Larry Brown Notes

Party Boat and Charter Boat Etiquette

By Larry Brown

 

We’ve all been on boats and seen guys who have no clue of proper boat or rail etiquette.  The deckhands roll their eyes, other anglers get annoyed, but there is no training school or Emily Post book of proper boat etiquette.  These rules are primarily for fishing on the southern California overnight boats and long range boats but many apply to local party boat fishing as well.

I was on a boat last summer and one of the crew members said he wished there was a one page set of rules to give new and veteran anglers that if everybody followed their jobs would be much easier and every ones experience would be much more rewarding.  This article blossomed from that thought, and has the input and suggestions from many well experienced skippers and crew members.

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1.         Please listen carefully to and follow the crews’ seminar and instructions at the beginning and all through the trip.

2.         Please do NOT leave the dip net in the bait tank or bait well.  Treat the bait with TLC.

3.         Please keep your line in front of you, and parallel to all other anglers’ lines.  This requires constant shuffling to the left or right to follow the current or drift, and politely going over or under your neighbors lines to maintain them in a straight and parallel orientation.  The “keeping- your-line-in-front-of-you rule” has one exception – when you get to the corner. 

            See next item.

4.         Don’t hog (or stop at) the corner.  When you are drifting in open water and get to the corner, don’t stop!  Keep walking left or right, even if your line seems like it is angled off to the stern.  Keep walking and your lines will all still stay parallel.  You need to help get the anglers bunched up on the stern around the corner so there is not a mass of lines and anglers bunched together.  Your line will catch up to you in a few minutes – then continue to keep it in front of you.

5.         Please avoid casting over other anglers’ lines, near anglers battling a fish or over the trolling lines.  If drifting, try to cast off the downwind corner of the stern or drop in off the upwind side of the boat, carefully avoiding congested areas and anglers battling fish.  Remember, “wind in your face, you’re in the right place – wind at your back, you’re better off in your rack.”

6.         When stopping at a kelp paddy or preparing to drop the anchor, please don’t cast out your baits until the captain says “OK.”  Jumping the gun probably won’t increase your odds of catching a fish, but it will increase the odds of tangles, lost fish and lost anchors and anchor chains worth thousands of dollars.

7.         Please always wind in your own trolling rigs, even if your line is not bit on a jig stop, when changing trolling rotation or when stopping at a kelp paddy. 

8.         Please wind in your line as soon as the captain or crew members ask you, so you don’t hold up the boat and your fellow passengers when the captain wants to make a move.  The captain may want to get on a school of fish or a bigger school he sees and if you linger in the water and get bit, one angler holds up the entire boat.

9.         Please don’t use lighter line (or too loose of a drag) when the crew advises heavier string, as your fish could delay the captain making a critical move to chase a school of fish.

10.       Please store your rods in the correct designated rod holders.  Do not use other anglers’ rod holders, rocket launchers, trolling rod holders, trash cans or common areas.

11.       Please store your bait hooks and jig hooks in back of your reel seat, NOT on the guides of your rod.  This is a critical safety issue.

12.       Please respect the chef’s efforts to serve you.  Do NOT run out of the galley at the sound of “HOOK UP!!!” and expect your meal to be served to you later.

13.       Please remove your pliers and dykes from your pockets when sitting in the galley to avoid damaging the upholstery.

14.       Please comply with legal limits and only keep what you know will be used and not wasted.

15.       Please be courteous and patient with other anglers at the bait tank, at the rail and at all other times.  Hot rail does not mean charging down the rail bumping kids and ladies out of your way.  Communicate clearly when you need to pass over or under other anglers. Yelling “under” doesn’t communicate anything.  Say, “I need to get under you, please,” and the other angler is much more apt to lift his rod and step back from the rail to help you get “under.”