I’m sitting here surfing and listening to AM radio….. Wednesday 8pm. 2 boats colide on the St Croix. One dead, 5 in the hospital. 
4 of those are criticle.
This happens exactly 3 years to the day since the 5 guys died that night……
The weekend is just getting started. Be careful out there.
J.
Yep I just heard it on the tv news blurb. Please be careful eveyone there will be a lot of boats out there.I guess the story will be on the 10 PM news. I’ll catch you all later. Steve
a real tragedy. sounds like people on both boats knew each other.
I’ll be boating/fishing down by Tremp. this weekend. too freakin’ crazy on the ‘Croix on holiday weekends.
sad but true…. the young man that was killed is the brother of a friend of mine….. Ive met and spoken to him before… Nathan Nieber was a good man….. and a fisherman……
This is sad news but I’m thinking it’s all the more tragedy we’ll need to see that speed limit enforced by 2003. The Croix is nuts on ANY weekend but the holidays are even worse…………been around her for 31 years and every year looks the same……………a water born traffic jam.
Jon, It reminds me of when your brother almost smeared you when we were taking off for the Beanies tourney that one time!
I can see how easy this stuff can happen especially if your drinking and not paying attention. I knew there was trouble when after work Wednesday we saw the Mahtomedi rescue boat pulling into town lights on. I think Stillsville has 2 boats so I knew it wasn’t good. We watched them airlift 1 guy off the levy downtown. It’s amazing from the pix it wasn’t worse.
Ferny.
Ferny, yes I remember that incident! Scared the crap out of me. He almost put his boat right over my splashwell. Since then, I always look over my shoulder before coming off plain. Don’t assume the person behind you is going to stop or change directions!
I’m sure that’s how this one happened. The following boat was not paying attention, the lead boat slows and get’s plowed into by the cruiser.
J.
It is time for speed limits on the Croix. I spent time Sunday on the river, and can not tell you what a magnet I was for power boats. At one point when I was talking with another fisherman, a jetski started doing figure eights around us. Yes, our boats were close enough for us to converse and this idiot just screamed right through.
My boat is fast enough to follow/catch up with most boats on the river. A number of times I did flag down boats to find out if the just did not see someone fishing (believe me, I was out of the way). In each case I was told “yes we saw you, but you don’t belong there. The Croix is for pleasure boating and fisherman are just in the way, and should find another body of water. The actions of the power boaters were designed to make it so miserable to fish, that I’d leave.
I hate to say it but they have won. It really irks me, but I do not want to get run over. I’ll be back in September.
PTC, I here ya…….
The only time I fish the Croix in the summer is weekdays or if it looks like an all day rain on the weekend. Sorry to say that they won….
J.
sounds like a good time to be “taping” these freaks…. and providing it to the DNR… these guys should take a powder…. Ive had them do the same to me… deliberatly break course to close on me and give me a good wash….. putting out just as much wake as possible.. even turning at the right time to enhance it…… this is totally against several laws… not to mention common courtesy.. we are NOT hurting them in ANY way….. so why do they harrass us?
wouldnt it be interesting to get about 20-30 fishing boats and anchor for an afternoon in a line all across the narrows at say, catfish bar. Maybe leave about a 15′ wide gap so not to block the traffic, just create a massive traffic jam. Grab a couple video cameras and see what happens. It would be great to see how they feel when fisherman mess up THEIR day on the water.
I have a wife and child to think about-so I wish the best to the rest of you! I am SURE you could get a news crew out to cover an event like that.
How about bringing an undercover cop along? Someone who can just start issuing citations on the spot?
Saying they’ve won is submitting to a discriminitory behavior. If we’re fighting the gate, we should be fighting back against this idea that big rivers are for cruisers. Freedom is freedom and public domain is public domain. If they can come too close and threaten us with big wakes, I think we can bounce a few lures off those boats! I know, not a good answer, but you feel it in the guts too I’ll bet!
Hey PTC, We’ve all been there. I was out Saturday in Bayport and 2 jetski’s stopped close enough to me to hear them talk and one said he had it up to 65 then the girl said yeah I had it up to 60! The good news is that they weren’t buzzing fisherman just jumping cruizer wakes. I guess I’m not for a speed limit (just 1 more law) since most of the people that bug me are cruizers who putting out maximum wake then coming 40′ from you when your trolling giving you little time to react to a giant wake.
By the way isn’t there a law against harrassing hunters and fisherman??? I think there is!
Ferny.
Ferny, there are laws against it, just nobody to enforce it. I do think it would be great to have a few fishing boats being monitored by a deputy sheriff. But the laws that regulate this are pretty vague. This is from the 2002 MN Boating Guide
IT IS AGAINS THE LAW:
*To operate a watercraft in a careless or reckless manor.
*To operate a watercraft so that its wash or wake endangers, harasses or interferes with any person or property.
While it seems pretty clear to me, I can see where a case could be made that a little water over the side did not endanger, interfere, or harass. People die on the river at an alarming rate. Generally for no good reason. From what I’ve seen law enforcement would risk writers cramp if they started issuing citations. But they do nothing.
It is so contrary to my being to give up, but the thought of a 30+ foot cruiser that is trying to harass me, but the driver is to drunk or stupid to turn in time and hits me, keeps running through my mind.
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