Tips on meeting Canoer's and Kayakers

[rktman]

I run the upper end of the Eleven Point and often meet Canoes and Kayaks.
I usually slow down and idle until they pass if possible (especially if they have little kids) but if your boat is in the really thin stuff, you just cant do that without bottoming out.
The perception by many is that slowing down creates less wake but coming off plane usually creates a bigger wake.
What do you do to be accommodating to the canoers in your area?

 

[handyandy]

If your coming to a skinny spot that you know you have to keep on it, slow down before hand, try to look, and make sure no one is coming before getting back on it. In some cases though I know you can't always see all the way up a long skinny stretch, and it just is what is go around them as far as you can.

 

[RiverBottomOutdoors]

Idle by where necessary or practical. Otherwise, stay on on plane. Paddlers do not have a right of away on the water. They have just as much responsibility as all other boats to avoid collision. They also have a responsibility to yield to vessels that are less maneuverable (ie require more water to navigate such as a channel). This rule applies to everyone on the water.

 

[crazymanme2]

You as a boater are liable for your wake & its actions.

 

[handyandy]

Have to do what you can like I said when your coming to a spot that you have to keep it hammered down, look first for on comers then go if it's clear. If your going past them in spots you can go slower than do so. Some days it's hard some areas during the summer can get pretty crowded.

 

[richg99]

Speaking as both a power-boater and as a kayaker....unless the area where I am fishing in my kayak is extremely narrow, I'd far rather that a power-boater would move as far away as possible and KEEP ON PLANE.

The wake pushed by a boat on plane is less than the wake pushed when a heavy boat slows way down. This is just my personal observation and opinion. richg99

 

[TNtroller]

Speaking as both a power-boater and as a kayaker....unless the area where I am fishing in my kayak is extremely narrow, I'd far rather that a power-boater would move as far away as possible and KEEP ON PLANE.

The wake pushed by a boat on plane is less than the wake pushed when a heavy boat slows way down. This is just my personal observation and opinion. richg99

x2

 

[archery68]

Here is the deal that most on here do not know. Lots of these people in these canoes/kayaks/tubes are drunk!!!! Not all but many. They know where you have to run and they try to block your way on purpose. They are not nice and could give two craps about you, anyone in your boat or your boat itself. It's the hey lets go rent a tube or canoe and get plastered on the river and drop f bombs in front of little kids and expose them self. They are the problem not jet boaters. Treat them like a half exposed tree in the water, (root wad) !!!! Get real close but don't hit em. I have experienced the idiot drunks no more. I go to the parts of the river where they aren't.


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[Captain Ahab]

I try and drop to no wake speed BEFORE you get next to them and give them a wide berth. No experience with drunk yakkers where I am


As was correctly stated you are responsible for your wake - I know you leave less wake on plane then off - unless you drop to a speed slow enough so that it is no wake

Zipping by up on plane is just asking for trouble

 

[S&MFISH]

I have no kind words for them. Around here they think they OWN the water. Kind of like the bicyclist, they OWN the road. The law says we need to give way, BUT it should go both ways.
I had a group paddle between me and the bank while I was casting about 15ft from the bank. There was 30-40 ft between me and the other bank. I've never wanted to 'Firehose' someone so bad, ever.




RUDE

 

[richg99]

Well, some of them never held a fishing rod in their hands, so they have NO IDEA about fishing etiquette.

I've never run into a drunk yakker yet, so I guess it is just the location that you boat in.

This suggestion though "Get real close but don't hit em. " is about the dumbest thing I've ever read on this site, and tells us why we have some of the differences of opinion as to who is wrong /right on the water. Would you do that to a power boater??

Sheesh..... richg99

 

[rktman]

To be fair, we also get the rude drunks floating in our area.
It does make you ticked off when some drunk ahole flips you the bird while you have little kids in the boat.

 

[sunshine]

I meet them with a wave and a smile, just as I would anyone else.

They sometimes gesture that I'm Number 1 back!

 

[KMixson]

I have been on both sides. In my canoe and boat I try to stay clear of all fishermen to give them their space. Don't crowd them. I am fishing out of my canoe also. In my boat I would try to stay clear of canoes and kayaks because I know how unstable they can be, being that my canoe is very unstable compared to most canoes. Now if I am anchored fishing and someone comes real close I shrug it off as them either not knowing what I am doing or them just being rude. I get over it real quick. I guess fishing calms my nerves. The rudest one I have seen yet was a bass boat pass my canoe on his left within ten feet while on full plane in a turn to the right which almost tipped me over. I was anchored at the time. The SC DNR just happened to see it and as I left the area they were still holding him. It comes down to treating others the way you would want to be treated.

 

[Lil' Blue Rude]

I have no kind words for them. Around here they think they OWN the water. Kind of like the bicyclist, they OWN the road. The law says we need to give way, BUT it should go both ways.
I had a group paddle between me and the bank while I was casting about 15ft from the bank. There was 30-40 ft between me and the other bank. I've never wanted to 'Firehose' someone so bad, ever.




RUDE

I second this! I will say there are a few good ones that know about a jet boat and want you to blow by them on plane and realize that some time you need to stay on plane to keep from hitting. Others come down to our back yard from St. Louis or Illinois for their one day of getting plastered (no offense to any one on here) and think they own the place and can tell us what we can and can't do. What really makes me mad is a local canoe rental place has started using the public boat ramp to pull canoers out and they park right in the way to were us jet boaters can't even pull up to the bank let alone get our trailers back in to load are boats. Canoes all over the middle of the ramp canoes strung up both sides of the ramp and drunks every were. The bad part is there a huge gravel bar not 200yrds up river that another canoe rental uses to pull out at. There's plenty of room for both of them to pull out and heaven forbid you even think of putting you boat in up there. A guys boat broke down and he was already at that upper gravel bar so he just walked down to his truck and loaded his boat up there and you'd thought it was the end of the world. Don't even get me started on the girls that tried to hit me with a handful of gravel when I was riding on day. She wasn't even in a canoe! Needless to say Van Buren, Mo is NOT hot boat friendly and I will never boat ride there again.

 

[overboard]

We fish an area for Shad where plenty of kayaks, canoes, and rafts come floating down the river. When some of them get too close to the anchored boat, I mean really close, I just start hollering: Watch out , there's some really sharp hooks back there, seems to work every time and they make a quick effort to get further away from the boat! Sometimes they sneak up on us and cause us to break anchor because they ran into the anchor line. At least you can usually hear a bunch of them coming from a distance so we can be watching them! :roll:
When we used a 16' Duranautic, we always slowed down when approaching canoes or kayaks. Going upriver I think it made a bigger wake by slowing down than under power, but it kept them happy!

 

[JL8Jeff]

The kayakers around here seem to be pretty mellow and friendly. I always have conversations with them when I'm floating and they paddle by. When I'm going upstream and see kayakers I try to go as far around them as possible to keep the wake to a minimum. If it's a thin area and there are tubers or kayakers then I'll stop before reaching the thin area and idle by. I usually try to keep an eye on my wake when it reaches the kayaks, canoes, tubers just in case somebody tips over.

 

[AllOutdoors]

Speaking as both a power-boater and as a kayaker....unless the area where I am fishing in my kayak is extremely narrow, I'd far rather that a power-boater would move as far away as possible and KEEP ON PLANE.

The wake pushed by a boat on plane is less than the wake pushed when a heavy boat slows way down. This is just my personal observation and opinion. richg99

Well said Sir.
I stay away as far as possible. When it's skinny I keep on plane. I'm not going to beach my boat. I always try to look and make sure my wake doesn't cause any trouble.

 

[Ictalurus]

What really makes me mad is a local canoe rental place has started using the public boat ramp to pull canoers out and they park right in the way to were us jet boaters can't even pull up to the bank let alone get our trailers back in to load are boats.

YES!!! This is extremely frustrating. :evil:

We don't have the canoe rental place, but the local lake has seen an increase in kayakers over the last few years. Mind you this is a TWRA fishing lake, it's not a big deal but they are loud, yelling at each other and you can hear the echo of their paddles slapping the plastic across darn near the entire lake. I sure hope they have to pay the use/fishing fee used to manage the lake, but I doubt it.

Plus usually some yuppie in an Xterra (no offense to anyone) w/ a yakima or thule rack always seems to pull up and use the whole ramp to unload their "yak" and then proceed to park in the lot where the sign says for vehicles with trailers.

 

[richg99]

One serious issue (to me) about the growth in Kayak numbers has been that they pay no "use taxes" ......as we do with our motorized boats.

Remember, I'm on both sides of this issue as I do both yakking and PBing.
Lately, more PBing, but that doesn't change the fact that my yaks ride for free, while my power boat, and my yak with a trolling motor, have to pay to use the same water.

Added to that is the expansion of group kayaking, mostly by profit-making businesses.

It seems to me that, to level the playing field, kayakers and canoeists, as well as the many new "guide services" should be paying their fair share.

I am generally against any additional government regulation, but...fair is fair. If we PB'ers have to pay, then the others that use the waterways should have to pay.

richg99