quote:You don't have to give way to a dive boat that moves in on you, but you can't move in on a dive boat that's holding position and already has a dive flag out.
The laws are pretty clear, and a dive boat can't bully you out of the area.
Play nice, I don't want to hear about any of you guys on the news.
We were fishing on a marked wreck about 20 miles off Cudjoe Key and 120’ deep last year. My wife and I were in our little 18’ epoxy dory skiff. The wreck is big, over 100’ long, and it has 4 buoys for mooring. 2 are marked Fishing Only, other 2 are marked Diving Only. We tied off to a fishing buoy, and a buddy boat came and rafted up with us. We proceeded to chum and were wearing out the yellowtails and mangrove snappers and lots of other stuff. A huge commercial dive boat came up, about 120’ long, and anchored right on top of the wreck were we were fishing. Then it put up it’s dive flags and made an announcement over his very loud hailer… ATTENTION FISHERMEN, WE ARE PUTTING DIVERS IN THE WATER> CEASE ALL FISHING! Then they dumped about 50 divers with spear guns all around us. Fishing was over with. We left. I looked up the boat name on the Net and they specialize in 3-7 day dive trips to the Bahamas, Keys, Tortugas and Marquesas. We were just an afternoon stop for them, but I sure ain’t getting into a fight in a 18’ boat against one 120’. He bullied us right out of the way.[:I] No problem. Plenty of other places to fish anyway.
I have been diving on wrecks on busy days. Usually when folks are drifting around we will put up the dive flag and a buoy and go about our business. If the hook and line folks are close enough to talk to, we just ask them not to drop anchor on top of the wreck. We like to joke and say that if your line gets cut, you got one of us.
Near the bottom or hugging the wreck, its unlikely they will snag us anyway. I’m careful that we come back up on our own anchor line, but I do worry that someone will drop a big claw anchor on one of us or that if we don’t surface at the anchor we could get hit by a moving boat. I’m not too worried about a jig or some cut bait getting hold of us.
Near the bottom or hugging the wreck, its unlikely they will snag us anyway.
I beg to differ... I used to let people fish on my boat while we were diving. There is now a "no fishing while diving rule". First time, someone almost snagged my fin, but the hook didn't stick... What if it was flesh? Second time, I felt something running on my neck. I grabbed it and quickly noticed it was braided line. Looked down and saw hooks headed right for me. If I hadn't noticed it, I would have taken a hook or two in the neck. They would have been like "GROUPER ON!!!!!"
And just so you know, both of those events were in the same day…
I think if you get hooked, you will be lucky to be able to “cut the line” before the damage is done. You could take a hook to the face, the next, the wrist, etc. And, if they pull you up 20 feet before you get your knife on, then you’ll be pissing yourself!
This man nailed it, just take turns on the drift, communicate and co-operate. On a small artificial reef everybody has to share the space and sometimes the fishing gets tight. Leave your attitude at home and bring your patience, or go to another spot that isn’t well known.
We’ve got 4 charter boats in this picture all drifting the same little wreck. We all communicate and work together and everybody catches fish. Easy.
If you think that’s crowded fishing, you should fish Boca Grande during the tarpon run [:0] You can swap sandwiches with the boats beside you.
Mid 1980’s and I took the picture. I scanned it from a color photo and saved it. Been going through a lot of old pictures and putting them on disks lately.
Capt. Al Klein on the Bottom Line, Capt Judy Helmey on the Miss Judy II, Capt. Mike Taylor on Pappy’s Toy, not pictured was Capt. Ida Knight on the Debutramp and Capt. Ed Richards on the Ollie 3, and myself on the Fishin’ Magician. There were 6 charter boats and 30 fishermen working the same spot. The fish were schooled up tight, we all took tuns making a drift, and everybody caught plenty of fish. And nobody got mad. We all came home and had some beers
A few pics from Boca Grande, the most crowded and craziest fishing I’ve ever seen. 300 + boats all making the same drift out the pass, finish the drift, go to the back of the line and do it again. Over and over. People hooking tarpon that run under 5 boats then jump over 2. People passing rods from boat to boat… It’s madness, something everybody should do, once:smiley: It’s really pretty amazing that 3 or 4 hundred boats can all work that tight and close together, and still land big fish. It’s all about cooperation and communication My first trip was a culture shock[:0] This Cracker aint never seen anything like that [:0] Got the hang of it though. Don’t think I’ll go back during the tarpon run again. Twice was enough for me. Got the T-shirts.
