Playing well together.

I would say that it is clear that fishing from a kayak is here to stay. It is also certain that no matter how high gas prices rise that we will still have to live life on the water with powerboats. Coexisting should not be that hard, after all there is a lot of water out there but when it comes to prime fishing areas, it can sometimes get crowded.

My personal game plan is simple - avoidance! I try to be in areas that powerboats will not venture info, usually close to structure or skinny water. Of course there are times when you have navigate channels and waterways with heavy boat traffic. These places can be scary and very dangerous. I think a lot of time we as kayakers forget that we are really not that visible on the water. We have to always assume that an approaching boat is not seeing us, this is especially true of larger crafts. Fog or bright sunlight can be particularly dangerous on the water and crafts operating with radar might not pick up a kayak dues to the materials kayaks are made from (kevlar , fiberglass, polyethylene and wood). The most important thing we can do is to increase our visibility on the water; this means brighter colored kayaks, PFD's, using reflective tape, flags and bright clothing. We all have stories of boaters that rip right by us and leave a wake that nearly capsizes our kayaks, and it is easy to think that this is a conscience effort on their part and they are just sticking it to us, but I really believe that many of them don't have a clue that we are impacted by these actions on the water. I really wish that this was going to be read by power boaters and we could educate them on how to better respect us kayakers - but that is not the case. That leaves us to change our behavior on the water to stay safe. Lets face it we have a lot more to lose in an mishap than a power boater, at worst they will just have to do a gel coat repair, the cost to us could be much more severe.

Last year I was fishing on a friend's boat and the fishing was pretty slow, I spent most of the day observing 4 kayaks fishing in a pretty rough sea, I was amazed at how many times I lost site of them in the chop, I also watched them navigate an inlet right in the midst of the boating channel when 80% of the inlet width had no traffic but these kayakers felt compelled to follow the buoys in instead of using the area where there was no boat traffic. We have to always be on guard while on the water and use common sense when fishing along with powerboats and if possible use your kayak to find areas where you have the advantage and wont encounter power boats. We can't assume that boaters understand that they have to share the waters with kayakers and you should most importantly, always be alert on the water and never assume that boaters sees you.