[stevie1]

Well its very early in the bass fishing season and i've already had a run in with a jet skier.

This past Sunday we had a club tournament on Sandusky Bay. After fighting 5-7' and i'm sure there were a couple of 9' swells, I came in to the boat launch, white knuckled and all, to drop my partner off to go get my truck.

He pulls the trailer into the water next to a jet-ski who was launching. The jet skier floats off the trailer and guns it and gets stuck on my boat trailer. The idiot starts making these jestures and he is actually getting mad at me. Meantime there are approx. 15 boats behind me waiting for this moron to get off my trailer.

Too early in the season for this crap!!!

 

[mark1110]

as a jetskier, i must defend those of us that are not jerks. and yes being a boater as well i know there are plenty of people on PWC who should not be allowed to take a bath let alone ride a jet ski. that being said, some of us actually respect recreational boaters and anglers. i have noticed that riding a jet ski is akin to a street bike you have to be always alert and aware of the people who can't seem to drive a boat. people dont see us and they dont care to acknowledge us if they do. i apoligize for this and all other as**ole's who cause trouble. just know we are not all like that. if we all follow the rules there is more than enough water for all us.

 

[stevie1]

Mark1110

I understand that not all jet skiers are like this guy. But the thing that got to me was this guy getting mad at me. He couldn't control his watercraft and did damage to my trailer .

If i was in this guys shoes and lost control of my boat, I'd be the first one up there apologizing for my behavior!

 

[No More Mini]

Steve,

I have had my share....almost killed a guy that wanted to pass me coming around the point of metro (hard north wind travelling from the south and I anticipated the water on the other side, he didnt and dumped it 20 feet off my port bow. Needless to say we spoke at the ramp, he didnt even realize I came within 10 feet of his life.

I AVOID PWC's while on plane......the risk is not worth the idiot behind the wheel. I am not saying that they are ALL idiots, but why would I trust a weekend warrior that has spent half his check on being the next Xgame highlight film?

Mini

 

[djkimmel]

Boat ramps were great cheap entertainment even before jet skis were spawned by Hades (or wherever they came from).

I must not hate all jet skis. I've save many of their lives by not running them down when they blindly cut across in front of my boat while I'm going as fast or faster than them.

I even rescued the jet skier who swamped his rig out by the shipping channel a few years back and towed his floundering rig in. I actually did it because he had his young son with him in 63F water. He was very upset because a lot of boats had gone by without stopping to help. He was near panic when we pulled up. His son was really cold and in the uncontrollable shivering stage. It's sad that a few have made things so bad that people wouldn't help one in trouble, but he also should know better than to head offshore unprepared too, especially with a young child.

 

[madman24]

living in oakland county and fishing busy lakes such as cass lake, white lake, pontiac lake, and tipsico, i have had many an expereince with jet skiiers aka floating idiots. NOT ALL are idiots. i have been known to take the occasional ride myself. i have seen some stupid people doing some stupid things.

while fishing a tournament on white lake last year, a jet skiier thought it might be fun to do 3,000 circles about 20 ft from where my boat was while where we were fishing. i asked the guy to give us some space and told him that we were fishing in a tournament. he replied " its a free lake man, go somewhere else"! i tied on a 1 oz jig and made a powerful side arm cast. the jig smashed the side of his jet ski with a pretty loud bang. he was pretty mad at this point and asked what the hell i was doing. i told him that the spot i wanted to fish was just on the other side of him and i figured it being a free lake and him having the option to move to another area, that it would be no problem to cast there.

he invited me back to shore to "talk" things over. he followed me about 3/4 of the way back, then he yelled some naughty words my way and took off.

my cousin almost lost her life to a jet skiier. her and my aunt and uncle went out on a lake in oregon for a day of fun on the boat. they were tubing and a jet skiier kept coming up behind my cousins tube to hit her waves. they had asked the person to stop a few times and the guy would back off for a few minutes. but when he came back one of the times, he hit her so hard that she flew 30 feet in the air and she was split from just below her neck to just below her waste. she was born with only one good kidney and faced problems all her life. now because of the stupidity and care;lessness of another, she has lost her only good kidney, had to undergo 2 kidney transplants and has to do dialisys (sp?) every week. she is constantly in the hospital and her life expectancy has been cut in half.

in short i would just like to say to the jet skiiers, use your heads. remember that water is dangerous. boats dont have breaks and its not as easy to see something that small as some might think. dont put yourself or anyone else at risk or you may get a 1 oz jig upside the head. AND STOP HURTING MY LOVED ONES, and other peoples loved ones

madman himself

 

[Daytonian]

I recently heard "lake lice" are close to being banned from some Ohio lakes due to these types of things. An ODNR official told me last year they are also one of the leading causes of shoreline erosion, which is a major problem to many Ohio lakes.

 

[stevie1]

Madman

That sucks!

 

[djkimmel]

Jet skiers have been an abnormally higher percentage of watercraft mortality for some time now.

Madman, I hope that jetski idiot went to prison, but I know it doesn't happen enough. Does anyone know what eventually happened in the case where the lady ran down the swimmer at Metro Beach? I never heard the end, just that someone was suing the owner of the jet ski.

 

[liptonbuddy]

I wonder when it will be legal to fish for jet skiers. You know, dangle a few huge bait hooks with endless amounts of barbs off the side of a bridge hopefully to snag some jet skiers! Just kidding, I wouldn't want to scare the fish because of the guy who has a #1 size hook sticking out of his jugular vein kicking and screaming and making too much noise! Man, my karma's gonna come4 back and bite me in the rear for this post! Oh well, I'm ready for it! Come and get me bad karma! MWUHAHAHAHAHA!

 

[djkimmel]

liptonbuddy,
I think the kids now-a-days are wearing stuff like what you described on purpose already.

Years ago, I proposed a hunting season on jet ski's through MUCC Region III. I didn't want to eradicate them, just thin them out a little - two per person per day. Sadly, no one took me completely seriously.

 

[Icet]

QUOTE(djkimmel @ May 22 2003, 11:47 PM)Boat ramps were great cheap entertainment even before jet skis were spawned by Hades (or wherever they came from).

I must not hate all jet skis. I've save many of their lives by not running them down when they blindly cut across in front of my boat while I'm going as fast or faster than them.

I even rescued the jet skier who swamped his rig out by the shipping channel a few years back and towed his floundering rig in. I actually did it because he had his young son with him in 63F water. He was very upset because a lot of boats had gone by without stopping to help. He was near panic when we pulled up. His son was really cold and in the uncontrollable shivering stage. It's sad that a few have made things so bad that people wouldn't help one in trouble, but he also should know better than to head offshore unprepared too, especially with a young child.
Good move, hope a few folks realize how many bass boats are out there and how many times they help people.

 

[djkimmel]

I even towed a tuna boat from up in the Sny to the Clinton River once. That was fun.