DIVER QUESTION

[Robja]

Saturday I was fishing out at Frying Pan Tower. There was around 20 boats in the vicinity of the tower. One was tied off to the tower and a couple were anchored on different sides about 20 yards from it. We were about 30 yds from an anchored boat(50 Yds fr. the tower) when I noticed something big just off the port side. I saw bubbles so I assumed it was a diver. he was 40 yds away from the anchored boat which by the way had a dive flag but due to no wind you could not tell what kind of flag it was. There was no dive bouy out to warn boats. We stopped to set some lines out for African Pompano. When the diver came to his boat and began cussing at us. There were 2 guys on the boat drinking beer as we passed and neither said anything about a diver. My question is shouldn't there be some sort of rules that divers abide by. This diver acted as if we were in the wrong but I would think if there are a lot of boats trolling you wouldn't want to just pop up away from your boat unless you wanted to get a hook in you. Later in the day we went back to the tower and fish and there was only one boat there and they were bottom fishing. As we made our first pass near the tower another boat came up and chunked a dive bouy at the end of our spread. It just doesn't seem fair that one group can just set up camp and hog the fishing around the tower. Just wanted to rant since I am still pissed off.

[Capt. kapoc]

We deal with this alot here in VA I am a free diver as well as a fisherman so i've gotten familar with the arguments. Here as long as your 30 yds away from the FLAG you legal. Now on the second instance where you were alread fishing before they arrived you were legit. Another vessel can't come within 30 yds and show a dive falg and make you leave the would be impeeding fishing which is illigeal. We will go to the structure and call an ask if the other boat minds if we splash 9 times outta 10 were good also the latter If a boat comes up and calls we will make them aware of the location of our divers and work together. Life is too short to be a tool to everyone

[austin ensor]

its good we dont have to worry about em to much up here!!

[clt_capt]

The dive charters are the worst. They'll just pull up and drop divers - Hang the flag out and start waving people off...

It has pissed me off in the past - when I was anchored up first.

I've often wondered what the slot limit is on divers

[Robja]

I figure we are going to snag one one of these days. The big dive boats at least mark an area. The first one saturday had no bouy and just a flag on the boat that was not blowing plus the guy was 40 yds outside of the center console boat. I have also wondered if they have to go by the same rules on their catches They shoot a lot of fish.

[bigfish4me]

Try tipping your jigs with a $20 bill as a trailer, structure like that does not exist up north, but we have seen them come in and take over a wreck before....i would be lying if i said i wasnt tempted to break out the old bunker snags and toss em, but calmer & cooler heads usually prevailed and we would just move on.

[FXRScotty]

I'm a dive instructer NAUI/PADI (retired) and unless we are on a wreck (moored) every pair of divers drags a flag. When it comes to curtesy people all suck. The only time I ever lost a prop was when a diver popped up in front of me in a narrow chanel and i caught a rock avoiding him. No flag. On the other hand i saw a friend pulled out of 60' of water when a blow boat ran over his flag and in hooked on the skeg. and I believe you are supposed to stay within 50 feet of the boat flag. scotty.