A fisherman said he was out in New Bedford’s outer harbor with his sons and a few of their friends when the bluefish bite turned wide open. The tide changed, birds started working everywhere, and blues were busting across the water as far as they could see. They had lines trolling off both sides of the boat, and fish were hitting every couple of minutes. It was the kind of bite that makes everybody on board forget about everything else for a while. Rods stay busy, kids get excited, and every pass feels like it could produce another fish.
Then two guys on jet skis showed up and started running close to the boat. According to the fisherman, they were whipping past tight, cutting close in front of the bow and behind the stern while the boat was actively trolling multiple lines. That is already dangerous enough on open water, but it gets even dumber when a fishing boat has lines stretched behind it with lures moving through the water. Those lines are not invisible to the people in the boat. They are part of the spread. Any boater or jet skier who cuts across the stern of a trolling boat is asking for a problem.
The fisherman said they tried yelling warnings at the two riders, letting them know what they were doing was a bad idea. Instead of backing off, the riders mouthed off. They told the people on the boat exactly where they could go and kept buzzing around like the whole harbor was their playground. That is the kind of behavior that can make a calm fishing trip turn hot fast, especially with kids on board. Nobody wants a fight on the water, but nobody wants a couple of reckless riders slicing across fishing lines either.
Then one of them cut across the stern at exactly the wrong time.
Two rods bent over almost together. One line ran across the jet skier’s face and cut him. The lure on that line ended up catching him in the back of the head. Another line went lower and foul-hooked him on the side of the neck. That is about as ugly as it gets without someone ending up in the hospital by helicopter. The same lines he had been warned about were now wrapped into the situation, and the fisherman said the rider was furious, yelling about charges and threatening them after he got hooked.
The people on the boat offered to remove the hooks. The jet skier refused and kept cussing, swearing, and making threats, according to the post. It is not hard to picture how tense that moment was. You have a hooked and angry man on a jet ski, a boat full of kids and adults, multiple lines in the water, and a fishing trip that went from all-time bluefish bite to complete chaos in a matter of seconds.
The legal threats apparently never went anywhere, at least according to the fisherman. That part probably did not surprise many people reading it. A rider buzzing a trolling boat after being warned, then crossing the stern close enough to catch multiple lines, would have a hard time making himself look like the careful one. Still, nobody wins when hooks end up in a person’s head and neck. Even when the reckless guy caused it, that is not the kind of “lesson” anyone wants to deal with on the water.
This is exactly why boaters and jet skiers need to understand what fishing boats are doing before they cut around them. A boat that is trolling may have lines stretched far behind it and sometimes out to the sides. Those lines may have plugs, spoons, bucktails, wire, braid, leaders, and hooks moving under tension. They can hurt someone badly if a rider crosses through them at speed. The fact that you can see open water behind a boat does not mean it is clear water.
Fishing boats have responsibilities too. They need to operate safely, use common sense around traffic, and avoid creating hazards in tight channels or crowded areas. But when a boat is out in open harbor water, actively trolling, and people on board are yelling warnings, the smart move is simple: give them space. Go around wide. Slow down. Do not cut the stern. Do not treat working birds and feeding fish like permission to run laps through somebody else’s spread.
The bluefish bite should have been the thing those kids remembered from that trip. Instead, the day got hijacked by two riders who would not back off until one of them caught the wrong end of two fishing lines. That is how fast good water can turn into a mess when someone mistakes horsepower for judgment.
