Upsetting encounter with the charter boat KAYMAN TOO

[samurai fisherm]

Encounter with KAYMAN TOO on March 13,2006 on Stellwagen Bank.

Went cod fishing with Armand Tetreault and Bruce Weinstein on Monday, March 13 th on the Rhode Island Popper. We are active members of the Rhode Island Saltwater Angler’s Association. We arrived at Stellwagen at around 8:30 a.m. and found the fishing to be slow. We searched the bank for fish and caught a fish here and there. Earlier we had seen a charter boat head on by us heading S/SE. A couple of hours later we were searching for fish and came upon the same charter boat on a drift. We made a wide circle around him so as to not impede his drift and marked fish about 50 yards from him. We set up a drift and caught a few undersized cod. I then noticed that the charter boat that had been 50 yards from us was now under power and heading toward us. I really did think too much of it until their boat was about 15 ft from ours. The captain cut power and they then began to fish within 15 to 20 ft of us. Armand asked what their problem was and they accused us of jumping onto their fish. I got out my camera to document how close they actually got to us and to get the name off the bow of the boat (KAYMAN TOO). That is when one of the guys in the back pulled down his pants and mooned us. They then made some rude comments about my (Asian decent) taking pictures of them. Armand told them that I was a US citizen and had served my time in the US military during the Vietnam era. That is when one of the guys (the same one that mooned us) said, “Not with eyes like those. I killed guys with eyes like those in Vietnam”. I was seething, but didn’t say anything so as to not make the situation worse and possibly escalated into something even uglier. Then another guy on the boat took a fish and threw it at us. Their boat actually came within a couple of feet from our bow when the captain put the engine in reverse and backed off. They then back a few boat lengths away from us and we decided that it was time for us to search another part of Stellwagen. As we were pulling off, Armand noticed that the guy in the back (again the one that mooned us) reached down into the boat and pulled out something and aimed it at us like it was a rifle. I don’t know what it was, but it was a very threatening gesture. Armand did file a report with the Coast Guard on the incident.

I would suggest that those of you that get this message truly consider whether or not you really want to book a charter with a captain that allows this kind of behavior on his boat and feel no guilt about trying to intimidate people off of fish. 50 yards is more than enough spacing between boats. We actually had the American Classic out of Lynn pull up to us at about the same distance and start fishing.