Fathers day fishing trip-Eventful fish

[Charter Tofino]

Gave my dad a toaster and a fishing trip today. Afternoon bite looked good so we didnt bother getting out till one. Weather forcasted 25kts but it was a beauty out there. Went pretty far for my 15fter and fished ballenas island.30 min in huge hit pops downrigger i reel in slack feel the fish briefly then nothing. Reel in and there is no hook on my coyotoe spoon? wtf? split rings fine? Oh well put on another hook start send one rod down. Just then i see a huge prawn boat prob 25-30 foot aluminum with alot of power. He is comin full speed at us so i stop and see what hes doing. Im thinking he is prob gonna slow down and talk to us as hes comin right at us. Then i realise he is not freakin stoppin. I try and get my gear up but theres no time. I turn the boat to hit the wake at the best angle. This IDIOT flys by 100 feet from us. I know he saw us! His wake was huge prob 7-8ft and breaking. **** 15 ft open boat. Im freakin as i only have seconds till it hits. Its obv gonna swamp us. Thank god it simmers down right before it hits us. I give it throttle off the first wake and get the bow up for the second. Water goes over the front but not badly. CLOSE CALL any closer and wed have been swamped easily. What the hell was this guy thinking. we were the only boat in the area tons of open space and he came over to us? Got his boat number but nothin i can really do. Back to fishing rod down to 175 cop car bang fish on. Only spotted one seal but it was obv following and i saw the fish V lining on the surface. We get him in quickly and hes in the boat with a fresh seal bite on the tail.Nice BBQ fish Call her quits after an hour cook him up for dinner. Fun fish except for the idiot. Anyone else get out?

 

[blueorca]

Kelly, I'm thinking your mum must be fairly tall!
Nice to spend they day with your Dad....a TOASTER!!!!????

 

[Charter Tofino]

Hey he broke it and we needed a new one. Moms just as short. Im the giant of the family.

 

[SIR]

Hey Kelly - do us all a favour and call the incident into the coast guard and fisheries. At least this way of he makes a habit out of doing it its going to catch up to him eventually. Might make him nervous if he gets a visit from the RCMP.

Bet you were using the stock hook on that coyote... NEVER a good idea.... think you're the third post in the last few weeks telling the same story....

 

[Charter Tofino]

I knew better i replaced most but this one was new and i got lazy. Bad call im gonna replace them all tommorow i had another bend this year as well. Garbage. Im pretty sure hes from french creek. brand new boat.

 

[tubber]

Kelly, when I was about your age I started working on commercial boats. One of the first things I learned was that in the eyes of a person in a big boat and in a hurry, sport fishers need to move out of the way, not the other way around. My boss would have said something like "They shouldn't be out here if they can't handle a bit of wake." I'm not excusing it, just beware that 100' is plenty of room to avoid collision and they really don't care if you get wet for the most part. Also, he may have been on autopilot and in the fridge or the head, especially if in open water.

 

[tubber]

Sorry, forgot to say I'm glad you are okay.

 

[Charter Tofino]

I could see him on the wheel no autopilot there. I can see a sporty moving for something large like a cargo ship or a log boom ect but this was a 25 30 footer it takes nothing.Must have been an @ss or oblvious to his wake. Either way if it had been something like a 12ft lund it could have sunk it. I see where your coming from but this wasnt the case. He wasnt even hauling gear.

 

[Red Monster]

Every boat is responsible for its wake and the danger/damage that may result. All boaters should be aware of this fact and drive with due care and attention. [}]

 

[scottyboy]

get alot of that in nootka . scotty

 

[SIR]

Hey Tubber - couldn't DISAGREE with you more. It's exactly that type of attitude on the water that creates problems. A professional should know that a 15' can be taken out by wake. Being commercial and in a hurry is no excuse for endangering the lives of others. An auto pilot is a nice to have feature to give your hands a rest but vessels are still required to keep a watch at all times while underway. Not that I'm naive enough to believe it works that way but I hate to see a post that makes it sound like it's acceptable behaviour.....

 

[mr killer]

Hey Kelly
You can get gamakatsu open eye siwash hooks that work perfect for spoons I tried those octopus hooks before too but the open eye siwash is the way to go try to match the size of the spoon to the size of the hook so you keep the perfect action on the lure, they are really easy to put on. Next time you get a hog on you don't have to worry about your hook bending I lost a few nice fish last year to the coyote hooks which are brutal. They have those Gammy's at the Screaming Reel.
That's the first thing I do now when I crack a new coyote is break the hook off and put on a good Gammy. you see how bad those hooks really are they bend so easy, you'd think they'd know better but I guess they don't care, and I keep buying their product (that's made in the US) .
Good luck on your next rip.
Mr K

 

[RobTufnail]

i use the gammys for hootchies mostly, but they work great.
the china made coyote hooks are garbage.

 

[Charter Tofino]

got nickle plated 4/0 siwash gammies. they look good ill test them out tommorow on that 4 pm bite. Weathers lookin good

 

[tubber]

http://www.sportfishingbc.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5185&SearchTerms=blue,mustads
Kelly here is an old thread about alternate hooks.

SIR, in re-reading my post, I apologise for being unclear. I am not saying that type of behaviour is acceptable at all. I was merely trying to point out that we need to be aware of the disrespectful and dangerous attitudes that exist among some commercial vessel operators in order to protect our own arses. I loved my seasons on a commercial boat, but the mentality of many in the industry at that time told me I better get out. Alcoholism, drug abuse, binge spending, marital issues, and a general sense that the world owed them something they had not earned was common place. I didn't want to end up like that. (or poor nowadays)
By the way my boat is 11'4' so I try to get out of everyone's way as many people, including sport boats, often diregard the rules of the road and forget the size of their wakes.

 

[Dirtdog67]

Hey Kelly, the same bonehead cuts me close down here in Nanaimo.. Float some rigger cable in his path as he goes by, that will fix him.. That thing sure does move eh!!-cheers dirty

 

[westcoast advneture]

I worked commecially for some time and most boats were extremely courteous to smaller boats. Sorry to hear about this bonehead. Hopefully he steps in dog poop at the dock and smears it all over the cabin of his vessel. In recent years I have noticed fewer folks know or choose to follow the rules of the road. Unfourtunately every year people are seriously messed up from this. I think the mandatory operator licensing has done little to improve operator profficiency since it has come in but people like the commercial boat in question only drive the nail into the coffin of more regulations. I renewed my masters license a few years back and it scared me at the time what regulations were on the table to be coming in. The svop seemed overkill as more charter operators spend more time on the water than most and are generally pretty nifty. The regulations have already started to come in to effect. With any luck we won't be regulated to death but maybe some of it is necessary. As a sidenote all vessels under way are requied to have a wheel watch but don't assume they do. The queen of the north is a prime example. With todays autopilots, chartplotters and built in collision alarms it is pretty easy to get lazy. I still can't believe the number of people that rely strictly on gps. Sorry about the long winded rant. Enough of this lets go fishing!