Re: Seen at the ramp 7-9-8
We do a trip to Florida?s Lake Okeechobee every year in January. The week we go is one week before the Bass Masters tournament starts, so we get to see all the Pros out practicing and finding the sweet spots. On one trip we were in the rim canal, This canal is only about 30 feet wide and is a no wake zone. We were in a 17ft. Center console astro, fishing the bank. When all of a sudden around the curve the Fuji Pro team came wide open on plane, The wake they threw tossed two of us out of the boat. They didn?t even slow down to see if we were OK. We made a trip to Roland Martins Marina where the tournament was being fished from and reported the incident to the tournament comity. They offered us free T- shirts and said they would talk to them. You would think the pros would have to obey the laws like the rest of us. To this day i still wont buy anything Fuji related.
We had exactly the same experience with Bassmasters here in the New Orleans area, in the spring of 2005. They were running around at approximately 70 mph in narrow and winding bayous, with total disregard for the many recreational boaters who frequent the area. They were also blowing through no wake zones and fishing camp areas, with the same level of disrespect.
There were a couple of reported incidents and I'm more than sure, a few that were unreported. In one case, one of the pros had a journalist in his boat with him when he hit a pushboat (sort of like a tug) wake at high speed. The journalist ended up with a spinal compression injury as a result of the bass boat slamming back into the water. In another case, which I can report exactly because I was the one they darn near ran over, three of them came flying around a corner at maximum speed, in the rain, and had to take rapid evasive action to keep from hitting me. I couldn't do much of anything because two of the boats split to one side if me, while the other went the other way. If you can beileve this, they were traveling at high speed with their heads tilted down because, at 70 mph, the rain was blinding them.
In another highly reported incident during this tournament, a ticked off camp owner, who had endured several days of these guys speeding through his canal, raised a shotgun in the air and pumped off a round. While I don't condone using firearms to make a point, what he did cured the problem.
I don't mind people driving boats at very high speeds, where and when it is safe to do so, but turning a fishing tournament into a grand prix race for the purpose of collecting sponsorship/advertising dollars is blatantly irresponsible. Accordingly, many in my area made it just as blantantly clear to Bassmasters that they were not invited back.
