Water Etiquette and Fishing

[salecreekaviator]

There is a lot of discussion on water safety and rightly so. I have been on the water about 3 or 4 days a week for the last three summers and have seen some crazy folks, especially from Chester Frost/HB to the dam. It is like NASCAR and NHRA running at the same time in the Hamilton Place parking lot. I am just this summer starting to fish so my past activity has been exclusively boat touring, tubing, water chiggering, etc. I have had full throttle experiences of watercraft blowing by within 50-100 feet of my boat or downed skier when I am totally out of the way, outside the channel bouys. Saturday we were getting a tuber back on the tube, south of the Hwy 60 bridge (about mile 495.8 if you are guilty), outside the green channel marker. The water is almost a mile wide and a bass boat blasted past us within 100 feet doing what seemed 90 but was probably 60-70. Totally inexcusable. emoEnforce That is a safety issue and just stupid (or maybe handicapped by lead poisoning from sucking on their sinkers!)

Another aspect is simply water etiquette, so this is where I am going to show my ignorance.

I know the safest distance from a fisherman would be to keep the chiggers on dry land but what is considered to be a polite distance to not disturb you guys and/or the fish? There must be a community hot spot out on the channel drop in front of my house as there are normally 1 or 2 boats fishing a particular spot during most daylight hours. I always try to give them a wide berth when for etiquette sake. Water distance can fool you but I try to stay what I think is at least 300 yards from fisherman or general boaters. I know that is a safe distance but is that a courteous distance? I have often wondered if I am giving the guys enough room. I am not close enough to see any hand gestures and they don't fire up and leave so I assume either I am not crowding them or the fishing is still really good. I haven't risked puttering over to ask.

 

[rsimms]

As for "Safest Distance," between boaters/swimmers... there are no set rules.

But if you want a "legal definition" to use as a guideline, as for Commercial Boat Docks, Tennessee Boating regs say, " Unless otherwise marked, all vessels operating within 300 feet of a commercial boat dock must do so at a slow wake speed regardless of whether or not the area is marked by buoys. "No wake" is defined as a vessel traveling at or below idle speed, or at such speed that the boat or its wake (waves) is not sufficient to cause possible injury or damage to other persons, boats, or property."

Of course depending upon the "lay of the lake," 300 feet from other boats/swimmers may not always be possible, or advisable. Basically I try not to run any closer to anyone else, than I would want them running by me.

More info here: http://www.state.tn.us/twra/boatingregs.html

... and here: http://www.state.tn.us/twra/pdfs/roadrules.pdf

 

[bent rod]

I have experienced both in the past month, good and bad. It is annoying. Doc1 and I were fishing a narrow channel on the river and had a cruiser slow down till they passed us. Then this past Wed., Mallerdecho and I were fishing about 50 yrds. off a bank and had a boat idle between us and the bank, all the while, Bill was hollaring and flashing his light, they didn't even look as they passed yards(very few)from us. This was Tims Ford. Maybe someone could suggest that a boat might be considered a lethal weapon and that carry permits are legal on the water. Merrily a suggestion emoSmile

 

[AThornton]

emoLaugh emoLaugh

 

[Guest]

There was a guy last year in a red Lund boat fishing at the nuke. The white bass were jumping and this guy ( as were the rest of us) was slaying the whites. A barge was coming up river and began blasting his horn. All of us but this idiot in the Lund gave the barge plenty of room . The Lund just sat there and kept fishing while the barge kept coming and blowing his horn all the way. The barge got even closer and REALLY was laying on the horn. You could hear the tug behind the barge back down the engines and start to slow. This fool still didn't move untill the barge got within about 100 feet of sending him to the bottom of the river. As the Lund goofball cranked up and drove off he flipped the barge pilot off. Now is that etiquette or what!