Successful Meet 'N Greet

[daddyg]

What a great day...the fishing was not that good but I did hit a small school on the way back in 6 rock biggest 12 in...Sorry I missed the burgers and beer at Grumps I but it in my GPS and it sent me some where on the west side of Annap. It was not fun getting out out with Navy playing that day I just got out and headed home...{It was nice to here what happend form DOGFISH glad to see he was not hurt the yak can be fixed... I already have 2 air horns 1 for my son and me I need to figure a mount thats easy to get to and not in the way... Safety first...}

[CAGE RATTLER]

Glad to hear you all got some crabs & fish and had a nice day.

How was the wind and wave conditions over there?
I took my sea ray over to the chester river from Hart/Millers Island area and it was a little windier & choppier than I had expected. When my rocket launchers are whistling a tune, I know its more than 10 MPH wind....lol. Found nothing over there but micro dink rock & perch.
Wish I would have went south towards the area you were fishing but I was afraid conditions might get worse.

Sorry to hear about your incident Dogfish. That had to be scary as hell
Probably should have been reported in case that guy has had other similar situations of neglegent(sp?) driving. To many idiots out there that shouldnt be allowed to own a boat. Did anyone get the boats numbers? Hopefully he mans up and pays for your gear and didnt give you a phoney number.
I had a 40+ foot sailboat almost run me down a couple weeks ago and I was in a 28' Sea Ray. Didnt even hear him coming till the last minute and could not see a soul on the bridge. I blew my horn as I started my boat and hauled ass out of the way. He then come up on the bridge and just shrugged his shoulders. Someone said it earlier....... You Just Cant Fix Stupid!!!!

After reading the details of your incident, I'll be sure to be adding an air horn to my kayak and place it in easy reach. Maybe velcro'ed into one of the cup holders.

[jffoley]

Glad you're OK, Don. Wow. What a scary, scary incident. Agree with others that suggested it should be reported. Also glad the guy stepped up and promised to take care of your material losses. Good suggestion regarding keeping an air horn close at hand.

Bummed that I couldn't make this one. Sounds like a great turnout. I'll catch up at the November M&G!

[YaknBass]

Don, Wow.... !!! I have chills reading about your experience. I am very happy you were able to escape without any serious injury!!! All The Best My Friend!! GBY!!!!! PHIL

[moc]

Glad you're OK, Don. Wow. What a scary, scary incident. Agree with others that suggested it should be reported. Also glad the guy stepped up and promised to take care of your material losses. Good suggestion regarding keeping an air horn close at hand.

Bummed that I couldn't make this one. Sounds like a great turnout. I'll catch up at the November M&G!

I am glad Don is ok too. It was a good turnout from what I heard. I too was unable to make this one. Hopefully, someone else was able to get pictures of the October's M&G to share.

[eastonkayaker]

Don,

Glad you are ok! Your story really makes me thinks about those days when I am out in shallow, calm water and don't wear my PFD. After your experience wearing PFD all the time with air horn attached to it sounds like the safest thing to do. Air horn will be handy and if I do end up in the water the horn will stay with me. Sorry this happened but hopefully we all learn from it and are a little safer on the water.

[toadfinger]

Glad to hear that Don survived the collision with minor fallout. His experience has convinced me to get an airhorn, which just might attract the attention of an inattentive boater. At the very least, it will alert other boaters in the area that something is amiss.

I did not make the M&G as I had prior plans to fish the Honga again. It was so calm I paddled over to the west side of Bloodsworth and fished the shoreline and points back to the NE corner and only picked up a few shorts and barely keepers for my trouble. Paddled back across to Clay Island and fished the rip there on the outgoing and again only picked up a few fish with a couple just-keeper sized fish. No one else was doing well either, so I guess it was just a slow day in the area. Wound up at the Hooper Isl. bridge for the beginning of the incoming and same story there although the bite picked up just at dusk. We did scratch out some 19-20" keepers but it was a slow bite at best.

Steve, Greenbelt

[tufnik]

Glad you're safe, Don. Could have been serious. This makes me more untrusting of oncoming boats. I need to keep a sharper eye out, but even then, you never can tell what the boater is going to do at the last second.

Hit the water about 0730 hrs. Trolled rat-L-trap and jig/grub worm all the way to the Lighthouse. Did some casting with Rockchaser and bigfluke around the lighthouse. Nothing. The two fishing boats didn't seem to be catching anything at the lighthouse either. Pic - Rockchaser looking for fish

Thanks for organizing this, Don.

[medicyaker]

Glad you're ok Don, Glad I could be there to help you get your gear out of the water. Not sure you had enough stregnth to do it yourself. I wanted to ask you if you notified DNR or any other authority before you got back to shore or if you did it since. That guy should not be operating a motor vessel!!!! Glad you are ok and the yak will be fixed. Poeple say there is always a lesson to be learned after this and I'm not sure there is in this case. I'm sure you didn't need to learn one and not sure the guy that hit you will learn anything either. One can hope he did. I know I'm gonna buy an air horn before I go out again, most likely next spring now.

[DOGFISH]

Thanks. I have actually found an air horn with a velcro type of lanyard, to attach to a vest. It is made for a PWC, but hey, it is perfect for a kayak. I used to carry a similar air horn all the time. It got older, rusted and stopped working. I am going to buy a few of the horns. I am also going to get a floatation vest with orange in it. Although, I don't know how much more orange I could have had. I was wearing a hunter orange fleece hoody and had a 12" x 18" orange YakAttack flag. One can never be careful enough out on the water.

Again, thanks for your help. Looks like all my stuff will be covered under his insurance. I may also now get a bit larger kayak, like a PA. All in all, it was quite a scary experience. I didn't report it to DNR. I am just glad to get the whole event behind me. The one thing I learned is to not take the boaters experience for granted. Just like drivers, they are all different.

[tufnik]

Dogfish,
Is there there some kind of light or strobe beacon we could use during the day? I wonder if it's an OK practice to flash the oncoming boat as a warning. Often times I see oncoming boats and I'm not quite sure if they see me. So I'm thinking I could make a couple of hey-see-me flashes toward the boat as an early warning signal.

[Southerly]

the rowers are up before most fishermen! they are commonly using red flashers now. they're quite noticeable at night. not sure about daylight, but almost expect not.

i believe i recently read that the official Coast Guard position on flashing lights is that they are not recommended. not sure if that means illegal exactly but i would not expect trouble so long as i wasn't in an area fouling up navigation with unusual light signals.

like i said, rowers are popularly using them now, and i think to good effect for their pre-dawn exercise.

[tufnik]

Couldn't we just turn it on for a few seconds until the boat passes by?

Something like this recreational strobe might do.

http://www.kayakanglersproshop.com/i...110&Itemid=145

[medicyaker]

I suggest we go a step further, (and I bet Don may agree) why not just get a flare gun and if a PBer gets too close we light the sucker up. I'm sure a flare coming at them at 280-350fps would get their attention. I don't mean to make light of the accident that nearly killed one of our own, but we need to bring this to the attention of the powers that be. There should be an awareness promo of some type for the smaller vessels out there. There are milions spent every year on the awareness of Motocycles on our nations hwys. As a Firefighter and Diver, Ive personally recovered the body's of 2 poeple killed on Jet Skis that were runover by a Powerboater. I don't know what we could do about this other that pray it doesn't happen again. Thanks for letting me vent.

[DOGFISH]

Couldn't we just turn it on for a few seconds until the boat passes by?

Something like this recreational strobe might do.

http://www.kayakanglersproshop.com/i...110&Itemid=145

I know. I have been looking at those same strobes at the store. I don't see why they would not work. I am going to use all safety means, when I get back out on the water.