OC 7/14/07...NOT MUCH OF A REPORT

[Caveman Sportfishing]

On Saturday we were on a real nice Bluefin very away from the fleet north of Massey's with just a few boats trolling by us. A small outboard with two or three saw us backing down some and preceded to troll over top of our line with the fish on it. Just about everyone on our boat was waving and shouting but it did not do any good as the fellows in the small boat just kept coming and actually waved back in a freindly manner. I think they had no clue and as mentioned in previous posts did not do this on purpose. Any one that has commerical fished for GBT down in MHC, NC knows how nasty it can get and it gets old real fast as it does up here. In my opinion there are many boats big and large that just lack the experience to know what wwwwwwwwback really means. Many of my charters this season have their own small boats and are amazed how far we fish our lines back. We have all our reels spooled with Jerrry Brown and mono top shots and can easily fish them 400 yards plus if we choose and still have lots of line left on the reels since we have them spooled with spectra. We use almost all 50's and stay away from the 80's and 130's as everything is stand-up on our boat these days as we took the chair off a few years ago. Bottom line is I hate all the crap and it undermines what fishing should be and I really believe that too many people do any of this on purpose but just lack some basic knowledge on what's happening on the tuna grounds. I have messed up also at times by not paying attention and am far from faultless. Fishing should be fun and enjoyable without all the crap on the radio and I wish we would all show some consideration while out on the water along with driving the highways during the crazy busy summer months. The way I look at it is there are far more important things in my life than getting upset when fishing such as my young grandchildren and my mother's ongoing fight against cancer.

[hotrodmarlin]

I did hear some guy on the radio on Sat and he would only say "center console behind me, you are going to run over my lines!" He said it at least 10 times yet never described the cc, never said where he was or what HIS boat looked like. How the heck is anyone supposed to know who he was referring to.

This happens all the time and it irritates the hell out of me!

[dman25]

I guess it's not as universal as I thought but more than a few of the big Oc. boats I've been on call all small boats Gw's. Does'nt matter to me how you guys Id boats but being more specific would ease alot of tension. Also one thing I heard which was ridiculous was more than one small boat who did'nt know port from starboard. If a guy asks you to turn port and you turn starboard and run over his rigs he has a right to be mad. It's just too bad there's no better way to coordinate the deal, but atleast the guys on here can have a productive dialogue. I do have to say that I'd much rather troll in a fleet of the big boys than the small boats so don't think I'm bad mouthing the big boat crowd. Noone has taught me more than those guys.

[RUGGERDUDE]

DMAN - I heard the same thing on the radio about port and starboard. We figured it was only going to get ugly so we decided to find another piece of the ocean. We have a pretty good idea of what we are doing out there and run our lines back far and honestly its always the smaller boats like mine that we keep an eye on. The bigger charter guys typically respect the distance and things run smoothly.

[#1Gaffman]

I don't think we "charterboat guys" ***** at small boats for cutting our stuff off to feel superior to anybody or to enjoy a stereotyping.

I know there are many weekend small boaters that do very well and are very knowledgeable, but there are many more that do not realize how far WWWB really is, and for some reason don't understand flailing arms and waving and horns blowing.

I don't believe that anyone intentionally cuts anyone off, but it is very frustrating (and costly) to have to respool 80's and 130's and lose islanders and fluoro and 10/0 mustads on such a regular basis. I try to wind my stuff out of the way, but when we are fishing 2 or 3 reels 300 to 500 yards back it just isn't possible.

Will, sorry you lost the mystery fish. Dman, good going on your yft and gaffer.

Franky, you hit the nail on the head.

I to agree there are some good fisherman that are weekend warriors. Because the Yellowfin fishing has been so slow the last couple of weeks weve been bluefining like everyone else. Its so frustrating to watch a CC or any boat in that matter just cut right in my spread literally 150 feet off the transom. I guess they figure because they dont see my bird there fine. But i run my longs more than half a spool.

[John Rogers]

Will, will gettem next time thanks for the trip.

It was a mad house out there for sure. It was actually funny with the people on the radio, atleast we had some entertainment why we weren't catching anything. pretty sure we had a billfish of some sort. Well it was a nice day out there can't wait to get back out there.

[sling]

Since I fish on a GW, I try like hell to stay away from the fleet because I know I'm a marked man . Sounds like Saturday was worse than usual. Something for the charters to consider is not all small boat owners can recognize your voices and associate you with a given boat. They also may not know the model of your boat by looking at it so a description may help with some, but I suspect there will still be enough unknowing souls to cause trouble, especially if they don't know port fron starboard! For the record, I don't believe I've ever cut someone's line, but I have had mine cut twice, both times by charter boats, both times there was a bird visible and neither time did the charter respond to radio calls. There are charter boats out there that don't believe small boats should be in the same ocean and I find it best to stay far away from the fleet whenever possible. Hell, I had one harassing me out at the 461 bump once and we were the only two boats there that day!

[ultangler]

I found the radio a little more "sad" than "entertaining" last Sat; especially with kids onboards, and more than one captain getting crude/nasty/threatening. I'm trying to introduce them to a wonderful experience, and htey really don't need to hear that stuff. Yes, I've been cut off too (ironically, most often by charters) and feel the pain but frankly, on a sunny weekend in our region, if you're fishing a WWWB on a known hotspot you have to expect it's probably going to be cut off at one point or another. There are just too darn many boats out there, period, and there's no sense whatsoever in getting pissed off about it. And yes, it's really pointless when someone comes on and shouts "center console you're going to run over my lines" over an over again, without any more description of either boat (there was one guy yelling this non-stop all day.) It's a shame, but a reality.