Jet skiers.... %#*&!!!

FAOL Community Sound Off
1

Alright, I’m normally a live and let live kinda guy, but these people really roast my corn.

Yesterday I’m out in my kayak hunting bluefish.
It took a while but I finally spot some fish bustin’ bait. Not in a channel per say, but about a half a mile off shore in what would be a travel lane for boats going to and from the marinas.
After a bit, I see a boat of about 24’ bearing down on me. I signal him with my paddle. He sees me casting to the north so he politely turns to pass me from the south. At the same time a jet skier spots this and decides to do some wake jumping. He passes close by me on the north and cuts across. I get hit by the two conflicting wakes at the same time. Nothing I can’t handle and it didn’t put the fish down so I calmly let it go.

After one nice fish had no problem sawing through my 50# mono shocker, I needed to stop to rerig with wire.
The fish were picking up the pace all around me and it was time to get my line back in the water.
I had my head down when I heard a jet ski coming up from behind. I figured it was the same guy so I payed little attention until I realized he was bearing down right at me.
This chucklehead veers off at the last second and does a double doughnut around me!
All the time I’m screaming obscenities at him he’s laughing his fool head off.
His daughter, who’s on the back, (gawd I hope she was his daughter) has a shocked look on her face as they race away.
I drop my rod and grab my paddle to steady my self. Again, nothing I can’t handle but of course the fish are long gone.

After another 10-15 minutes I hear the same guy coming up behind me again!
I’m ready to rip a cast across this guy’s face and I wave him over so I can get a better shot.
He slows down and putts on over.
“How’s the fishin’” he says… :shock:
" It was great until you came along, you $^@^ #^&@@" sez I
“Oh, …sorry” “I didn’t see the fishing rod”
“grrr”
“Sorry…sorry…sorry”

By that time, it was time to go. One nice fish and a monumental jump in blood pressure later
I got the impression that this guy actually thought that harassing others on the water is fun, not only for him, but for them too.
Unbelieveable

2

Mornin’ Dudley. I can relate… I’ve had my blood pressure up over a few jet skiers myself. Talking to a few other fellas has me figuring it like this, Mostly the only ones enjoying the jetskis are the ones on them. If the noise doesn’t annoy ya, their shenanigans certainly will. Like many other things, though, it’s likely just a few that make a bad rap for many. Best for us to just hone our patience and turn the other cheek as much as we can stand. Being the good example is damn hard sometimes, but us fishermen gotta protect our rep more than we gotta take out some rude jetskiers. By the way, once in my younger days my partner and I had quite a little rumble with some bonehead wiseass boat guys while we were swingin flies on upper Fall River in No. Cal. I think they spent lots of energy bailin that day…ModocDan

3

Uuuggghhh. Its is enough to frost your cake. When I was fishing in Provincetown harbor there were fishing boats going out. These guys, who need to get out fast to make as much money as they can showed enough respect to keep their wakes small. If they can do it there is no reason in heck that a jet ski can’t. If the girl wasn’t on back I’d think a #4/0 Clouser would be appropriate. He’d put up a better fight than a Bluefish.

On another note, I stopped using mono bite tippets for Blues. I prefer the Climax stainless steel leaders. They tie down well and seem to be small for their strength. I’ve use some other brands that don’t tie down as well. FYI, I have had Bluefish bite through that too, but it is much less common.

jed

4

report him to the dnr, what he did was ilegal, at least in md, the dnr love writing tickets to jet ski’s