Bass Tourney guy in Indiana that got sprayed by a ski boat towing a skier 3 times... 4th pass the skier required stitches, the bass Tourney guy was fishing a large Jitterbug.. when the dnr questioned him about a 30 minutes later he told the dnr what happened and they ended up writing out the guys in the ski boat about 7 citations... and let him go without one, though they did warn him if it happens again to try and stop the bait before it hits the skier..lol... This year I am thinking of keeping a ten inch piece of 1X1 tied to a rod.. rigged with at least 7/0 hooks sharpened razor sharp to keep offenders at bay.. My only question is should I leave it unpainted? |
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Posts: 2112
Location: The Sportsman, home, or out on the water | The scariest time I ever had on the water was on the 3 lakes chain. You would have sworn that it was NASCAR for pleasure boats through channels that connect some of the lakes. You almost think that they are drafting eachother! 4 boats, back and forth, at full throttle, in a channel that is MAYBE 55 yards wide. Back and forth. Back and forth. I sent a 10 inch Jake as a "warning shot" close to one, after the third time. My buddy Timmy is the master at cast control, and he probably could have slapped the driver on the shoulder with it without hooking him, but he wasn't there. He has made some golfers on the golf course next to Boom poop their pants more than once though!  |
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Posts: 64
Location: Genoa City, WI | I can add one.
A few years back while still living in Butternut and fishing Butternut Lake, I was actually bass fishing in one of the bays in the SE corner of the lake, tucked way back in flipping a jig by a downed tree when I hear a big engine come roaring into the bay and do a huge run through the bay which ended coming within 50 - 75' of me and throwing up at least a 3' wake. This was one of those boats where the male owner must have been compensating for something small cause this boat was huge.
These days, I do bring along a nice CPCM68XH with a 10" Stidhams Z180 attached....
Robzilla |
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Posts: 2691
Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin | POTATO GUN ! ! !
One warning shot and they will leave you alone.
If not, their fair game............. |
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Location: Minneapolis, MN | Take note of where they put that boat or jet powered toy away. After dark slip in and remove their prop nut if a boat or remove the hold pin on the shore station winch if a PWC. |
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Posts: 3926
| "The driver is 50-60, has a drink in his hand, Elvis sunglasses, and dyed black hairdoo and his fat wife is sitting near him in her purple and yellow flowered tent. His two ugly daughters, who should not be allowed in public in a bathing suit are lying on the deck or hanging off the back scaring the fish."
Lobi - that is a masterful piece of writing. Reminds me of Hunter Thompson. |
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Posts: 1137
Location: Holly, MI | Ranger, I don't know who Hunter Thompson is but it just flowed off the fingertips onto the screen like sonone else was writing it. I swear this or simular guy has near run me down more than once and I don't like him. I don't chase him, just wish some nasty thoughts his way.
I love the Potato gun idea. Sure would be funny to see in action. |
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Posts: 149
| LOL - "Fear & Loathing on the Fox Chain". |
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Posts: 2378
| Not really a hassle, but a very interesting experience with a power boat.
Last week fishing a small west metro lake, I was buzzed 4 times by a group of college age folks in a big cruiser. Well, the 4th time they came near me a woman fell off and was runover by the boat. This all happened right in front of the cabin they were staying at. I was about 50 yards away when it all happened so I went to shore and told some of the friends at the cabin to call 911 and noticed that some were rather intoxicated. I talked to the cops yesterday and found out that she made it, but she is in rough shape. Her spleen had to be removed, collapsed lung, liver was cut by the prop. It sounded to me like the prop mangled her pretty good. She is one lucky woman.
Thats what screwing around in a boat will get you. |
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Posts: 2384
Location: On the X that marks the mucky spot | I'm out on Lake Minnetonka 3-4 time a week. I've got you all beat. I could spend the rest of the day with stories from what I've experienced out there. |
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Posts: 132
Location: Kawarthas, Ontario | Back about 6-7 years ago, I was trolling along outside of the boat channel with a friend, and I had some knothead in a 30 foot cigarette boat (who thought he owned the lake with his twin fire breathing V8 engines) come screaming out of a restricted speed zone channel at 3-4 times the posted limit, and cut across my lines about 35 feet back behind me. He "snagged" both of my lines, which both broke (thankfully without snapping a rod holder or a rod). Aside from narrowly missing a nasty shoal in his haste to cut a corner, this idiot found himself with a total of about 70 yards of 45 pound Musky Master dacron tightly wound around the hubs of both props.
Trying to be very cool (when I really wanted to sink the idiot), I drove over to the back of his boat, and asked him to lift his outdrives. I leaned over and cut off both leaders/lures free of the prop, and left the moron sitting their with the rest of the line tightly wound around both hubs in behind his props. I then started driving off. He was yelling and screaming that I couldn't do that (leaving him "stuck" - seems he had no knife on board - LOL), that I had damaged his boat, and that he was going to have me charged, and sue my a$$ off. I smiled ever so politely, and suggested that while he was filing his report with the police, he might like to also tell them about how he was speeding in a restricted area, and how he had operated his boat dangerously without any regard to other boaters, who incidentally, had the right of way because they were in a much smaller boat, to his immediate right, and were well outside of the boat channel. I then passed around the front of his boat, and made sure he saw me writing down his boat registration numbers. He asked me what I was doing. I told him that, just in case he was too busy getting his boat repaired to file that police report, I'd make sure that the incident was properly documented.
I did file a report later, and when I told the officer how I'd left him, he was laughing so hard, I thought he was going to hurt himself. He was particularly concerned as to whether the operator was drinking. I told him that from where I was located, I couldn't see, but that based on his behaviour, it was entirely possible. He said that he would have someone pay a visit to the individual in question, and give him a warning about his driving habits and about the relevant rules related to safe boating... and file a copy of the report with the Coast Guard, which would go on his registration file in case any other incident was ever reported or occurred.
Last time I saw Mr Macho, he was madly trying to flag down some poor sucker to tow him back into the local marina. I hope the dacron took out one or both of his lower seals... and that he had a memorable day!
Regards,
Edited by strike_zone 6/16/2004 8:19 AM
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Posts: 1168
| These experiences are why I keep a rod rigged up with a homemade jackpot without any hooks on it that goes a good 8-10 ounces....
Was out with my brother last summer and this one kid who was about 10 years old on a jetski kept making passes closer and closer to us. He gets within 20 feet of where we were casting and I unleash this jetski seeking bait his way. It hits the side of the jetski and cracks the plastic all to pieces. He never bothered us the rest of the day.
So later that year my brother calls me up and tells me that one of the kids in a youth basketball league he coaches was talking about a prick who was harrassing him while he was jetskiing earlier in the summer. My bro responded to him simply by saying "his aim is a lot better now and next time he'll leave the hooks on." |
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Posts: 146
Location: Wayzata, MN | lobi... I fish Lake Minnetonka a lot. I'm pretty sure I've encountered that dudes twin brother(s). TOO FUNNY...
I get a kick out of these idiots [jetskiers, boaters, etc] when they blow by, they "look the other way" like "I don't see you, so it's OK"... SAD. I've often wondered how much trouble I'd get in if I stuck one of these drones with a precisely casted lure...
I guess I could always tell the Sheriff as he folllowed the blood trail to the boat.... [innocent blink]..... I was "just chumm'n!" Or, maybe I could have those people charged with theft~! For trying to steal my lure... [grin]....
Tonka days.... windy and drizzle~! [and after Labor Day].... |
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Posts: 60
Location: Germantown,wi | This happens to me everytime I am at the inlaw's place near Antigo. There is a group that likes their pontoon rides at night when the sun is just at the treetops. On more than one occasion they have went between my boat and the shore that I am casting. I have spoke up a couple times and the wife tells me that it is everyones lake, not this year though. I am a scuba diver and this year if it happens again, ( which it will), I am going to do a night dive and remove the prop from the motor. The gloves are coming off this year, each year it seems to get worse. |
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| i've got to say that i have experienced the same things, especially on the st croix river. i also think it needs said that i have had just as many, if not more, "encounters" with rude and idiotic fishermen who dont have any more courtesy than the pleasure boaters and jet skiers. |
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Posts: 1335
Location: Chicago, Beverly | Top water, when you get the prop try and sell it here... I'm sure someone here could use it..lol... |
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| several years ago on the Eagle Rier chain a riend and I were casting the shoreline when a ski boat pulling a skier went between the shoreline and us. Trust me it was not a long cast away either. I saw were the boat went to a dock and headed over there. There was the driver a man I would say in in 50's and several children. Wel I read the guy off and used a few words I should not have but anger got the best of me. After I was done one of the children said father I think that guy is upset, yes he was priest and I was more red in the face then I had been in awhile. This would only happen to me. I did however see the boat again several times that day and they kept a good distance away.
Don Pfeiffer |
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| Here in Wisconsin-- it is unlawful to create a hazardous wakes. Take (write down) the Guys boat number and call 911 and file a charge against the boat operator.
Here in Wisconsin-- it is unlawful to operate any type of motorboat (including PWC and Runabouts) that is towing persons engaged in water sking, aquaplaning, or similar activity (driving around the Lake like a crazy fool) within 100 feet of any occuiped anchored boat that is fishing. Once again write down the boat number and call 911 and file a charge against the boat operator.
Remember here in Wisconsin--Report All Boating Violations--- call your local law enforcement agency (DNR warden, Sheriff, or Police department), or call 1-800-TIP-WDNR to report any boating violations.
TAKE THEM TO COURT AND SUE THE HELL OUT OF THEM. |
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