How Should You Pass A Fishing Boat? | Tips by All Good Fishing
This decade has seen significant growth in the kayaking & fishing industry, and why shouldn’t it be? The joy of exploring nature and that with an adventurous experience has always been a dream for many of us. Just like anybody else, you being a passionate kayaker, would also love to take a ride on the water bodies.
Whatever sports you do, make sure to look around for safety first so you won’t fall into trouble and vice versa. Maintaining safety is as essential as water for survival. There are a lot of factors to be considered while angling, but how you should pass a fishing boat is also the main thing that often people neglect.
If you are an expert and a Pro angler, you probably already know about it. But, if you have just started it out, you may not have known about the proper and the safest way of passing a fishing boat so both you and the anglers would stay safe.
If the water body you are into isn’t congested, you still need to be careful. However, if there is a rush, you need adequate attention to avoid complexities and danger. So, your day out would stay joyful without getting into an accident. Let’s take a skimmed look at some of the best rules to do it in the right way.
Get some basics first!
It would be best to learn about some basics of it so everything could go logical depending on the case you may face. Whatever vessel you have got under, you are supposed to maintain your safety. So, whenever you plan to pass a boat, you should first wait for a complete clearance by that boat.
Otherwise, you are likely to meet a collision, and its intensity could be severe and light as well, depending upon your case. In simple words, just like you follow traffic rules out there on the roads, boating also requires regulations and instructions to be followed that are assigned mainly by the United States Coast Guard.
To avoid chaos out there on the blue waters, the rules must be kept in mind. In any case, you are supposed to give sufficient space to the other boats around you. In the case of fishing boats, you need to be extra careful.
Almost all fishing boats come loaded with fishing lines and nuts, and they are even supposed to be expandable at hundreds of yards under the water that you probably can’t see. Depending upon its size, there is a risk of getting both those boats to be flipped once messed into it.
How Should You Pass A Fishing Boat?
Communication is the key! As long as both you and the boat next to you are in contact, you both are safe, and you can safely pass a fishing boat with little to no problem at all. If you both are in open water, you should steer your boat to the right side, and the second boat should head to the left side of it.
But, this could only be done if there’s no fishing line in that direction. If this is the case, you should reform your strategy by passing to the opposite side. And that too after a proper communication. The communication is done through horns.
As a general rule, you first honk once and wait for two in reply, which means you can now pass your boat. If there is a size difference, the horns are a must! Now, before you pass a fishing boat, make sure you have adequate space between both vessels, even if there’s a minimum distance of 50 feet.
Better to get some more distance as water tides can even worsen the scene upon moving. Don’t make any wakes and lower your speed while passing a fishing boat. Also, make sure to have a good and clear outlook next to you. To pass a fishing boat at night, you need to get super concentration.
Remember, when you are trying to pass your boat, you are the boat with Stand On protocol, and the opposite is with giving Way protocol to avoid collapse. The All Clear signal should be followed no matter how experienced you are. Always slow down your boats when passing and become more responsible.