Brief rant about jet skiers.

[rboat]

That is terrible. Glad your brother is ok. I hope you can take him fishing again at some point. I keep the local G&F number in my phone and have reported idiots several times. I take down the vessel numbers on the side of the jet ski or boat and report that. They take the reports seriously and and always thank me for reporting it. I am not sure what they do after that, but it helps me feel better, just maybe, it will prevent a dangerous situation from happening to someone else.

[Buckeye Ron]

Inconsiderate people are becoming the norm every place it seems. Common courtesy is not very common at all no matter where you are or what you are doing.

When I was a kid it was water skiers coming too close to the boat. Occasionally I would fish with an older guy who would tie on a few ounces of lead and treble hooks to toss their way. They got the message soon enough.

[gulfcaptain]

Here's a bit of advice for all............WE ARE ALL RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR WAKES.  ANY DAMAGE TO ANOTHER VESSEL CAUSED BY OUR WAKES WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR.  Yes this is a rule in the CFR's.  You wake someone or they wake you and brake something, you have their ID numbers off their boat or they get yours, guess what you/they are financially responsible for all losses.  Local law enforcement should be notified and yes Jet Skies fall under these rules too, as do those useless wakeboarding boats that throw huge wakes.  The two jet skiers that caused your brother to be thrown out of the boat could have been charged with other violations as well for their actions.  People forget their are rules on the water, which 95% of people have no clue about when they buy or operate a vessel which still does not exempt them from the laws on the water.  I've almost had words with the LA County Lifeguard boat on Castiac when he almost threw me off the bow of mine as he drove by.  So be respectful and courtious, I find asking someone as opposed to screaming at them much better line of action and if they continue to operate in an unsafe manner, then a quick picture of their vessel ID numbers and a quick phone call to local law enforcement works great to report their unsafe actions.

On 9/7/2016 at 0:37 PM, DrMarlboro92 said:

So just a small update, I found out that my boat insurance will cover the lost gear, however they want a police report since it would be claimed as a boating accident, and pictures of the gear if I have it, and an estimate of what replacing it will cost. I find that a little odd since it isn't really an "accident" but rather some gear that went in the water.

 So that has had me on the phone all day. Finally figured out who I needed to contact, and filed a report with the descriptions of the jet skis and their operators. They seem pretty serious about figuring out who it was and actually gave me a personal number to call if I see the skis in a slip when I go back. 

I should have called VDGIF yesterday when it happened since now no real consequences can come of what happened. but apparently the officer wants to drop by and have a nice long talk with the owners if we can find the skis. 

Either way, thanks all for allowing me to rage a little bit, and @S. Sass thanks for reminding me about the boat insurance. I would have never thought they would cover lost gear. I guess I should read up on my policy a bit better.

Let me add to my above post, any loss of personal items, person overboard caused by another vessel IS AN ACCIDENT.  Be happy you don't have to deal with a CG Form 2692.

[the reel ess]

I despise them. I hope they all hit a stump. Interactions with, shall we say, JERKS is a major reason I bought a kayak and sought out local private places to fish. Getting a kayak is the single best thing I ever did for my bass fishing. I might be completely out of fishing by now if I hadn't done that. I only keep the big boat for winter fishing and I put it in a private reservoir.

[IndianaFinesse]

A while ago I found a good brush pile, but apparently a guy (I assume he is the person that sunk it) did not want us fishing there.  So he drove laps around us, even after I "accidently" snagged a treble hook and a half an ounce of lead in his anchor rope.  I finally thought to take out my phone and take a picture of him and notified security of him harassing us and breaking the fifty foot minimum distance between watercraft rule.  I don't usually actually snag an offending boater, but I do bounce lead sinkers off of them ruitenely when they get to close, especially back when I fished out of a canoe and idiots driving wake setters thought it was fun to try and dump it by going within ten feet of my canoe.  I didn't bring a cell phone in the canoe because of the high chance of dumping so I couldn't take a pic of them, but I could bounce led off of there shiny waxed boats and if I got really mad I snagged them.