Fishermen!

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by MarkSF

Here are the colregs on fishing. Were you showing the dayshape described? If not, how was the other vessel supposed to know you were fishing?

A vessel engaged in fishing, other than trawling, shall exhibit: 1. two all-round lights in a vertical line, the upper being red and the lower white, or a shape consisting of two cones with apexes together in a vertical line one above the other;2. when there is outlying gear extending more than 150 metres horizontally from the vessel, an all-round white light or a cone apex upwards in the direction of the gear;3. when making way through the water, in addition to the lights prescribed in this paragraph, sidelights and a sternlight.

Charter fishing and other sport fishing is not "fishing" according to the rules. THese are still just powered vessels. Only commercial fishing by nets or trawls is "fishing". None-the-less, why piss off or ruin the day for a guy out for his piece of the water? Just stay away and cut them slack. Sport fishing for salmon in the Great Lakes puts a lot of provate and charter boats on the water. I always pass ahead or tack. My only exception is the nut jobs that think it OK to run 4 downriggers, 6 planer boards and a couple of flat lines in the marked navigation channel AND run 2 to 6 abreast with other sport fishermen. We see this in the fall when the salmon run for the streams.

[Jbaffoh]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

Charter fishing and other sport fishing is not "fishing" according to the rules. THese are still just powered vessels. Only commercial fishing by nets or trawls is "fishing". None-the-less, why piss off or ruin the day for a guy out for his piece of the water? Just stay away and cut them slack. Sport fishing for salmon in the Great Lakes puts a lot of provate and charter boats on the water. I always pass ahead or tack. My only exception is the nut jobs that think it OK to run 4 downriggers, 6 planer boards and a couple of flat lines in the marked navigation channel AND run 2 to 6 abreast with other sport fishermen. We see this in the fall when the salmon run for the streams.

Didn't bother to read the original post?

The sailboat was trolling, and the powerboat crossed their wake and ate up their line and tackle.

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by Jbaffoh

Didn't bother to read the original post?

The sailboat was trolling, and the powerboat crossed their wake and ate up their line and tackle.

I read it. The post had shifted. I said stay away from the fishermen. Doesn't matter if its a stinkboat or blowboat. There is pleanty of water out there.

[Crabby1]

As a commercial fisherman, crabber, oysterman, and soon to be cruiser you need to understand all fault belongs to the crabber. Nobody likes a crabber, the weekend warriors have been working hard all week and need to get cross eyed drunk and relax so if they happen to have their eyes open their vision is doubled and they dont dodge the right trap line. The same can be said of the yachties who are lacking sleep or the rich and stupid running on autopilot while entertaining. The trawlers catch the traps in their nets which the recs. blindly ran over that cut the floats off or from the pissed off yachties that cut off the floats. These trawlers did not have the benefit of floats to be able to dodge after this and tear up their nets and loose their catch, so they too dont like crabbers. After all the traps come up missing the crabbers assume other crabbers cut the floats or stole the traps so they seek revenge on the other crabbers and cut their floats. This is a vicious cycle that ends up causing even more traps to be put in the water to try to make up for expence of the lost traps. The traps should not be in a marked channel but storms can push the traps into the channel which most of us remove as soon as possible because we dont want to loose the traps that is our livelyhood. A lot of us crabbers actually put traps on the bars beside the channels because they catch better and it keeps people from running aground. The point is we all need to pay attention better and give more room to our fellow man. By all means put a line cutter on your boat (I have one on mine) so when you accidently hit one. I have even hit my own lines, but that is bound to happen when you have to have 500+ traps in the water and spend 1500 hours a year on the water to support your family. Whatever you do dont get caught cutting loose someone's traps because you dont believe they need to be there. Down here in Mississippi someone might conclude you were stealing from their children and that wouldn't be pretty...

Jeff

[markpierce]

So far have been successful in avoiding fishermen's lines. Have no need to get tangled in a net or a line.




But then, I pass behind boats as needed (usually after having to adjust course to avoid collision or "close calls"); so forgive me if I cut across your lines if it isn't obvious you are fishing.

[markpierce]

Originally Posted by Crabby1

Nobody likes a crabber ...

Crab and lobster fishermen who lay traps connected to lines and floats create a danger to navigation. Higher standards of visibility and radar detectibility are needed. Regardless, if life was fair, they would be responsible for damages caused to boats caught in their "spider webs."

I wonder. Are their traps and floats required to show the identity of ownership so one suffering damage can make them responsible for the damage they cause?

If not. Shouldn't anyone be free to commandeer the traps?

(1500 hours to support a family on the water? Most working people in the US need 2000 hours, not including time for commuting, sleeping, eating, resting, change clothing, etcetera.)

[Crabby1]

Originally Posted by markpierce

Crab and lobster fishermen who lay traps connected to lines and floats create a danger to navigation. Higher standards of visibility and radar detectibility are needed. Regardless, if life was fair, they would be responsible for damages caused to boats caught in their "spider webs."

1) I agree all the lines and floats is not needed. One float on each end with the traps maybe 50 per string strung with non floating line. This would work fine in a lot of areas but is not legally allowed in Mississippi who requires a visible float for every trap. Economically feasible ways of detecting the traps would be a win for all the fishermen and the boaters (maybe a reflector that sticks up from each float so to not get slimed up). More traps would have to be ran thou because on holidays and busy weekends your newest floats with the best visibility has the least amount of crabs on average because of hungry weekend warriors. As for holding the fishermen who are has traps where they are legally allowed responsible for the damage caused by boaters not paying close enough attention is ludicrous.

I wonder. Are their traps and floats required to show the identity of ownership so one suffering damage can make them responsible for the damage they cause?

2) In Mississippi traps are required to be tagged showing ownership but good luck with a lawsuit where you ran into a stationary trap that was legally allowed there (the judgment might be against you).

If not. Shouldn't anyone be free to commandeer the traps?

3) In Mississippi only the DMR can legally commandeer the traps.

(1500 hours to support a family on the water? Most working people in the US need 2000 hours, not including time for commuting, sleeping, eating, resting, change clothing, etcetera.)

4) Mark that is 1500+ hours "on the water" according to engine hour meter. This meter does not include maintenance or repairs on boat unless it was running lol. This meter does not show the time spent selling and delivering the catch. This meter does not show the time spent building and rigging traps or other gear. This meter does not show the time filling the truck and trailer with bait traps or etc. This hour meter does not the getting up every 3 hours at night 7 day per week getting soft shells out of the shedder tank before the crabs get hard again or get ate by the other hard crabs. This meter does show time spent eating, resting, and etc between the lines of 100 or so traps each. Mark I would bet YOU if I add up all these times I would be an average American citizen with 2000+ hours spent per year supporting my family.

5) I had a short line of 37 traps that started around 100 yards out from the outbound green bouys the traps continued out and to the right for about 1500' (thats close spacing). One evening right around dark an arrogant a$$ came into the harbor masters office raising some kind of hell that he almost didn't see these traps that were in the channel and they need to get out there and remove these traps or he was going to cut them himself. The harbor master told him first off the traps were not in the channel and If he see's him touch those traps he will make sure he goes to jail. The harbor master then told him he was lucky he did see the traps with him coming in at the speed he was. The harbor master than told this "man" that if he would not of seen the traps getting a float line in one of his wheels would of been the least of his worries to boat and crew because you almost flew up on a shallow reef from hurricane Katrina The "CAPT." then stormed out without saying anything. The traps are not always a hazard to navigation, probably especially down here where our traps are set shallow for blue crab.

[markpierce]

Thanks for the enlightenment!

[NCountry]

Hey Crabby1..... just so ya know, I've never had a problem with the commercial guys. They are most normally just hard working people trying to make a living. To date, all my problems have been with the "sport fishing" crowd. Normally they have at least 2 ice chest full of who knows what and are racing out to the fishing grounds at a pace that will normally scare off any decent fish within 100 miles. These guys are neither professional or courteous. They give the impression that money and speed buy you right of way..... Mostly we just give them the ol one finger salute. Of course they're normally going so fast they never see it anyway.....

[Captain Bill]

Sorry Crabby1 but I have had problems with crabbers abd trawlers here in NC. The local commercial guys are having a dispute with one of the local Marinas so the word is they've decided to harrass people who keep their boats there. The Marina is a private marina that was dug out of amn upland and connected via a canal so the whole basin is technically private. The marina has run gill netters out of the basin on several occasions, but they still sneak in sometimes. One gill netter claims he pulled 6000 lbs of seatrout out when he snuck in one night. In any case the local crabbers decided to support the local gill netters by "mining" the marked channel leading to the marina with crab pots. They are so close together that sometimes I have to take one between the hulls to miss one on either side of the boat. The channel they are mining leads to several other marinas that are not part of the dispute but they don't seem to give a damn. I've complained to the local Marine Patrol and thigs get moved for a couple of weeks. I haven't heard if anyone got a ticket over this or not but I doubt it. These guys also like to place their traps in the channels of the other local marinas. Along the dock where I used to stay there were often 4 or 5 traps less than 20 feet off the backs of the boats. These are of course perfectly legal because the marina does not own the approaches. It's no fun trying to get a 44 boat past a trap 20 feet off your stern when you cant turn until you've cleared the outer pilings. By the way since crab floats up here are color coded by owner there are at least 4 different people involved. Maybe your not one of these guys but some commercial fishermen are either jerks or terminally stupid. If they don't value their gear enough to keep it away from the marinas I don't see why I should worry about dragging off somewhere and dumping it.

I had one other incident with a small commercial shrimp trawler at the entrance to our creek. He was pulling a trawl up the right side of the channel a couple of hundred yards from the entrance. It was illegal (marked channel) but I was going to blow it off because the channel was about 100 feet wide and I could easily go down the left side. I was under sail and doing about 7.5 knots and entered the channel and suddenly the moron throws the wheel over and crosses the channel. Of course the trawl net was still on the right side of the channel, his boat was on the left side and steel cables were connecting the two. There was nothing I could do but throw the helm over and go down the right side of the channel. I believe I passed right over his net. As I'm passing him he and his mate are having a good laugh. It was good that I didn't have my gun on my boat that day or I'd probably be writing this from central prison.

I'm sure most people who make their living on on the water work very hard for meager rewards, but there are jerks in every walk of life and not everyone who makes a living on the water is deserving admiration or respect.

[captainKJ]

there are a thing called CUTTERS that you can put before your prop. they work good up in maine were sometime you can walk across the challes by the number of pots there. Running over the pots, cuts there line,, a couple of times that they lose there traps they will get the hint..

[sailorboy1]

based on the area I live in, if I consider when most lobster pots appear to be it appears to me that the lobstermen believe that the lobsters perfer to travel in the middle the channel

[fisherman.ben]

i bring a stainless 870 express and a stainless colt 1911a1 (12gauge shotgun and semi-auto 45) on my boat (not sure what customs in the carib would say, but they're well hidden)

[hellosailor]

Ben, typically "customs" would impound them to bonded storage and hold them for their disappearance, ergh, return on your departure. However, if you fail to declare arms, that usually becomes a felony and arrest. And if you have an undeclared "hidey hole" in your boat, the USCG may still have an official policy that gets you in further trouble for simply having the hidden space. At one time they declared that to be official proof of illegal activity, simply having the hidden space without (literally) notifying them it existed.

If you can smuggle arms without being caught, there are often more profitable things to smuggle. Oh, wait, I got this confused with the "how to make money whle cruising" thread. (VBG)

[minaret]

Originally Posted by fisherman.ben

i bring a stainless 870 express and a stainless colt 1911a1 (12gauge shotgun and semi-auto 45) on my boat (not sure what customs in the carib would say, but they're well hidden)

They would say "come with me, boy, yer going to jail for a very long time"! Then they would impound your boat and keep it while you rotted in some hell hole...