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This is not merely a kayak only affair. The sporties have equal angst against all small craft in LJ and rightly so IMO. I have worked for Tim V. many moons ago and have seen first hand what pBers and yakkers do to the sporties while they sit on anchor chumming up seals and a few fish if they are lucky. More often than not some fukin jackass thinks its okay to come within spitting distance and fishes off the bow, down the side, and through the chum line in the stern.
It gets old real quick. While they should never charge down on someone I can understand their motovation and anger. Those of us that know better need to inform others about some basic fishing etiquette. Example--Fishing with a friend who is new to being a weekend captain. He thinks its okay to fish right on top of the sportie. I told him this is a baaad idea and that if I wanted to fish that boats chum line I would have bought a ticket. He truly thought it was okay. I had to stop fishing to get my point across. He finally moved off the sportie and we found plenty of our own fish. Point is there are tons of guys like this and the sporties get sick of it.
They are out there every single day working and dealing with moochers in their chum slicks and people fishing waaaaayy too close to their boat. It happens in LJ, Pt loma, and the islands. Novice boaters who cant find their own fish get under the skin of captains who eventually let off a little steam and mess with a small craft or yakker. Its unfortunate and its one of those two wrongs dont make a right kinda situation.
What can be done about it? Reporting it is great. If it turns out to be a few asshole captains then the problem will be temporarily solved. Another approach would be to pass along some basic rules of the sea to our fellow kayakers and small craft weekend captains. If we respect the sport boats fishing space as well as other private boaters and yakkers fishing space things like this would not happen and fishing out there would be more enjoyable.
Find your own fish and fish with respect for others space.
....and those boats dont idle at 7knts. They cruise at 7 to 10knts and can easily idle slower and produce little to no wake. How fast are they going when making a chum circle and how much wake is there? Trying to say the the boat idles at seven kts is a weak agrument to the large wake that swamps kayakers they get way tooo close to. They can slow down and should when approaching small craft at sea. From their vantage point they can see everything clearly and should navagate with caution and respect for others.
the end
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