Post by brddg on Jul 9, 2013 18:16:23 GMT -5
I dont have a bass boat, and I am the guy that drives way around the "fleet" to avoid getting too close. I dont like having other people come too close to me either, at any speed. I also dont think there is any excuse for a boat to drive as close as is described here, whether they are going 35 or 55 or 85. I wasnt there and cant tell how close it was, but 50 feet is just uncalled for and should not have happened--I hope they get their due. However, I have to tell you guys that I get a lot more frustrated with the "fleet" than I do with the bassboats, virtually every time I pull out of converse bay, apple island and a few other places on a weekend I am annoyed at some point during the day by having to go WAY around what is really a very big group of boats stretched out for a half a mile or more across the mouth of a bay or an area that a lot of boats are trying to get through. Last weekend I actually gps'd it, and I went over half a mile out of my way to avoid going through a bunch of boats trolling between keeler bay and savage island, and Ive gone significantly farther out of my way around converse and thompsons point. I do not want to be the unsafe asshole blazing through a line of boats, but having read a number of these threads here and elsewhere over the years I was actually pretty ticked off and I felt that there was a misplaced sense of indignation in these threads from this. We all have a right to be there, and if someone were to get hurt due to a boat crash it would surely be the fault of the guy driving too fast and too close, Im NOT making any excuses for that....but I have to admit that even though I went around, and even though I try very hard to be courteous in these types of situations, I have been really tempted to drive right through rather than go what I felt was an unreasonably long way out of my way to avoid the strung out fleet of trollers....besides, Im pretty sure I would have just barely been 66.67 yards from each boat and I had not seen any floating debris as was described (and on the water I really have a hard time judging 66 yards anyway)...so although I certainly don't condone it I fully see why people might choose to do so, safe, legal or not. For this reason I think it would be entirely reasonable for "the fleet" to proactively attempt to stay spread out enough at the mouth of bays and in other high-traffic areas that a boat could safely travel through without being a danger to anyone. The "fleet" strung out across the mouth of a bay or in front of a boat launch seems to me to be akin to going jogging on a busy road at night wearing black--its legal, its within your rights, and it may be other motorists responsibility to avoid you, but its clearly asking for trouble at worst or just annoying others. At the very least I think it would dramatically cut down the number of bad experiences you guys have with boats passing too close if you would at least be conscious of this in high traffic areas and on weekends, and I and I believe others would really appreciate it simply as a courtesy to the other boats on the water.