White Catamaran Capt. D!$&

[Eriegardless]

I am not going to defend anyone at all in this thread except to say that unless someone knows the name of the boat, then don't "speculate" and get everyone bashing a captain that wasn't involved.
I am not a captain, I don't Charter. I have casted and I run big boards...
being that Sara-J appears to be getting some blame here, and the original poster didn't use any names, even said he wasn't sure, please be really careful in attacks on a specific boat.
I do not know Gary of Sara-J. I've never officially met him or talked to him.
However, over the past 8 years of me running big boards I have probably fished in the same areas and packs as him and been around his boat as much or more than anyone in this forum. I have never seen him disregard boating protocol, and have never heard him being a jerk on the radio.
Accidents do happen. I'm not defending him, nor saying that no one has had an issue with him.
I am saying that I've been within 100' of his boat dozens of times over the years, and "as a whole" he is a good captain. He doesn't deserve "credit" for an issue that the original poster doesn't even know who it was.
He definitely doesn't deserve a bunch of bad PR from this board when we don't know who it was.
This forum has always been the best on the web in my opinion because we have great contributors and we don't have the drama of other sites.
If Gary ran over your boards and cussed you out, and kept your gear, feel free to post an accurate account of that.
My problem with what is going on here is that everyone "trolling" these forums and the general public read this and form an opinion of Sara-J charters and Gary, and he may or may not even be the boat involved.
There was nothing wrong with this thread at all until speculative names of boats were thrown into it. Those of us who fish the Western basin already know potential culprits without anyone mentioning names.
By the way... there are more than 2 white Cats on the West end of Lake Erie.

Better go re-read the comments here. The OP never mentioned any boat names....just said it may of appeared to be the one Juls mentioned but also said he could not confirm. I WAS the ONE that said Sara J cause IT WAS a Sara J boat that I was referring to. And I have my facts straight and know for sure that I could read Sara J cause had I not moved I am sure I could have reach over and cut his board tow line with my pocket knife as it bounced off the side of my hull. And then he looks at me and shrugs his shoulders and holds up his arm like "Whaaat???" He may be a GREAT Captain and the nicest guy on the lake but the day/occurrence I am referring too...maybe he was just having a bad day but he was completely out of line and I had to do what Capt. Eric mentioned. Alter your course to avoid a collision at all cost...if you have the right away or not.

Great post Capt. Eric....very well said! I see it happen all the time...people get in a pinch when there are that many boats in a small area, I get it and it has happened to me but most people are always willing to work together.

[Madd Matt]

Better go re-read the comments here. The OP never mentioned any boat names....just said it may of appeared to be the one Juls mentioned but also said he could not confirm. I WAS the ONE that said Sara J cause IT WAS a Sara J boat that I was referring to. And I have my facts straight and know for sure that I could read Sara J cause had I not moved I am sure I could have reach over and cut his board tow line with my pocket knife as it bounced off the side of my hull. And then he looks at me and shrugs his shoulders and holds up his arm like "Whaaat???" He may be a GREAT Captain and the nicest guy on the lake but the day/occurrence I am referring too...maybe he was just having a bad day but he was completely out of line and I had to do what Capt. Eric mentioned. Alter your course to avoid a collision at all cost...if you have the right away or not.

Great post Capt. Eric....very well said! I see it happen all the time...people get in a pinch when there are that many boats in a small area, I get it and it has happened to me but most people are always willing to work together.

I believe that if you read my post that you would see that you and I are in complete agreement... I am confused as to what you think I said. Multiple times I mentioned that the OP post was perfectly fine, and a good conversation and good post. He didn't mention any names.... Also, if you read my post, you will see that I commended you for telling your story with a boat name when you knew exactly who it was, and said that it was perfectly fine when you know what happened and who did it. I was not calling into question your account and have no problems with it.

I don't own this site and don't have any right to tell anyone how to respond. However, there are enough of us who have been in here for years and we all truly appreciate keeping the drama that is so common on other sites out of Walleye.com.

I was merely asking that everyone not jump to conclusions on the OP's run in on the Lake with a specific boat when we don't know who it was. In your personal case, obviously you know. So tell your story. No problems there.