FOG - to Go or Not?

[Raider Ronnie]

Having radar or not, common sense should allways be used in fog !
We pre fished the friday before FLW in Dennis on the Ave Maria 2 that has $20k worth of electronics, including the 4k 48 mile Raymarine radar (thats awesome)
We were close to Nantucket drifting in pretty thick fog.
We picked up a boat coming at us on radar, and eventually heard a boat coming at us going pretty fast!
The boat nearly rammed us going WAY too fast, and of course, they had NO radar!
Turned out to be another boat fishing the tournament !
I would bet more than 3/4 operators of boats don't know fog signals according the rules !

[Hooper]

Originally Posted by Raider Ronnie

Having radar or not, common sense should allways be used in fog !
We pre fished the friday before FLW in Dennis on the Ave Maria 2 that has $20k worth of electronics, including the 4k 48 mile Raymarine radar (thats awesome)
We were close to Nantucket drifting in pretty thick fog.
We picked up a boat coming at us on radar, and eventually heard a boat coming at us going pretty fast!
The boat nearly rammed us going WAY too fast, and of course, they had NO radar!
Turned out to be another boat fishing the tournament !
I would bet more than 3/4 operators of boats don't know fog signals according the rules !

Reading that makes me want to choke that jerk! I fish in the fog quite often, Chatham & Nantucket and I would never, ever think of doing it without radar. These pinheads out there in 17 foot Whalers off Bearses in heavy fog ought to be shot on sight. I can't tell you how many times I have been at a slow cruise, 15-20 kts with my eyes glued to the radar only to have a Whaler type boat appear dead ahead. Radar won't catch everything, and all it takes is one minute of looking off the screen to miss a blip.

Years ago a charter boat out of Chatham got run over in the fog by a large flybridge sport boat running without a watch. Well, the 36' charterboat went to the bottom, one person died and another lost a leg. That's criminal behavior.

[Flaptail]

Just like when I fly, VFR. No IFR rating no go, should be same in boats, I don't care how lucky you have been so far but not only are you a danger to yourself but every other boat as well.

Fog sucks. There has been a lot of sea sense lost with all the new electronics from GPS to affordable radar. When I worked on the charterboat all we had was a flasher, compass and cb radio. Skippers would often meet in the morning and discuss the cloud formations, wind and tide times and decide on the feasibility of the trip by "sniffing the weather".

The guy I worked for paid close attention to water color when caught in a fog and his compass for which he had detailed times and headings written down in a book of distances from landmark to landmark and bouy to bouy for all of Cape Cod Bay and Stellwagen that was always at the helm. He would dead reckon his last position he was at when the fog closed in and get out that book, set the course and by his watch, compass, studying the water color and rpms get us home 99% of the time with uncanny accuracy.

Wonder how many do that just in case your radar or gps happens to freak out while on the water in a fog?

[Rockfish9]

It all depends on where I'm fishing, if I'm fishing the river, I'll go, if I'm fishing the beach, I'll grab the surf rod, no fish is worth dieing for...if I'm fishing the river, most of the time, boats over 18' cant get where I'm at.... fog gives me a reprieve from the crazies that haunt my grounds from July - September....

When I first started fishing almost 4 decades ago, the ONLY thing besides rods and bait in my boat was a compass, a paddle was my depth sounder, I got caught in plenty of fog banks, I always made it home....
Things are differant now, my skiff has radio, color chart machine and a gps.... my most important piece of equiptment is still my compass... I use it every night I fish...Fog or no fog....