# How close is too close?



## Heath (Nov 15, 2006)

Been reading some reports from Palmy over the last few days and have seen that there has been a few disagreements between Yak fans and boaties.

Wondering what is your take on etiquette when fishing around boats and other yaks?
How close is too close when it comes to fishing and what is acceptable?

I've been fishing Palmy for over 15 years and on occasion have counted in excess of 280 boats!!! out on the reef and that is before the Kayak craze started. 
So I am aware that there is a curtain amount of tolerance required.

Interested in your thoughts.


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## Barrabundy (Sep 29, 2008)

Having the benefit of fresh eyes, I would have thought that as long as you got no closer to anyone than anyone else was you should be fine. If the closest spacing between boats is 20m, and you decide to fish 5 metres away from someone, it might be considered inappropriate. That's the rule I'd use without knowing the place or the customs. It's a bit like having a whole river bank to fish along but dropping anchor 20m away from the only boat in the river....probably draw some dirty looks.

When there are more boats than there is structure then I guess it's only a matter of time before the guy with the shortest fuse blows it!


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## dru (Dec 13, 2008)

Love the description of your "yak". 

Mate, when its busy everyone has to be tolerant. This time of year you just have to have patience. Closeness isn't my bug, it's unattentive power boats that use my yak as a navigation buoy. Or running through my lines when I'm trolling. Or zipping in close when just driving past scaring the fish. Or belting through at 90mph into the bust up scaring everything down deep. anything that ruins the advantage of yak fishing... Ie stealth fishing. Oh and the donkeys who point and shout "shark". Used to immediately cast to the spot they were pointing and call out "thanks". These days I just swear under my breath.

The guys who fish a lot tend to work in nicely with yaks. The social first time this year nob who is clueless, well they are clueless.

Btw the way, the nobs may be mostly power boats but it isn't a monopoly. I've seen yaks trolling g across the reef in the middle of traffic running parallel to the reef. Bad karma.or drifting close to power boats anchored stealing into their burley trail. Not polite.


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## BIGKEV (Aug 18, 2007)

Yeah it's a tough one. It's not just the boaties or the yakkers fault, sometimes shit just happens, it's how it's dealt with that irks me. I wouldn't ever dream of speaking to somebody the way some of these clowns carry on, it's not in my persona.

I think you can politely ask people to move on and then if you get the gob full of abuse then fire it straight back if thats your thing, but to open a conversation with abuse or actually try and hit somebody with a projectile of some sort is ridiculous in my books. I read in todays Palmy thread that Jay wore a slug in the back, that could have been pretty dangerous if the hooks had found home, and you can't tell me it was an accident either, what a wanker.

Anyway heres todays classic tosser example:

I'm trolling around the outside of the pack (I stopped counting at 60 boats this morning at 5.30am), nobody anchored on my seaward side, plenty anchored inside of me. I am keeping roughly the same distance away from each anchored boat I pass (approx 50m+) and moving at an absolute snails pace. Another boat is trolling in the same direction as me, roughly level, but moving just a bit faster as he has moved up from behind me and is overtaking me slightly. We started out about 50m apart also with him a bit further out to sea, but he wants to get in closer to the anchored boats, or so it seemed as he kept closing the gap between me and him and eventually trolled straight across in front of me and then was good enough to inform in no uncertain terms to watch out for his f###ing lines which were now more or less passing under my yak. I just smiled and let him go on his merry way and had no choice but to stop and let his lines clear from my path. He ended up trolling between a couple of boats in the end and I think he managed to catch somebody else at some point, so maybe a bit of karma. This could have easily been a screaming match or worse he could have trolled his lines over my bow instead of under and really hooked up on to a monster.

You never know how close is too close unfortunately, I had a chat with a couple of guys later in the morning when the pack had thinned out and it was pretty clear not many fish were going to be caught and they were cool when talking as I moved in pretty close so as to hear each other, others just grunted or ignored my good morning gesture, so I maintained a bit bigger gap here.

Kev


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## Barrabundy (Sep 29, 2008)

I think you're right BigKev, there's more in who the people are than what the distances or unwritten rules are. There will always be people who look for a reason to get aggro regardless of who does what. Look at the road rules for example, we all know them but some people still feel the need to get over excited about some perceived injustice when someone see the same parking space at the same time they do.

I hear some guys fly past me in tinnys calling me all sorts of names thinking I can't hear them (they forget they are yelling over their outboard and I don't have one!). There are other guys who feel sorry for me paddling past them to get to the next snag so they offer me cold sustanance from their eskies....nothing to do with rules, all to do with the type of people and their attitudes.


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## carnster (May 27, 2008)

I remember once we anchored up predawn only to see another boat 30mins later who saw us catch a few, anchor up within 5m of the back of the boat and over our lines. They were that close i could talk without raising my voice. I was extremely polite and explained that they need to move so that we could fish, but they didn't. The boats on the other side were no where near as polite. We all moved and continued to catch fish while they stayed and caught nothing. Saw a cruise craft 600 with a mercury on the back this morn, was that you Heath. I had a boat cut me off way offshore away from everyone else WTF.


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## spork (Jan 21, 2012)

Being lucky enough to live in Tassie it seldom gets too crowded. When it does, I try to stay casting distance away from other boats. Only time I've fished a really crowded area (Brushy Lagoon, just been stocked with atlantic salmo, and they all semed to be swimming up and down the dam wall) I had anchored up. Been there 15-20 mins having a bite to eat and casting lures. A couple of arsehats in a tinny trolled within a few meters of me, then suggested I should look out because they had hooked up! Needless to say the mirage drive and anchor both stayed down. Stoopid fish found neither, and they landed it.


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## Heath (Nov 15, 2006)

carnster said:


> I remember once we anchored up predawn only to see another boat 30mins later who saw us catch a few, anchor up within 5m of the back of the boat and over our lines. They were that close i could talk without raising my voice. I was extremely polite and explained that they need to move so that we could fish, but they didn't. The boats on the other side were no where near as polite. We all moved and continued to catch fish while they stayed and caught nothing. Saw a cruise craft 600 with a mercury on the back this morn, was that you Heath. I had a boat cut me off way offshore away from everyone else WTF.


Nah mate, I got my fill yesterday... I don't have a Merc either.


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## Heath (Nov 15, 2006)

It is interesting with some of the responses.
The reason for my question is that Palmy is very tight fishing. Eg on Saturday I ran out of Tweed as I knew I'd have issues getting back in through Currumbin. So on arrival I couldn't get to my fav spot so I anchored in between two boats. But after anchoring I knew that should the wind swing ( and it did) I'd be right on top of the other fellow. So I pulled up and moved out a bit. I know a lot of other boaties would have just sat their, but I know that would give me the shits so I up and left. 
It is the sort of unwritten rule at Palmy that you don't anchor close for two reasons. The first is that if you get a hit and the fish runs round the other guys anchor, there is a good chance he will lose his pick, as I have seen happen plenty of times. The other is of course spinning. If you are close enough to lob a lure on the other boat then they are too close. I've seen it plenty of times where a late comer will try and force his way through the pack to get to the fish. This is often met with some polite WTF are you doing mate to sinker and lure throwing contests. 
But as the number of yaks grow, I'm just wondering what are peoples thoughts on paddling through the middle of boats who have anchored up at a fair distance, given that the fair distance if often minimal. I've seen plenty over the last two seasons of yaks hooking up to good fish and being towed over other boats lines or their fish tangling with a boats lines. I can see how this could be met with some abuse or they can see guys spinning yet continue to paddle right through that area and as what happened on the weekend when we got a fish we had a couple of guys do laps round the boat. Enough infact for my 11yo to ask me why do they keep hanging around our boat. It's not that it is their patch of water or their fish. I think it is more so, if you do get a fish then we're both gunna have issues with the gear. I know it wouldn't be right to troll right through the middle of a group of yaks.
This isn't a beat up, just trying to gauge what people are thinking in that respect. I certainly realise that agro boaties can and do give yaks a hard time also.
Tolerance is a funny thing. It can tend to diminish very quickly out on the water for some reason.









Pic from Palmy a few years ago









A bit too close for comfort


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## john316 (Jan 15, 2009)

I'm not quite an isolationist but reading this thread lessens my motivation to get up there for a visit... but its not just a phenomenon from up your way either, There was a reported flathead run on a lake south of Narooma a couple of years ago and a lot more boats than normal were out on the water. Most were quietly casting plastics but one goose in a very expensive competition style boat had 3 or 4 standing on the casting deck and every time another boat caught the electric motor was in gear and heading directly to where the fish was being pulled out of the water. I was the only kayak and had anchored slightly away from the crowd but when I hooked up, sure enough, mr flashy boat and his remote controlled leccy powered to a spot just 3 meters in front of me totally blocking my casting line. Never did a set of backs appear so tempting - might be just as well that I fish extremely light and didn't have heavy lures or sinkers on board...

cheers

John


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## Guest (Dec 24, 2012)

Everyone just needs to use comensense on both sides. I fish there quiet a bit and if I hang around the reef I will get at least one boat every couple of trips drive straight through my trolling path that forces me to stop paddling or risk trolling across his lines plusyou have the idiots trolling at 15kts+. If you paddle through the armada of boats and hook up on a decent fish then the chances of you landing it are slim and you will piss someone off every time as the fish tows you round. Everyone should try to keep at least 30m from each other but I think 50m would be far better.


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## spork (Jan 21, 2012)

Hot bite atlantic salmon @ Lake Barrington.
"They're over there!"...


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## dru (Dec 13, 2008)

:lol:


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

I had this idiot (I think he was called Patwah) paddle so close to me that he was able to _hand_ me a packet of soft plastics that was working for him. No respect!


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## RekFix (Dec 30, 2011)

Love it Gra.

My wife just told me more assaults happen in Australia today than any other day.

Fckin straya day! ....Get It in ya!!


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## shadowrunner (Jan 18, 2013)

Bogans wouldn't know what it means to fight for their country, let alone how to spell country, hence why things are kept short and simple for them ie VB,XXXX, FORD, HOLDEN etc


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## Yakkamat (Nov 13, 2012)

Bloody gold gra. I'm nominating you for strayan of the year.


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

Yakkamat said:


> Bloody gold gra. I'm nominating you for strayan of the year.


Might as well. Good candidate I reckon. Funny bastard. Loves football and cricket, he's got the tats, and drinks VB. He's got it all. I'll 'ave a word to Jooolya.


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

gra said:


> kayakone said:
> 
> 
> > Yakkamat said:
> ...


Sorry Gra. Hadya pegged on the wrong side of the the fence. XXXX it is, and the heritage is fab.

"Apparently there's been facebook groups calling for a re-naming to "Citizen's Day". Morons".

STICK IT UP 'EM. IT"S OSTRALYAA DAY.

trev

Also stink boaters.... do NOT cross behind my trolling lines. That means keep 60 metres clear of the yak.

trev


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## richmond (Dec 20, 2010)

How close is too close?

You should know Heath! :lol:


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