# What is the right thing to do ?



## TONER (Mar 25, 2008)

Often times while diving you pull up to a public wreck and there are boats already fishing on them do you anchor and dive or move to another spot and take the chance of finding more fishermen ? I usualy take option A and often end up with mad fishermen ! What is the rght thing to do?


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## Voodoo Lounge (Sep 28, 2007)

Excellent question, cant wait for the in depth responses!!

opcorn


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## lobsterman (Sep 30, 2007)

I have always used the rule that there is a big Gulf out there if someone is on the spot and it is little thenI go elsewhere. If it is a long reef I move over a bit and blub blub.


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## Captain Mickey O'Reilly (Dec 18, 2008)

Chad, I think the appropriate thing to do is to ask if the boat already on site minds if you dive. If the spot is very small, then I would not even bother, but if it is like the liberty ship, steel barge etc. just ask. I think we all tend to get a little bit angry when somebody pulls up to a spot we are at, but we must remember the big picture; if we can't get along as RECREATIONAL FISHERMAN, we will continue to lose out. As a community of fisherman, a little consideration can go a long way. Remember also that these are public, and not private spots, we ALL have the right to be there. If all recreational fisherman could as a group, get together and join the RFRA, and other local organizations and fight for more reefing and fishing rights, we could do wonders!


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## ChrisH2O (Oct 4, 2007)

I think the best thing would be to keep a good distance between you and the other boats , and dive with caution. I would think it would be a fairly large dive/fishing spot, so there should be enough space for all to enjoy. Of course you're going to have a few people who think they own it, so just be respectful of who was there first. You should always have someone on the boat while diving and in turn theyshould notice if any other boats anchor too close to your boat...remind them there are divers below and they should keep required distance. Remember, you are down below and could get hooked.


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## Sailor612 (Oct 3, 2007)

I agree with "Team Get Bent," but on the flip side, I feel that fishermen/women should do the same! There have been many dives I've done where we are anchored up on a "big" structure and by the time we surface there are 3-4 fishing boats right by ours....
Shoot...look at the "O" for example...when i've dove it there have been fishermen/women trolling the superstructure right were ALL the (5+)dive charters are tied up....
I think as divers we all agree to a point that we don't"scare" away all the good fish for hook and line fishers (contrary to how many hook and line fishers feel!) Hopefully one day we can all get along and work as a team for "our" recreational water pleasures! 
Public is PUBLIC, but we all need to be considerate of eachother!!!!! 
You won't catch me tying up to small public structure if there is already another boat or two, divers or fishermen....sometimes it just isn't worth the hassle or dangers


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## flyingfishr (Oct 3, 2007)

Here's a good hyothetical from the other side of the equation.... What if say, you are diving a big structure like the liberty ship, have your divers in the water, have your colors blowing in the breeze and when on the wreck you hear a boat approaching. Lets take it even further and say the viz is so good, that you can actually see this other vessel (I'll just call it a 19 footer, with about a 115 hp whiteJohnson and a sea green bimini top on it) approach your vessel from the end of the ship you are on and motor up to within 5 feet of your boat...WITH DIVERS IN THE WATER! Imagine having to swim up side down with your arms in front of your face and head for fear of a blooming anchor getting dropped down on your head as you are trying to swim out from under this [email protected]*ng boat! Then have the operator of the other boat tell your crew that he knew there were divers in the water because he could see their bubbles coming up on either side of his boat! There's a real question of what to do! 

Other than that, I agree the gulf is a big place and if the structure is small enough, there are plenty of places that are easily reached within 20-30 minutes of each other. Everyone should just respect one another's space. JMHO. Didn't mean to derail with my rant, just respect the water and give everyone a litle breathing room.


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## gamccp (Oct 9, 2007)

Boy is this going to be fun. I've only been fishing the gulf for about 5 yrs.

I've been on a public spot fishing and have been asked to leave so that the

charter dive boat could drop his paying customers. We were catching fish, but I

agreed. I don't like to stop were a dive boat is allready anchored. Now, I have also

been anchored on a public spot (only boat insight) when a private dive boat came within

10-20 ft. dropped anchor then divers right beside me.:banghead

My fishing technique is not that good, so I became a certified diver this Dec. I going down to where they are if they wont come to me. I only hope that the fishermen will be as nice

to me as I will be to them. I will have been on both sides and believe that just plain

common sense and a little curtisey(SP) will prevail.


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## Dylan (Apr 15, 2008)

> *gamccp (1/5/2009)*Boy is this going to be fun. I've only been fishing the gulf for about 5 yrs.
> 
> I've been on a public spot fishing and have been asked to leave so that the
> 
> ...


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## Pierce07 (Nov 13, 2007)

> *flyingfishr (1/5/2009)*Here's a good hyothetical from the other side of the equation.... What if say, you are diving a big structure like the liberty ship, have your divers in the water, have your colors blowing in the breeze and when on the wreck you hear a boat approaching. Lets take it even further and say the viz is so good, that you can actually see this other vessel (I'll just call it a 19 footer, with about a 115 hp whiteJohnson and a sea green bimini top on it) approach your vessel from the end of the ship you are on and motor up to within 5 feet of your boat...WITH DIVERS IN THE WATER! Imagine having to swim up side down with your arms in front of your face and head for fear of a blooming anchor getting dropped down on your head as you are trying to swim out from under this [email protected]*ng boat! Then have the operator of the other boat tell your crew that he knew there were divers in the water because he could see their bubbles coming up on either side of his boat! There's a real question of what to do!




But if they swear the boat was in neutral it makes everything ok. Or when you pull up to the next spot and you see him :sick over the side of the boat. Don't forget it was a Key West. I actually saw him going out the next day



Just be respectful to each other out there. If you see people fishing anchor on the other side of the wreck and ask. If you see divers down be careful where you drop anchor and use extreme caution approaching the wrecks. Most of us do safety stops and a mere 15 ft and it's not fun when a prop comes buzzing over your head.


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## The Raven (Oct 8, 2007)

> *TONER (1/4/2009)*Often times while diving you pull up to a public wreck and there are boats already fishing on them do you anchor and dive or move to another spot and take the chance of finding more fishermen ? I usualy take option A and often end up with mad fishermen ! What is the rght thing to do?


I'd suggest that if your post is accurate that your first course of action should be to get your eyes checked. I can usually tell that there are fishermen over the spot I'm heading toward miles before I get there. If you're actually pulling up on them you've already made it pretty obvious that your intent is to trash their fishing for the sake of your own.


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## TONER (Mar 25, 2008)

My post was just to see what other people do not that I'm going to follow all your suggestions I just thouht it was an interisting topic the last timeI checked they were public wrecks! If you cant beat em join em !I was a fisherman untill I learrned to dive ! Now I leave the poles at home .


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## Telum Pisces (Sep 27, 2007)

It depends on a few things as to what I do. If I see a boat on a spot that I want to dive and there is another spot close by, I move on to that other site. 

If I have been driving for 15+ miles to get to said spot and there is not another spot that I have to dive close by and it's big enough to anchor on the wreck and be away from the fishing boat, I dive it. 

I usually either hail them on the radio or ask them if they mind if I dive on the wreck. I tell them that I will only be here for a max time of 30 minutes or so with only about 20-25 minutes of bottom time usually. Most divers do not not dive the same spot twice. I have only done it a handfull of times. So we go down, come up and move on. Diving public spots is just like fishing public spots. We all have to share and be respectfull. There is just a little bit of saftey aspect that we as divers have to take into account if a spot is being fished while we are diving. It's not worth my safety to dive a crowded spot. This is why I love diving in the winter. We pretty much have the gulf to ourself.

Just ask Chris (badazzchef) what the fishing was like when divers were down and when they were up. Him and a buddy were fishing when myself, Clay, and Josh (Flyingfishr) were down and they caught fish the entire time we were down. We came up and they said the bite ended.


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## Sniper Spear-It (Jan 16, 2008)

I agree with telum. theres alot more i could add but. i agree with telum


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## Sailor612 (Oct 3, 2007)

> *flyingfishr (1/5/2009)*Here's a good hyothetical from the other side of the equation.... What if say, you are diving a big structure like the liberty ship, have your divers in the water, have your colors blowing in the breeze and when on the wreck you hear a boat approaching. Lets take it even further and say the viz is so good, that you can actually see this other vessel (I'll just call it a 19 footer, with about a 115 hp whiteJohnson and a sea green bimini top on it) approach your vessel from the end of the ship you are on and motor up to within 5 feet of your boat...WITH DIVERS IN THE WATER! Imagine having to swim up side down with your arms in front of your face and head for fear of a blooming anchor getting dropped down on your head as you are trying to swim out from under this [email protected]*ng boat! Then have the operator of the other boat tell your crew that he knew there were divers in the water because he could see their bubbles coming up on either side of his boat! There's a real question of what to do!
> quote]
> 
> I've had sometime similar to this happen to me last year...we were diving the Pete Tide. As we were coming up the anchor line to do our safety stop I heard the sounds of boat motors. Luckly I looked around and luckly the viz was good enough for me to see this boat sitting literaly 3-4 ftinfront of the scopewhere our anchor line entered the water....needless to say I sat at my safety stop longer than needed to try to figure out what the he** this boat was trying to accomplish (he was going backthen foward, bouncing all around). I gave up on waiting and swam under our boat at depthto pop up behind it. By the time I popped up I realized what was going on....the seas had gotten pretty rough and this captain (OF A DIVE CHARTER BOAT!) was tryin to get anchored up exactly where we were!! I will admit that I was pretty upset and loudly asked him "what the he** he is doing and if he realized that our boat is sitting here!" I kinda felt bad for his customers after doing that because I could see that they were kinda scared about their captains actions! BUT OH WELL....luckly I came up the anchor line and realized how close he was before surfacing!


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## fishwagon (Oct 23, 2008)

i believe every situation is different. i have been on both sides now so i can speak from experience. before i got certified i would hated to have spearfishermen pull up on us. i fish out of dauphin island so we mostly fish rigs.the biggest problem i had was when you tie to a rig their is not much tie up room so to have someone tie up & dive 15 yards away pissed me off. i no know that it really does matter &it doesn't hurt the fishing at all, but you can't tell someone who doesn't dive.we always have a pretty good crew, so most of the time when we are just fishing &if some divers pullon the spot we are on we don't care but ASKING would nothurt at all. their are alot off a--holes out their so it might not help , but it will not hurt. if more people would get the idea of the gulf is their own private hole out of their head you will not have any problems. as far as diving wrecks i can't tell you i have seen what the other guys have wrote & kinda concerned about diving wrecks w/ people on them . i know my safety is not in questionif i dive a rig as far as get ran over.the point i am getting to treat people the way you want to be treated & you can't go wrong **much**.


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## Clay-Doh (Oct 2, 2007)

> *The Raven (1/5/2009)*
> 
> 
> > *TONER (1/4/2009)*Often times while diving you pull up to a public wreck and there are boats already fishing on them do you anchor and dive or move to another spot and take the chance of finding more fishermen ? I usualy take option A and often end up with mad fishermen ! What is the rght thing to do?
> ...


Wow. What words of wisdom. Trash there spot? If a nother fishing boat pulls up to a decent sized wreck to fish when there is already a boat fishing there...are they "trashing" the spot also? Or is it only divers that trash the spot?

By your comments, I can tell you speak from ignorance. Anyone wha has so much as put a snorkle in there mouth and went in 6 feet of water can see the fish that are attracted to the curiosity of a person in the water. Anybody who has watched any diving videos can see fish approaching of all kinds to check the divers out instead of running off. NAybody who has fished off a dive boat as mentioned earlier, has seen that spearfishing, and adding blood and death in the water exites the whole natural food chain and brings in the bigger fish.

Here is some pics from just one trip on my boat with half divers, and half fishermen on the boat. Most of the catch was from the rod&reel department instead of us divers...



















About 2/3 of those are from the ladys fishing. Looks like we really scared the bite. Damn.

The same rules apply to divng or rod& reel, keep a respectable distance from ANY OTHER BOAT, regardless if it is dive or rodnreel. Super little wreck and a boats on it? move on...regardless if your diving or fishing. 

Divers shouldnt go swim under a fishers boat, and fishers shouldnt drive right on top of divers when they pull up. 

Isnt really an issue of spearfishing vs rodnreel, its an issue of common courtesy and keeping a respectable distance.

TONER..none of this was directed at you by the way...I know you were just askin a question to make yourself a more courteous person (I think your already a pretty nice dude!), just amazed at some stupidity.


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## Clay-Doh (Oct 2, 2007)

> *flyingfishr (1/5/2009)*Here's a good hyothetical from the other side of the equation.... What if say, you are diving a big structure like the liberty ship, have your divers in the water, have your colors blowing in the breeze and when on the wreck you hear a boat approaching. Lets take it even further and say the viz is so good, that you can actually see this other vessel (I'll just call it a 19 footer, with about a 115 hp whiteJohnson and a sea green bimini top on it) approach your vessel from the end of the ship you are on and motor up to within 5 feet of your boat...WITH DIVERS IN THE WATER! Imagine having to swim up side down with your arms in front of your face and head for fear of a blooming anchor getting dropped down on your head as you are trying to swim out from under this [email protected]*ng boat! Then have the operator of the other boat tell your crew that he knew there were divers in the water because he could see their bubbles coming up on either side of his boat! There's a real question of what to do!
> 
> Other than that, I agree the gulf is a big place and if the structure is small enough, there are plenty of places that are easily reached within 20-30 minutes of each other. Everyone should just respect one another's space. JMHO. Didn't mean to derail with my rant, just respect the water and give everyone a litle breathing room.


Dang Josh! Before I even got to your or Pierces post, I was thinkin the same damn thing! At least we had the last laugh with that clown...


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