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Good Fishing Mid Bay 6-4-10 but Very Close Call Today

Fishing Report 
9K views 28 replies 20 participants last post by  GradyBaby 
#1 · (Edited)
The predicted gusts to 20 Kts were realized this morning. Glad we had Simon's 32' to slice the considerable seas in the AM.



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We started at the targets and quickly limited out. Most fish were suspended in small pods. We stayed away from the trollers but one charter boat started bearing down on us as we were drifting. I asked Simon if he thought the captain saw us. Simon gave several blasts on the horn which is pretty loud. The boat kept plowing towards our port side. Simon started both engines just in time and applied all 500 ponies to avoid what would have been a certain collision. There was no one at the helm of the charter boat at all. We asked the captain if he was crazy and all he could do was throw up his arms. He then rapidly moved out of the area and headed for the Patuxent. I guess the moral of the story is that not all professional captains are competent all the time. This one was grossly negligent today. The captain's website claims over 25 years experience. Anyone can make a mistake but this one could have killed someone. Enough of that--back to fishing.

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We did not get around to taking pics of Simon's fish today (he caught some nice ones), so I will include a pic of a fly caught striper from our trip to Cape Cod last week.
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We headed north and found small pods of fish in 38' to 42' of water over several miles. We saw no birds at all working today. This was a day of staring at the FF all day. Very few fish were on the bottom. Most were just above or below a thermo cline. Fish were caught on white bucktails, green BKDs and green or white sassy shad. Action remained steady from 7 AM until 3 PM. The ebb tide lasted longer than usual with the strong NE wind. The flood tide was a weak one and the fishing slowed.

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Here is one that grabbed a green sassy worked slowly.
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It was a gorgeous day on the bay and the fish fed aggressively. Hope to fish Mon, Tues and Wed next week.<o:p></o:p>
 
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#4 ·
bill....was it a red charter boat?......last year i had a charter come very close to hitting me while I was drifting and it was trolling......captain appologized but was not at the helm....i had to get out of the way or else it would have hit us......
 
#5 ·
No Pete it was not red and I know exactly which boat it was. An apology would have been nice. I think the captain was embarrassed or perhaps concerned that we may call the CG. He lit out of there right after it happened. I do not believe it was intentional. It was a good quality 40 foot fiberglass boat. There would have been considerable damage to both boats. Simon and I would have been T-boned, most certainly injured and perhaps worse. No captain wants that. The captain was back in the stern and not paying attention at all to where his boat was heading. Stuff happens out there, and like on the highway, we must watch out for all other boats--professionals, rookies and drunks.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:eek:ffice:eek:ffice" /><o:p></o:p>
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#7 ·
Not sure if he had autopilot or not but the results were the same. Any of us who have run a boat for a number of years have looked up and been surprised at what is front of us a time or two, but this captain was not near the wheel to do anything except T-bone us. My alerting Simon to the impending crash and his quick reactions saved us.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:eek:ffice:eek:ffice" /><o:p></o:p>
 
#8 ·
Hey Bill and Simon (I know you are reading this too:wink44: )

Sounds like your plan came together and you found some nice fish! Glad you guys avoided that close call, sounds like "some" captain needs to pay a little better attention. That could have resulted in one serious accident. Glad you guys were paying attention and Simon fired up those 500 horses to get you out of the way.

Thanks for putting together a :rockingreport: and nice :photo4:

Maybe see you out there next week:thumbup::fishing2:
 
#9 ·
I think most have had close calls on the water - points out how important it is to keep a sharp eye out and never assume the other boat sees you.

More and more boats now have auto pilots - these are great but can lead to close calls.

The strong north / north east breeze combined with out going current might have carried the boat faster then the captain realized.
Sounds like they had a fish on - bet he mis judged the speed he was approaching you at.

Still could have called you on VHF and said - Oops or Sorry.

I came within about 200 feet of the only other boat near us on Friday. I was in cockpit and assumed the two guys in the helm area were watching for boats , crab pots , etc. Other boat approached from port - even though by law I had right of way - still called him on VHF to apologize. No big deal at all.

I often say it in a joking way - but a lot of truth to it. If there are only two boats out there , damn if they will not hit each other.

Seen it 60 miles off shore and in the bay as well. No one else around but the other boat and you end up on a collision course. Look at history of wrecks - many times two ships collide out in the middle of no where.

Hopefully the captain will realize the close call and be more careful in future. Some charters seem to like to troll - IMHO - too close to other boats. I've been on some that came withing 20 feet of other boats that were hooked up.
 
#10 ·
I think most have had close calls on the water - points out how important it is to keep a sharp eye out and never assume the other boat sees you.

I often say it in a joking way - but a lot of truth to it. If there are only two boats out there , damn if they will not hit each other.

Seen it 60 miles off shore and in the bay as well. No one else around but the other boat and you end up on a collision course. Look at history of wrecks - many times two ships collide out in the middle of no where.
 
#12 ·
Congratulations on some good fishing, Bill. Good info about that very well-defined western shore thermocline in the mid bay. I noticed fish holding on it today as well. A friend shared some of those green sassy shads with me, and I've actually used them a few times but I think I need some good hands-on instruction!
 
#16 ·
Congratulations on some good fishing, Bill. Good info about that very well-defined western shore thermocline in the mid bay. I noticed fish holding on it today as well. A friend shared some of those green sassy shads with me, and I've actually used them a few times but I think I need some good hands-on instruction!
Thanks Shawn-

We need to fish together some time. The best thing to do with shads is to not work them like BA's or BKD's. They are great for suspended fish.
 
#15 ·
Had a similar situation today with a sailboater south of 84. Came hard at us in our spread, didn't even see us until he snagged a line and ran with it. Hopefully he ran into a bouy or rocks later in the afternoon. He was to busy glassing off in the distance to notice us 20 yards away.
 
#28 ·
Glad to hear you avoided that, Bill. I defintely try to stay off the beaten path these days. The fishing is better and it's safer. That said, I had too close a call with a small boat last year whose dim lights blended in with lights on shore.



So what was the scenario here? Was he under sail?
 
#20 ·
Both boats have an obligation to avoid collisions. Thankfully an accident was avoided. Good Job staying alert. Nice Job on the fish.
I agree. Pretty tough to avoid collisions when no one is near the wheel or looking out ahead. It is like a ghost boat at that point. Yes, we should all look out for boats with no active captain. Trouble is it is a little difficult to tell if a captain is at the helm of a pilot house boat that is heading right at you. When charters do not have boards out, some troll very close to other boat that are drifting. At first that is what I thought he was doing, but when the boat remained lined up with the middle of our boat, it became apparent that the captain was not paying attention.
 
#21 ·
Good post. Always enjoy reading about your fishing trips. The narrow miss is another reminder why we have to keep our heads up on the water.
 
#23 ·
Yes, lets talk about sailboats and their captains, and how they try to hold a course that will keep them away from the trolling crowd, but the trolling guys change course to bring themselves across the bow of a sailboat under canvas then cry and moan about the sailing captain snagging all the trolling gear on the keel. Do you really want to start this discussion? If a captain with years of both sailing and trolling experience can't avoid conflict with trollers while making every effort to do so, I guess that captain should just stay at the dock, eh? What say you, sir?
Pat in Joppa
 
#26 ·
Thanks for the report and sorry to hear about the close call. I have a question about working the sassy shads, if you don't mind me asking. Were you just casting them out, counting down, and slowing reeling them back or just letting them fall through the water column after the cast? I've had luck trolling sassy shads behind my yak when traveling between spots, but I haven't had much luck intentionally targeting suspended fish.
 
#29 ·
Bill its always great to see your pics every summer from the Cape catching big Rock. I always wanted to take my boat up there but never seem to get around to doing it. I did catch some nice fish in Alaska if you saw my post. You need to try that one day jigging 16oz with rubber down 200 ft for Ling Cod and Halibut. I wonder how some of those large baits of yours would do? Off to maui next week to try for Marlin and big Dorado wish me luck and happy fishing.
 
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