With light winds around on the weekend I headed out my local creek for a glide around the bay on my race board. Only about 12 knots, and as I was crossing in front of the local long jetty, probably 300 metres away from it I hear a lot of yelling as things turned to crap.
Still a bit of a blur, and still doesn't make sense, but I sailed into a fishing line up at head level. The thick, rainbow coloured, highly tensioned line took my hat off while I tried to work my way out of it. It felt like the owner was still winding, or worse still, maybe something big was on the line up near the surface, because I cannot work out how it had that much elevation so far from the jetty which is only about 3 metres above water level. Trying to flip the sail to get away was difficult, and when I did , the noise of the line on the leech was ugly, but after a while I got away.
Has anyone had anything similar lately? I see there are all sorts of drone boat/aircraft things to get lines offshore, and these guys are always trying to get bull sharks for sport, and their hook setups are pretty ugly. I looked to sea and saw nothing during and afterwards.
Heart rate recorded on the watch was nearly 4 digits.
First thing I did yesterday was dig around in the spares and found a quick cutting DaKine safety blade thing from kitesurfing, now attached to the lifejacket permanently. It would have saved me from what could have been a lot worse (although the bogans might have been waiting at the ramp afterwards).
HNY!

Mate of mine actually got multiply hooked. He crossed a long way behind a boat cruising down the channel ,without seeing all the rigs set up on the back of the boat. luckily the hooks were small and only got stuck in his wetsuit. But he drifted closer to the boat as he tried to unhook. the guy still had the motors running and he thought he was going to get diced. After much yelling the motors were cut.
Not a nice experience!!!!! I hate crossing that channel now.

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plywoodboy said..
With light winds around on the weekend I headed out my local creek for a glide around the bay on my race board. Only about 12 knots, and as I was crossing in front of the local long jetty, probably 300 metres away from it I hear a lot of yelling as things turned to crap.
Still a bit of a blur, and still doesn't make sense, but I sailed into a fishing line up at head level. The thick, rainbow coloured, highly tensioned line took my hat off while I tried to work my way out of it. It felt like the owner was still winding, or worse still, maybe something big was on the line up near the surface, because I cannot work out how it had that much elevation so far from the jetty which is only about 3 metres above water level. Trying to flip the sail to get away was difficult, and when I did , the noise of the line on the leech was ugly, but after a while I got away.
Has anyone had anything similar lately? I see there are all sorts of drone boat/aircraft things to get lines offshore, and these guys are always trying to get bull sharks for sport, and their hook setups are pretty ugly. I looked to sea and saw nothing during and afterwards.
Heart rate recorded on the watch was nearly 4 digits.
First thing I did yesterday was dig around in the spares and found a quick cutting DaKine safety blade thing from kitesurfing, now attached to the lifejacket permanently. It would have saved me from what could have been a lot worse (although the bogans might have been waiting at the ramp afterwards).
HNY!

We all need to very aware of anyone fishing on the shore. although 300m is a long way, and you wouldn't normally expect a line at or let alone above the surface so far out, unless someone was just casting out!
I have seen a kitefoiler get his foil caught in a line with no fisherman in sight though! That idiot must've cast out from the shore then moved 100m or so back across the beach to sit in the shade, leaving the line strung out right across the beach. French-sounding dude came running down the beach yelling and waving arms and fishing rod after catching the unsuspecting foiler. I hope he didn't scratch the foil mast with the hooks.

Don't know if I've posted this before but a while ago there was a fishing line caught on a channel marker and with what I suspect was a large lump of weed on the other end. It was quite a long doubled over line under tension.

People warned me about it being out there and I didn't worry too much. Then I managed to run into it which also I thought was okay I'll just swim away.

Then I looked down and the line had hooked into the zip on my life jacket and wouldn't come out. At this stage my board was now out of reach for me so I'm now bobbing around hooked to a fishing line by my life jacket with my board drifting away. In the short decision time I had I took off my life jacket and left that.

Swam to my board and sailed back to the beach then realized my car keys we in the life jacket. Found another sailor on the beach with a knife he could lend me. I then sailed back out found the fishing line by running into and worked my way up to where my life jacket was and tried to get the life jacket off it. In the end I cut the line.

Fishing line even without hooks can be dangerous. This must have been 100s of metres of line. I felt i should have tried to bring it in but once i cut it it became like a cloud and i could see my foil or me getting stuck in it again. Eventually most of it would have washed into the beach with whatever was on the end of it i guess.

I got hooked on the Swan once. Guys trolling for something and even though I was well upwind of them I only saw they had the rods out fairly late and then noticed the line snaking up my mast in front of my eyes ! I crashed bailed and realised the silver twisty lure was snagged in my rashie thank god not my skin. They came back and threw me some pliers which promptly feel into the river. They cut the line and took off and I sailed back with a new Halco lure for my collection. Could have been ugly. I now look very closely at any boat going slow in the Swan and sail a long way upwind of it.

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decrepit said..
Mate of mine actually got multiply hooked. He crossed a long way behind a boat cruising down the channel ,without seeing all the rigs set up on the back of the boat. luckily the hooks were small and only got stuck in his wetsuit. But he drifted closer to the boat as he tried to unhook. the guy still had the motors running and he thought he was going to get diced. After much yelling the motors were cut.
Not a nice experience!!!!! I hate crossing that channel now.

was that noel ? he got hooked up in mandurah at liptons i think.

Yep, at Liptons sailing across the channel

Once when absolutely clueless and struggling to waterstart on a beach, I kept getting swept downcurrent. Managed to hit a shark fisher's line, twice. Thankfully not the hook itself but I wasn't aware of it because of how far down the beach I was getting pulled due to my lack of skills.

My favorite is when a surf caster purposely casts his line at me whenever I came close to the shore to gybe. The first time I thought it was an accident but the second time he managed to hook my wetsuit.

After my session I overheard a bodyboarder complaining to the lifeguard about a fisherman casting towards him. Probably a single dick gives all the fishermen a bad name.

Once is happenstance.

Twice is coincidence.

The third time is enemy action.

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philn said..
After my session I overheard a bodyboarder complaining to the lifeguard about a fisherman casting towards him. Probably a single dick gives all the fishermen a bad name.

Maybe we were dealing with the same guy

I don't have many phobias* windsurfing, but this is one. Have had my share of close (and too close) encounters with fishermen and their equipment over the years. Staying clear obviously the best strategy, but this is not always possible.

*the other one being jetskis, but let's not go off topic

^^ Kite lines.

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jn1 said..
^^ Kite lines.

kite lines are not an issue as they are usually visible. and kites are attached to them. If there is no line tension and the kite is in the water the kitesurfer is usually in trouble as he has to swim and is trying to relaunch his gear or recover it in which case he'll need a lot of space and you should go around upwind.

The real crux of the issue is that fishers on their boats should really have 2 black triangles out if they are fishing, especially if they run long lines......

Point taken. But I nearly drowned last November when a kiter dropped his kite in front of me during a +30kt stormy. I ended up in his lines. Not sure exactly what happened. I was pointing up wind on starboard tack out the back, and his kite appeared out of nowhere 10 metres in front of me. So I'm very scared of kite lines now.

I never sail near boats, because something might be following them. Mind you, there are not a lot of fishing boats sailing along the coast in metro Adelaide, so the opportunity to do that seldom arises.

Good story and hang 10 m8.

Run over by a boat is my biggest fear. Just the thought of going under one.


i've been hooked on the foil twice before, first time I didn't realize it had happened till I got to shore and saw the line gouge mark in the foil and realized the sluggish behaviour whilst foiling id experienced earlier was because I was towing a line. Second time I had to go closish behind a boat because of other traffic, didn't even register the idiots we're trawling. I did recognise the sluggish porpoising sensation after a few seconds, but decided not to stop.