eelgrass
Long Time Member
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- 31,783
I was kayak fishing in the bay again yesterday. Yeah I know, I told my wife I wanted to catch 1 more halibut a few days ago....but I lied as usual. She doesn't believe me anyway after all these years.
One thing about kayak fishing in the bay is you have to be vigil of all the other big boats running around. There's lots of fishermen in power boats, commercial fishermen heading to sea, oyster barges, and just plain idiots running around. The commercial fishermen are the worse. They maintain their speed and direction and they don't care if you get out of the way or not. If they ran over a kayak I doubt they would even stop.
I was well up the bay fishing in the middle of the channel and I see a power boat coming full throttle. I was going to make a move anyway, so I reel up and head to the east out of the path of the boat. But no...he steers right for me going full blast. So I pick up the pace a little, just trying to get out of the way. That didn't help as he came right for me. The boat had a cabin with glass windshield and I couldn't see who it was because of the glare.
He comes right up to me and stops. Whew! Scared the heck out of me. Three guys step out and one says "Fish and Wildlife, why are you running?" "Running? No sir, I wasn't running, I was just trying to get the hell out of your way and stay alive. I had no idea who you were."
I guess they didn't believe me because they went over me with a fine tooth comb. They checked my license and all my gear and they even opened all my hatches looking for hidden fish, I guess. When everything checked out they apologized for scaring me and we had a good laugh. I think they will approach kayakers a little slower from now on.
One thing about kayak fishing in the bay is you have to be vigil of all the other big boats running around. There's lots of fishermen in power boats, commercial fishermen heading to sea, oyster barges, and just plain idiots running around. The commercial fishermen are the worse. They maintain their speed and direction and they don't care if you get out of the way or not. If they ran over a kayak I doubt they would even stop.
I was well up the bay fishing in the middle of the channel and I see a power boat coming full throttle. I was going to make a move anyway, so I reel up and head to the east out of the path of the boat. But no...he steers right for me going full blast. So I pick up the pace a little, just trying to get out of the way. That didn't help as he came right for me. The boat had a cabin with glass windshield and I couldn't see who it was because of the glare.
He comes right up to me and stops. Whew! Scared the heck out of me. Three guys step out and one says "Fish and Wildlife, why are you running?" "Running? No sir, I wasn't running, I was just trying to get the hell out of your way and stay alive. I had no idea who you were."
I guess they didn't believe me because they went over me with a fine tooth comb. They checked my license and all my gear and they even opened all my hatches looking for hidden fish, I guess. When everything checked out they apologized for scaring me and we had a good laugh. I think they will approach kayakers a little slower from now on.
