what a ass-clown. let me explain.
\ok im on the chatahoochee river just below buford damn doing some wade fishing. the trout are more than willing and glad to see me.
im in about 4 ft of water fish a run thats pretty fast and about 6ft deep. the local rent a tube has dropped off yet another bus load of tubes and yaks. gotta share the river. im ok with that. theres 3 runs to choose from at this point. most people try to avoid getting in the fishermens way and take the near shore runs. oh not this ass clown, hes gotta take the middle lane. his girlfriend is in her own yak. i turn my back for a moment. she shoots through with easy. just as i begin to wonder where A-clown is as i turn to catch him tipping over. hes in a set inside yak. the water is just above 48 degrees in this part of the river. clown has on flip flops,shorts and a tank top. ok he surfaces with one hand holding the boat. his pfd is made for a 6th grader and hes a good size guy himself. about 23 at 245lbs. he wrestling with the boat trying to flip it but being pulled down the river. the suction is to strong and hes freezing. the boat is full of water and pulling him down stream. hes headed for trouble and panic is writen across his face.
hes still struggling. the run is about 20 yds at best ok, then it shallows to about 3ft.
im watching him, but theres nothing i can do at this point yet. hes being pulled and hes starting to get in the thick of it. hes losing his footing and in a split second hes gonna be over his head. "jump on the boat and hang on
" i screamed to him. "huh" ? jump on the boat and hang on again i told him. so he belly flops on the boat as its now upside down.
throught the flow he goes. and ends up in the 3ft in about 4 seconds. ok hes off to the side still struggling to right the boat as its filled to the hilt with water. the suction is holding the boat. girlfriend is some 30yrs down stream yelling "come on". so i yell over and tell him to right the boat. "huh". turn the boat over i told him. so he does. "see that black thing by the handle" i said. yes,so he replies. unscrew it and put it in your pocket i told him. "why" he says. shivering like crazy.
just do it i said, and he does. hes managed to get the front part of the yak upon a good sized rock. water comes shooting out of the drain hole like crazy, all the while assclown has a look on his face like im bothering him. he finally gets the water out and climbs back in.
off he goes. i shake my head in disbelief. im a little pissed. he doesnt realize that i just could have very well saved his life.
not a thank you or anything from this clown. no wave no nothing. then just as this clears up i just about get ran over by another yak. i mean theres no room for my reel between my leg and the yak. dude gets stuck. no "im sorry", no nothing. didnt even make eye contact. had to reel in over his fat stuck azz and wait on him to free himself. he starts scooting like a dog scratching its azz on the carpet, trying to free himself. i look around and all the other 7 or 8 fishermen are just watching. im just looking at them as they are looking at me wondering what im about to do. you have no idea just how bad i wanted to toss this lard azz in the fast deep current. hes on a sot too. the thought races across my mind as im looking for a place to lay my stick down. then he comes free and off he goes. this clown was in his late 30's. no damn respect from these renters.
do they not teach these people anything before they put them on a boat? its crazy.
oh well the day ended very well. 12 trout caught between my buddy and me. my biggest brown this year in at 22in. good trout in these parts, but get lots bigger down stream if your lucky enough to get to even see one.
most guys fish this place their whole lives and never see a trout bigger than 20in. they are easy 5lbs here. ya just gotta be lucky enough to get the presentation.

The rental places around here give there customers a boat and a ride to the creek and send them on there way with no instruction or can you handle this questions.

Next time, bring a really, really big net. Net him with it. Then rip off your shirt and start flexing for his girlfriend.

We had a similar experience last week. My favorite fishing partner was feeling up to trying the river for the first time in over a year so we figured we would give small mouth fishing a try. We put in on the James and worked our way slowly upriver, sticking close to the shoreline to avoid the boat traffic and work the fish holding against the banks and around the rocks that line the various overhangs. About a half mile upriver, we hear a boat running full throttle upriver, and my partner, downriver from me about 50 yards is giving the SLOW down signal and waving her arms. No Joy, the guy passes within 10 yards of her yak, his wake driving her into the shallow water structure. I was also waving and whistling for them to slow down as well, and same same, blow past full throttle within 20 yards of me, and my Native rocks and waddles to beat the band. The two brain trust candidates actually have the nerve to grin and wave.

After seeing my partner driven sideways and then having them ignore me and blow by so close, I have to admit, I did wave back with only one finger, which the guy in the rear acknowleged with a double eagle. We went back to fishing and about two hours later as we were nearly back down to the put in at the ramp, here they come back down river.... they again blow by us within 10 - 15 yards of our yaks, this time in less than a foot of water. Again smiling and waving ...

I paddled up as they were loading and asked them if they thought it was FUNNY? No, the owner of the boat replies defensively. What it is, is criminal to pass within 50 feet of a paddle craft at full throttle and endanger them with your wake, and to do so intentionally, especially a second time could possibly be upgraded to reckless operation or even reckless endangerment. Well. you see, this boat has a jet drive on it and must be run at full throttle or not at all, and you just don't understand the mechanics of the jet drive.

Really, I don't see where that changes the law in your favor, the river is pretty wide, (You can see that in the picture) you could operate that "jet drive" 50 feet, 50 yards away from the kayaks, and especially on the way back downriver. Then call the police, I am not talking with YOU any longer. I already have my friend, and I have your boat registration, and now your vehicle registration. I actually had to end up talking to the Conservation Police (game warden) two days later.. but they said they would pay him a visit. Especially when I told the CPO that this guy claimed he ALWAYS does this ... it's his RIGHT.

This really put a damper on an otherwise beautiful day, the smallmouth and warmouth bream were tearing up the poppers. I caught a half dozen of each... my fishing partner had a great day too.

I know now why we have stayed off the river for so long. We have similar problems on the lakes, but they don't come nearly as close and the CPOs are there to watch the operation more closely. The river is too long and too many miles to cover.

I guess the problem is nation wide? Sheesh.

quote:

guess the problem is nation wide? Sheesh

Oh yes, there are a lot of those dummer and Dummer types out there not to mention business owners that let these people actually use their stuff.

Yup,
A captain must maintain control over the vessel at all times. Especially in the James River example. Not only are the mechancial particulars of the boat inconsequential, he was the giveway vessle and you guys were the standon vessel.

So not only did you have right of way, but how his boat operates at ANY speed is not yours but HIS problem. I would have called the cops right in his face.

Shipwreck, I had already called the cops, but the river is the dividing line between two counties and one said that it was the others responsibility, they handle incidents on the water. I was transfered there. That county transfered me back to the first saying no, no, only incidents that were still ON the water like a drowning or boater in trouble... and transfered me back.... so the first county said they would send someone who would meet me at the top of the ramp. More than an hour later, a third party (211 Services whom I had never dealt with before, called and gave me the number for DGIF.) By this time the guys were long gone. Fish and Game dispatch said since they were gone they would have a CPO get in touch with me later to take the report.

Ricks, in answer to your question; NO. These rental companies take the rube's money, hand them a kayak/canoe, paddle, and pfd and send them on their way. I have watched them down here sitting backwards in a sot, right at the launch and nobody said a word to them. I think that the only instruction they get is to "get as close to somebody fishing as you can". I have had them follow me all over a flat a couple times.

Jim, as to the "that's not our jurisdiction" excuse of our stalwart law enforcment. I don't know how it is up your way but down here you will get checked on the water by the local police, sherrif's department, homeland security, fish and wildlife, and the coast guard. If you call any of those same fine organizations to make a complaint each one will tell you that it is not their jurisdiction and that you need to call one of the others.

All it takes is simple wave and all boating offenses are forgiven. It's actually become a running joke with me and my kayak buddies.

Just yesterday I was in Little York Lake south of Syracuse. I had just paddled across the lake and was approaching the far shore. A boat and skier are heading my direction. One guess as to which route they took - did they pass behind me where there was a half mile or so of open water or did they pass in front of me where there was, oh, say 50 feet of water.

Of course both the driver and skier were waving - so it was double forgiven.

I replied with a bit of a wave myself.

Got to love the wave as they drive on by... i have more problems with fisherman in bass boats trying to steal the spot wear i am fishing...i have had a few times where ppl would just pretend i did not exist....

quote:

do they not teach these people anything before they put them on a boat? its crazy.

ricksconnected - sadly, no they don't. I do guiding for LL Bean and we regularly get that they got more instruction with our walk-on programs than they have ever gotten with rental places and places that do tours.

Not that we give a ton in the walk-on programs - it's 4-5 minutes of paddling instruction (holding the paddling correctly, forward, reverse, stop + turn) and then we give tidbits of input while we're on the water.

In fact, just this past Saturday- I and 2 friends rented boats. We were given paddles + PFDs for sit inside kayaks. No paddle float, no pump and certainly no instruction. (I was pretty shocked at the lack of paddle float and pump. I took my own, so we had one - but, still was surprising.)

"What it is, is criminal to pass within 50 feet of a paddle craft at full throttle and endanger them with your wake, and to do so intentionally, especially a second time could possibly be upgraded to reckless operation or even reckless endangerment."

Is this a Va state law for inland waters? Shipwreck you have to remember that the rules from near coastal vary in inland water ways and especially rivers. There is a whole different set of regs for inland rivers that are there due to the flow direction of the water that directly plays into the moblity of vessels in those waters.

The guy was a jerk for not backing down and the jet has nothing to do with it, although a jet boat produces a much smaller wake at speed then it does at slower speeds in that respect the wake might have been worse for guys to ride out.

I have never heard that rule before and I'm curious if its a VA state inland rule?

I one time hit a jet skier in the back of the head for passing near my boat 2 times within 10 ft. with a deep see fishing lead weight tied on to a old rod and reel. Did not have any more issues out of him again the rest of the day.
Btw a pistol would have been able to hold there till the law got there and I bet the response time would have been fastier as well.

It would be nice to see a required class for these renters though. Give them people renting a fighting chance.

Sooner or later the training classes should and hopefully will be required. If you are going to rent a powerboat of any kind you should first have to be either licensed in another state or have to sit and take the local boating safety classes.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ricksconnected:
what a ass-clown. let me explain.
oh not this ass clown, hes gotta take the middle lane. his girlfriend is in her own yak. i turn my back for a moment. she shoots through with easy. just as i begin to wonder where A-clown is as i turn to catch him tipping over. hes in a set inside yak. the water is just above 48 degrees in this part of the river. clown has on flip flops,shorts and a tank top. ok he surfaces with one hand holding the boat. his pfd is made for a 6th grader and hes a good size guy himself. about 23 at 245lbs.
"jump on the boat and hang on
" i screamed to him. "huh" ? jump on the boat and hang on again i told him. so he belly flops on the boat as its now upside down.
throught the flow he goes. "huh". turn the boat over i told him. so he does. "see that black thing by the handle" i said. yes,so he replies. unscrew it and put it in your pocket i told him. "why" he says. he doesnt realize that i just could have very well saved his life.



Rick, 23 c'mon I'm 36 with a hearing deficit and thought I handled it like a pro, us hobie drivers are used a havin water filled yaks

This message has been edited. Last edited by: coydogcaller,

I swear that they aim for the kayak sometimes. I had a 40 footer angle towards me and pass within 30 feet this past Saturday at pretty close to open throttle. Of the many boats that passed in close proximity, only one cut his throttle. If I'm in a channel in a bay or river, I expect it. But the ocean is a pretty big place.

I think they were just trying to get a closer look at Rick's new Buff Headwear!

I've had a couple times in the last month w/dip ships running within 50ft of me on lake Gaston. Wide open lake, early on Sunday mornings. People just don't have any respect for anyone.

I believe the 50ft is a federal/coast guard rule, its in Va & NC.

vakayakangler, where were you on the James? I've been fishing out of Hugenot Woods lately, no problems so far, lots of little fish & cats.

we were above maidens. Next time we'll go farther up river, shallower and more rocks, less powerboats?