Drag etiquette
gumpucky
2008-02-06 14:56:51
For the new guys wanting to fish their own boats.The troll fleet is a gentlemans fishery and a few rules of the road go a long way to keeping it civil.
Starboard pole to the shallow side has right of way in most cases.
Boat being approached to port has right of way,never been sure which one superceeds.
Try not to scream at the other guy on the VHF if he crosses you up.I've done that a few times in the face of naked agression on the others part but always felt stupid for it afterwards.Deal with it on the beach in an adult fashion.I've been "educated" on the boards and was thankful for it.
Don't crowd the right of way boat or cut him off at the sweet spot(where the fish are)We're all trying to make our bread and butter and taking our turn gives everybody a shot .
Basically,just don't be greedy,as you approach the drag,watch how the other boats are working it have your gear down and find the biggest hole possible in the merry go round and work your way in.Eventually you get the feel for it and it comes second nature and you can get comfortable and hone your skills and learn the tricks.
I'm sure there are other common sense rules but these are the ones that come to mind and those with longer whiskers than mine could probably expound on those.
Carol W
2008-02-06 15:14:51
Every troller should reread drag etiquette from time to time Gumpucky thanks for posting and very well worded too.
It's been my understanding, if you're in a drag with lots of boats you can turn early if there's a 1/2 mile gap on the inside of the drag.
You must also consider whether the boat in front of the gap is going slow or not and if the boat behind the gap has accounted for that (leaving an extra big gap so they can go faster). If that was the case and you turn in there, the boat behind you will either be on your ass or have to slow down. So, know who you're turning behind, and in front of. Keep 1/4 mile spacing between yourself and other boats.
Even making the perfect early turn doesn't necessarily mean catching more fish. Sometimes you're slightly out of position and miss the hot spot, or so busy jockeying around you can't pull your lines.
It's hard to keep your cool when someone cuts right in front of you on the inside of a 40 boat drag and then proceed to go slow. Especially when you have a perfect view of them in their pit, pulling fish non-stop, while anxiously waiting for your bells to jingle. :)
Hi y'all...
Anyone want to write this into an article for the ATA newsletter? I've heard numerous complaints the last couple of years about new boats who would benefit from learning the rules of the road and basic etiquette. Perhaps this is a good newsletter fodder? Warning...you must be bold enough to attach your name and boat to any submission.=)
Cheers!
Dale
Carol W
2008-02-07 02:13:28
One of the mosy frustrating things that seems to happen to me is someone turning in front of me and i tend to think that the further back I am from the boat in front the better. Of coarse I will not fish in a forty boat drag. One day this winter I was running in the fog and slowed down to thow the gear in and looked up to see a boat go running up right in front of me and thow his gear in so close to me i could through thick fog see what hootchie he was throwing out. I was so pissed i edged my bow right up between his main lines and followed him right through the sweet spot and neither one of us caught on that pass. I then turned around and went right back through the hole before he could get there and got my morning bite.
I can never understand why other boats feel they should get right in front of the only boat on the drag, I have found over the years it is much better to get behind the highliners on the drag to figure out what they are doing. Plus I beleave it is common courtesy to let a guy who was there 1st to establish his drag and then follow it accordingly. Making sure he has the right a way.
One time I was dragging on one of my favorite drags not paying much attention to traffic, when all of a sudden i heard an engine being gunned. I looked up to see an old timer who has a reputation for being a true gentleman on the drag and still catches more than most. In town between trips I made it a point to go to his boat and appologize for taking the right a way from him, he said something that really stuck, "Tom I have caught more fish going around another boat than i ever did cutting somebody off." He was between 70 and 80 when he told me that and he has fished Noyes Is most of his life, so when i get around somebody who wants to be an ass on the drag i generally leave. That spot isn't the only spot in the ocean there is a fish and I don't have to put up with crowding.
The other rule I follow in reguards to drag etiquette is if I come on a boat working alone and catching is i stay off the radio. I have had other boats find me in some little hole and have them call their buddies in and the next thing my little scratch has gone to hell because there are to many boats on a little drag.
JYDPDX
2008-02-07 07:48:54
Nice posts everyone. I am of the opinion that there several different renditions of "drag etiquate" and they vary substantially depending on who you ask. Obviously there are going to be a certain amount of jackasses everywhere. That's just life. It seems that some pretend to not know, act like they dont know or just plain dont know. If there were a consensus on the "rules" than things may go smoother out there, then again maybe it would just be cause for more bickering.
Rules of right of way are pretty self explanatory and everyone should be able to get a grasp on how to keep it safe for everyone. However, I think that the aspect of turning is highly debatable with varying convictions between trollers. Some guys believe no one should turn unless they are the last boat on the back tack. Some say you should maintain at least 1/4 mile spacing between boats. Some insist on 1/2 mile. Some say it depends on many factors and there are some who will put a blindfold on and spin cookies on the hot spot.
In my opinion if there is a large gap (>1/2 mile) between boats on the beach tack of the drag heading towards the hot spot then someone needs to slide in tactfully and responsibly, using caution not to disrupt adjacent boats, and fill the void. This makes the drag efficient. If no boat fills the gap then it takes that much longer for the rest of the fleet to make their next pass on the hot spot. In effect the hot spot goes unfished while people elsewhere are catching fish that count towards the quota and eventually the closure. Ie. everyone here catches less fish and has less time to catch them. The problem is magnified if gaps pass over the hot spot during the bite. The fish are biting and there are 30 boats but no one's hooks are on the fish. Travesty if you ask me.
Another area of ambiguity is with regards to how boats on the beach tack will run with regards the contour or the reef. If I am zig zaging my way along the reef keeping my leads rolling on the bottom and trying to rub the edge and the boat behind me is going in a straight line, he inevitably will catch up and be ridding my ass soon because even if we are traveling at the same speed, I am covering more distance. The problem arises when I dip in to a honey hole to get the gear shakin' and the guy behind me has completely caught up and I can not turn out now. I face a big problem because I'm getting shallow and have no where to go but toward shore (shallower) or straight ahead (over the approaching pinnacle). I've also been passed on the inside by the boat behind me who just couldn't wait to get to his honey hole (apparently I wasn't going fast enough for him) (he claimed I was "way off the drag") guess what happened to him when he tried to turn out. I've been on both boats in this predicament and there are just so many variables in play that I dont know if there is a true delineation between right or wrong.
I suppose that is a fundamental problem with society in general. Morality is only valid from the perspective of the beholder.
It also would seem that some veterans seem to hold a double standard on when who can turn and where. We all have the same power troll permit and thus equal rights to the fish. Things are pretty fucked up out there on heavily populated drags but I guess that's what makes it "the drag". Add a thick fog and you've entered the twilight zone.
One always has the option to choose the path less traveled.
gumpucky
2008-02-07 23:57:41
Dale,funny you should chime in with that idea,I thought about the newsletter being a good forum for some kind of collaberation and consensus on this issue.It doesn't need to be contentious just a few ideas to get the general gist of a basic set of rules to help us all get along out there and educate those new to the buisness and new to the water period.I think that in any tight situation with no clear cut way of dealing with it,a calm hail on 16 and quick move to a working channel can ease a lot of tension.
Absolutely! Looking at all the detailed feedback, I'm wondering if this could work its way into a Top 10 list ... or some other quick and dirty tip sheet for newbies. Maybe someone out there could take a stab at it and email it to me? I'd be happy to help with suggested edits and get it plugged into the spring or summer newsletter (timing is everything!) for you.
The newsletter should be a friendly forum and we welcome submissions from members. Just like on the drag, there's gotta be a few groundrules, but I'm sure y'all could deal with that easy enough.
Dale, ATA
Salty
2008-02-15 22:48:27
Dale and all,
Very interesting thread. One of the most interesting things is how the drags have evolved over the years and how lots of times there are different technologies being used to run the "drag". Depending on the technology, the tide, the depth people are dragging, different understandings of mile lines, different life experiences on drags, etc. there are often many different interpretations about what the "drag" is.
For example: My parents fished from 46-54 without a fathometer. The drags were defined by landmarks and the popular ones were fairly well defined. When the flasher-sounders were introduced in the fifties lots of trollers started running edges instead of land marked drags. This led to some consternation. In the 70's a good percentage of the fleet started using loran lines to define and run drags. By the 80's a majority of the fleet was using loran lines and plotters and the drags evolved with the technology. But, then in the early 90's some of us started using computer technology and completely redefined where we could fish. This led to lots of problems as old-timers or others using loran technology defined drags tried to accommodate some of us using computer defined drags along edges and in gullies previously inaccessible. A previous post described that scenario quite well. Now some of us have been using 3D bathometric chart building technology for about 3 seasons. We have created new drags at deeper depths than previously thought possible. Our biggest problems is that trollers with older technology or even with the new technology but not as much time or information put into it can't comprehend that we have the right of way, can't turn because we are on the edge of a hump, or in a fairly narrow trench he is blithely dragging over the edges of. In the new era we are not using the same landmarks, the same loran lines, or even the same defined 2D computer edges. We all have our own, different data base, definition of the drag. While on the one hand it is tremendously liberating and has led some of us to spend even more time away from the pack, it can be tremendously frustrating when other trollers observe the production and move in without the data base to function in the area we are working. What becomes the "right of way".
What I have done is usually just move on. The new technology makes creating my own drags more possible and more entertaining than ever. What is interesting is when I see an experienced troller who has just started using the new technology and thinks he is the only one with the information to drag a particular hole a particular way at more depth now. I had some problems a couple of times last year when I briefly went coho or king fishing in areas I had mapped out the last couple of years but hadn't been there yet this year. Other trollers had obviously up graded their systems and could drag it like I have been. But, they were not eager to share.
One rule I really like is that the guy fishing illegally forfeits the right of way. At Pt. Harris in Chatham the line is at, or used to be at, the light but the traditional drag goes on down to the rocks in front of Malmesbury. I was fishing there with my mother and we were running the legal drag and coming in toward the light. Several of the other guys just blatently violated the line and ran the traditional drag. It meant that when we were coming in on the light we would be cutting someone off coming in from the closed area along the edge. Who has the right of way? And of course the fishing was very good that one opening so none of us were communicating on the radio. To me, if you are cheating you forfeit the right of way you might otherwise have.
Great post Salty.
Anyone fishing today can easily tell where the lines are. If someone goes over, they pretty much cease to exist for me. I recall running up North on the outside of Yakobi Is. all the boats that are within a mile of the beach when it's closed I will almost run over their lines -- if you fish illegally, you're stealing fish from all of us and you have no right of way in my book.
John Murray
2008-02-17 04:54:06
Jon,I did hear alot pirates fish up that but I never have seen the (fleet)inside the line.
It was funny about ten years ago at Cape Cross drag one guy was trolling away over by those holes by Deer harbor when the mile was in place.
Finally after about three days by himself a person who knew him called him on V ,"ha ---- didn't know its closed in there"? '' I WAS WONDERING WHY
NO BOATS WERE IN HERE WITH ME. Was the reply.
Over all its self policy up there if you have gripe let joker know on the V or at the dock.Usally most guys come around.
What I have a problem with are the guys from (fill in the blanks)who run FRIGGIN humpy gear on the coast drags for coho.
Its alot better when there are fish in Sound,it keeps Alot of guys from showing up.
Salty
2008-02-18 03:08:41
Just don't try to compare scores with one of those humpy trollers or get behind them in an unloading line after they have been fishing coho. Even though they move the fish off the boat rapidly it still takes the graders a long time to sort through all those fish. Humpies, coho, chums, sockeye, rockfish, and lings. It is a real mess on the table and on the ticket. Fortunately, with the exception of a few crazy ones, they mature, take their money and buy freezer boats.