Got "zoomed" yesterday.

[ksmith]

My in-laws asked us to take his and our kids out on Lake Oauchita yesterday for some tubing. We have been going to Tompkins Bend (Shang-ri-La) most recently. To be honest, it wasn't really that crowded for a holiday weekend, but the Arkansas home game might have helped that.

Anyway, we were stopped and in the process of switching riders in a double tube when I notice a very large bow rider boat headed towards us at a fairly fast rate of speed. It was loaded with kids and some adults. They came around 75 ft from us and simply circled around us once and sped off. My 8 yr. old daughter, not noticing the three foot swells they created, was pitched over the side before she could grab hold of something. She was okay, but shaken up, and I was pretty mad.

This was a first for us. Does this happen to you guys often or was this simply an idiot on a three-day-weekend deal? Or is this a common occurrence that we should just get used to and be better prepared for?

Kevin

[GregF]

I would write it off to being an idiot.
I would try to catch up to the SOB and get his numbers if I could do it safely.
Call the cops. This is what they are supposed to be doing for a living.

When we are out in the areas where people go, I watch out for these people and give them wide berth. We really prefer poking around back in the mangroves where we seldom see anyone but the occasional fisherman.

[chill'nthemost]

I'm so happy your daughter wasn't seriously hurt. She sure could have been. There isn't a shortage of morons who also boat. You can bet if something would have happened to a child of the person driving the boat that caused your daughter to fall overboard, he'd been in your face. That's the time if you have cell service to call 911 and have the H2 0, 5-0 come out and explain the rules

[badmoonrising]

Any damage or injury caused by a boat wake is chargeable to the boat's operator. I also would have called the cops.

[lakerunner]

Thats why they don't like guns on boats. Fools become bigger fools in a boat

[hyper]

we always have a pistol on our boat, just a small 15 round 10mm Mag Glock incase we run into something that is damgerous to us or our family. Snakes Gators, Ect...

I would have call the DNR and turned him in. No reason to do something like this to a pontoon boater.

[GregF]

Is there a huge problem with gators and snakes jumping in your boat?

I see plenty but they never jump in the boat.

[bassn386]

In Missouri if you see a red (or orange) flag flying it's supposed to mean that there is someone in the water (not on a tube, skis or wakeboard, but in the water boarding or changing riders) and other boaters are supposed to give you at least 150 feet of clearance. Unfortunately, a lot of boaters mis-read the regs and leave the flag up all the time, diluting the meaning. Also, a lot of captains have no idea of the rules or the road or clearance regulations like no wake within 100 feet of the shore or docks.
Then there are the morons and imbeciles who don't give a damn about anything until they are involved in a serious incident and then holler, "I didn't know" in a whiny voice.
Glad to hear the little girl wasn't injured, but I'll bet she was still sore in places.
When we tube and someone has either fallen out or is getting in, I try to watch in a 360 degree path for any oncoming boats. If I get a feeling that someone isn't paying attention, I have the person holding the flag stand up and wave it back and forth to get the other person's attention.
Remember what happens when we assume.

[hyper]

Is there a huge problem with gators and snakes jumping in your boat?

I see plenty but they never jump in the boat.

Nope never had one jump in the boat, but we are on a Lake north of columbus and we dont have gators here. But there is a few that have been released by people and they are killed once they are seen. We try to keep our waters kid friendly and safe for swimming. THe snakes on the other hand is a different story. I have only shot one and it was on land where we were at. I would not shoot a snake on my boat. But I do carry my pistol for pertection from drunks and people like that guy who was causing them trouble. I dont want trouble and I dont look for it. But if it looks for me and harms my family, I being a ex-police officer will not go down without a fight. you never know what or who you will run into now days. Better safe than sorry. A gun is not a toy and is a last resort. I would never pull it unless I had no other choice. Just having it locked in the box on the boat gives me a peace of mind.

[GregF]

Shooting an alligator in Florida can get you jail time.

I leave the snakes alone too. 99% of them are completely harmless and usually beneficial.
If you want to clear the tree frogs, lizards and palmetto bugs out of your screen cage, throw a black racer in there for a couple weeks. There won't anything alive in there.

This guy lived with us for about a month until I shoved him out the door.

http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Black%20Racer%202.jpg

This guy was swimming in the pool one night

http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/baby%20rat%20snake.jpg

This is his big brother who lived under the bench on my front porch.

http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/yellow%20rat%20snake.jpg

A lot of these guys get killed because people think they are coral snakes

http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Scarlet%20snake.jpg

All of them are beneficial, unless you like rats and mice.

[tuned]

nice of them to do a nice close loop around you kevin. that's been known to create a perfect storm of converging waves

[killerkernrich]

Glad your little girl is OK.
SPEAKING of dumb asses in a boat , we went out to local county lake to look around for the holidays yesterday ,,,,watch a guy launch his V8 powered jet boat pipes sticking out the back...the lake patrol boat was watching boats launch....dummy in the no wake zone was making a wake and over the 5mph limit on comes the lights and he got a ticket.....I mean the patrol boat was 150 ft from this guy we knew it was going to happen.... heres your sign...

[chill'nthemost]

When I was about 12, one of our mom's took a car load of us the 30 miles to The Columbia River to go swimming. We were all in the roped off swimming area at the marina when all of sudden some dumb a** in a ski boat came sailing over the floating rope and almost hit all of us. Hell,we even helped push him back out over the rope. I'm sure he was hammered, we were just to young to do anything about it. He(and we) were just lucky he missed all of us

[waterlab]

There are plenty of boating idiots just as there are idiots in cars and trucks, this is the lake that we boat at and this happened were we had our slip. Check it out
http://www2.newsadvance.com/news/2011/m ... r-1073026/

[hyper]

Shooting an alligator in Florida can get you jail time.

I leave the snakes alone too. 99% of them are completely harmless and usually beneficial.
If you want to clear the tree frogs, lizards and palmetto bugs out of your screen cage, throw a black racer in there for a couple weeks. There won't anything alive in there.

This guy lived with us for about a month until I shoved him out the door.

http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Black%20Racer%202.jpg

This guy was swimming in the pool one night

http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/baby%20rat%20snake.jpg

This is his big brother who lived under the bench on my front porch.

http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/yellow%20rat%20snake.jpg

A lot of these guys get killed because people think they are coral snakes

http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Scarlet%20snake.jpg

All of them are beneficial, unless you like rats and mice.

We are allowed to shoot gators here if we feel threaten. And no I dont kill all snakes. Just the ones that come to close to us or my wife. She hates them all. I on the other hand know that we need them to control rodents. But I will have to tell you, they could not live at my house like that....I mean i would mess my self if one got on me.....But then again I live in Georgia and dont have as much water as you do.