TOPIC:

So I am new to Lake Michigan boating and just wondering if any one else has experienced this and what you would have done about it. We were out Labor Day morning and we were the only ones around all morning until the sun popped out. There were a few bigger boats out but mostly sail boats. I am in a 17.5' deep V so not a big boat but not tiny. Anyways we were just finishing pulling in the last line (thank goodness) and this, what we figured was about a 40' "yacht" coming up behind us. at first we thought maybe it was Coast Guard or something so we just finished pulling in lines and the boat goes to the right then speeds up. They pass about 10' from my boat so we had to scramble to get turned into the 6' wake is just put to our side. It was a woman driving and just zoomed past with no regard for our safety or that she about dumped us. Have any of you ever had anything like this happen out there and how did or would you handle it?

I know for starters there would have been some cussing! Unfortunately, without Coast Guard or DNR witnessing it, I think your complaint will fall on deaf ears. Had a boat 4x my size pass me up in the ditch forcing me to the shallow end, leaving me in wake. He thought it was funny in showing off in front of his hoochie mamas on board. ASSHOLE!! Swallow some pride and move on.....

Recreational boaters can be real assholes, thats all I can say. Many times I am trolling 10-15 miles offshore, and some moron in a yacht is headed right at me. 3 weeks ago I had a boat cross right in between my boat and the boards.......real nice... Managed to recover equipment but still.........ugh

I almost got hit while trolling the other weekend by a 30 footer cruising on auto pilot with no one driving. We are hard to miss...we have a 28 footer.

He came within 10 ft of us at cruising speed...we had to make drastic manuvers to avoid being hit.

I just yelled, flicked them off, and gave them a piece of my mind on the radio quicky then let it go and checked lines for tangles.

Thanks for the replies. Yes she got a piece of my mind on the radio but no clue if she had it on or not. I was trying to figure out if this is just one of those things that people are morons (why any different on water then on the road right) or if it was a deliberate thing and if there was anything that people generally do when they get run over. I was just happy we had all of our lines in and we could swing around quick. A little pissed off but in the end took my catch home and didn't let it ruin my day.

Yes Ed, I have had this happen many times, especially while perch fishing. I know many times they do it on purpose because they are so close you can see them laughing! Most of the time I will just let the bird fly!!

If your lucky enough to get there boat numbers and turn it in as a nearly hit situation to the dnr and coast guard. You will have to explain to them exactly what took place and all manuvering you had to do to keep from being hit. I did that a few years back. I know it was investigated because I was called by the DNR. They found the boat by the boat numbers and had a very tough talk with the owner who lended his boat out to people that had never been out on lake Michigan before. I have never seen that boat again.
I have a friend who doesn't like to post but I bet he still has nightmares from a few years back. Many of us were fishing straight out in 115ft. 3 boats on autopilot cutting across the lake nearly hit my friend who lost coppers and nearly his life. He had his son that day. It was early morning and boats traveling to fast for number identification.

Had a charter captain that I knew well come into the mouth of the ditch under full power and didn't throttle down till he was up by the mill. Nearly hit me and almost put my small polarcraft up on the rocks. We had a talk about it face to face. We don't talk anymore. It happens, pictures, videos, boat numbers all go along way. Sorry that it happened to you.

The DNR investigates all complaints, but what they can do about it is another thing. Guess it's better to have them talk to them than not. A video could speak for itself, but by the time you grab your camera, it's over . The boat that ran by me was so close that I didn't need my radio. He got an earful boatside. Ya, he thought it was funny. Whatever. I have another story where a guy came hot out of ditch with nose of boat up 45 degrees. I was 200 yds out from ditch and despite using my air horn and waiving my arms, he ran over my big Jon otter board and took the lines with it. I keep a knife handy and promptly cut my lines before he spooled them. Let's just say I ran him down and caught up with him by the #4. We had a "conversation". When he denied doing it, I told him to lift his motor. When he found my lures and line rapped around his prop and lower unit, he told me that I shouldn't be using all that stuff anyways. That's when the "conversation" really got interesting. Needless to say, he pulled some cash out and paid for my otter board. I gave him a few pointers about boat handling. The rest of your guys stories are mind boggling as well. Whew!!

I'm not a big proponent of government intervention but seems that anything over 25' in a boat you should have to get licensed to drive (heck if you want to say anything over a 50 HP I would be ok with). When you start getting big you get very dangerous. Never was a fan of having to get a boating license to drive but after this past weekend and the other stories I can see why it is a good idea.

I learned an important lesson this spring regarding boating traffic.....if you're going to troll the southwest end check the local bass tournament schedules for Lake Michigan before hand. Fished Gary light one Saturday morning back in April and was trolling west along the wall when, from what I could only assume was from Pastrick, came 25 bass boats on plane at ludicrous speed. Unfortunately we were right at one of the holes in the wall where they could get into those lagoon / retention areas and they never throttled down until the last second within feet all around the boat, across lines, etc. If I wasn't so pissed at the traffic jam in front of me and trying to navigate my way through them, I would have laughed at a dozen boats trying to squeeze through the single boat-width hole all at once. Reminded me of those scenes in the movies where two people go through the doorway at the same time and get wedged shoulder to shoulder.