Do anchor lights scare away fish?

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prv

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Or is it pure thoughtless ****wittery that drives amateur anglers to remain completely unlit when they anchor their cabin-cruisers, dories, or tiny plastic dinghies in the middle of the secondary channel up Southampton Water for a spot of night fishing?

Only one last night - no, we didn't hit him, though it was close - but I've dodged round three or four in the past.

Morons.

Pete
 
Lights are more likely to attract rather than scare. On our local pier the lit areas are generally more productive than other non lit parts, especially for pollack.
 
Camelia said:
Perhaps they have not read the COLREGS?
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I'm certain they haven't, but I'm not asking for them to be able to recognise a dredger going backwards in non-displacement mode. I just want them to hang up some kind of light so that the rest of us going about our business after dark don't run into them. I'd have thought that would be common sense, Colregs or no.

Pete
 
I don't know but the peeps who spend a small fortune on underwater lights "so that I can see the fish" are in for a surprise if you are right.
 
Dabhand said:
Lights are more likely to attract rather than scare.
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Rigger Mortice said:
I don't know but the peeps who spend a small fortune on underwater lights "so that I can see the fish" are in for a surprise if you are right.
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D'oh.

Rhetorical question, guys. I know fish like lights.

This is a rant about clueless ****wit anglers, not a study of piscine behaviour :)

Pete
 
prv said:
This is a rant about clueless ****wit anglers, not a study of piscine behaviour :)
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A fine rant too, if I may say. :D
I wonder if a boat which is anchored and fishing should show lights to show that he is at anchor or to show that he is engaged in fishing?
 
Rigger Mortice said:
I wonder if a boat which is anchored and fishing should show lights to show that he is at anchor or to show that he is engaged in fishing?
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They're not fishing boats, they're anglers.

The thing about amateur anglers is that they have no interest in boats per se, it's just something to keep them mostly dry while they get their rocks off dangling worms in front of turbot. So they go for the minimum boat they can get away with, and you get these tiny bathtubs with a single knackered outboard on the back, miles out to sea with three big blokes on board and four inches of freeboard.

Or, because they know nothing about seafaring in general, it doesn't occur to them that there is other traffic out there, and that not showing an anchor light makes them invisible to it. Or that there is a channel, or that they are anchored in the middle of said channel, or that VTS is announcing the presence of an oceangoing dredger coming up said channel right now.

This lot have nothing to do with fishermen.

Pete
 
prv said:
They're not fishing boats, they're anglers.

The thing about amateur anglers is that they have no interest in boats per se, it's just something to keep them mostly dry while they get their rocks off dangling worms in front of turbot. So they go for the minimum boat they can get away with, and you get these tiny bathtubs with a single knackered outboard on the back, miles out to sea with three big blokes on board and four inches of freeboard.

Or, because they know nothing about seafaring in general, it doesn't occur to them that there is other traffic out there, and that not showing an anchor light makes them invisible to it. Or that there is a channel, or that they are anchored in the middle of said channel, or that VTS is announcing the presence of an oceangoing dredger coming up said channel right now.

This lot have nothing to do with fishermen.

Pete
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So, just to be clear about it. Are you, in a roundabout way, trying to suggest that they may be tossers?
 
Has anyone ever got a smile from these characters ?

Looks to be the most depressing pastime known to man, maybe they are all considering doing a Maxwell ? If so the last one please leave the light ON !
 
Seajet said:
Has anyone ever got a smile from these characters ?

Looks to be the most depressing pastime known to man, maybe they are all considering doing a Maxwell ? If so the last one please leave the light ON !
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I've always passed them very close so that I can see if they are smiling. They never seem to smile, but they do make various gestures.
 
Rigger Mortice said:
So, just to be clear about it. Are you, in a roundabout way, trying to suggest that they may be tossers?
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In daytime, and provided they're not anchored somewhere really stupid (like the one I encountered between the two pontoons forming the narrow entrance into a marina) then I just think they're reckless fools for going to sea in such unseaworthy craft. No skin off my nose if they want to do that; maybe one day I might even get to feel smug for rescuing one :)

At night, though, they have entered Ariam's local lexicon as "fishing dickheads". As in, "keep a good lookout for fishing dickheads along here, guys" - my regular crew know exactly what I mean.

To be clear, this doesn't refer to commercial fishermen, operators of charter angling boats, or the occasional amateur sea angler who can actually operate a seaworthy boat in a competent fashion. Just the twats in tiny cockleshells or mouldy eBay cabin-cruisers with no lights.

Pete
 
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