Crazy night on Athens

Fished team night tourney couple of Saturdays ago. About 11pm my partner and i pulled up to our last spot. Last cast midnight. Had a paper tourney limit and were just trying to cull. Were fishing about 3 boat lengths from shore in about 18' water. All navigation lights on. I look out towards main lake and notice a wake boat approaching. The wake boat got about 100 yards from us then turned directly torwards my boat. They were now running parallel to shore coming head on towards us and picking up speed. I told my partner, I think these guys are going to hit us. They continued on a direct head on collision course with my boat. I told my partner start flashing our spotlight at them, trying to get their attention. We both were waving our arms and blinking lights at them. I was trying to decide which way was best side to jump from. At 1 1/2 boat length away they quickly veered out toward main lake, all the while they shouted F..... You as the gunned the boat and waked us. They then did made a Uturn and again headed toward the shore. This is where it gets unbelievable. As they were heading toward shore ( darkened by the night) they opened up the throttle fully and ran the boat straight aground into the trees. Could not have happened to a better group. This is the best part.After this chaos I was ready to leave our spot. We had about 45 more minutes till last cast. My partner encouraged me to stay. He then proceeded to catch 3 fish we were able to cull with ( including a 20 15/16th slot.) We arrived safely at weigh in with our story and a 3rd place bag.

this world is going nutz

Geeze. Any word on the condition of their boat or personel?

Did you help them? Were they OK?

Is this the Saturday night the wind kicked up to about 84 mph around 7ish. Water was perfectly calm and the flip of a switch it was on.

I would have been PO'ed for sure but would have taken the high road and TM'ed over to make sure they were okay. It would have shamed them and they might have learned a lesson maybe....

Otherwise if no one hurt then "Good Luck."

So what I can't understand is why there is no mention of calling the law to report them. If they did everything you said that was extremely dangerous to you and who knows what the outcome may be next time they decide to do something like that. People like that need to be reported to LEO and let them investigate.

I call bs on some of the details.

Sounds like he was trying to catch some feesh.Glad you didn't get hit.

We could hear them talking, saying one of them was passed out. They called someone on cell phone ( could hear them giving directions to location). Short time later a jet ski came slowly driving by. We told him his buddies were over on the shore. He thanked us and went to them.

U then apparently have no sense of judgement to call bs on any of the story. Once getting back to weigh in,many members of the club described the boat and said they had done same thing to at least 3 of our other boats. Driving straight towards them, then veering away, waking them severely.

Well if they did it to 3 other boats I guess they were lucky they didn't get invited to the boat ramped.

Last Saturday night, after dark, some nut bag in a pontoon boat ran WAO all over the dam end of the lake. Must have gone on for an hour. They never got close to us but I kept an eye out for them.

I have two issues with this. No one called the game warden on them but yet they are waking everyone on the lake and then failure to render aid. Aid at least in the form of calling the GW to report an accident. So quit complaining if you aren't going to do the right thing........they most likely will be back out there once everything is repaired.

Probably some punk kids out drinking in daddy's boat. Should have waked them on your way out and gotten their tag number.

X2

Even if they were in the wrong, you have to help someone who has just wrecked their boat.. If one of them would have drowned would they "deserve it" because they were being terds?

And if it happened "at least" 3 other times why did nobody else in your tourney call to report them?

This

Definitely would have went over to render first aid and when I departed they would have all required some degree of medical treatment!

Damn, there sure are a bunch of people arm chair quarterbacking it on here.

1. The above story is 100 percent true, no additions to the story.
2. We did not need to render aid, they were fine, just a few drunk [censored] that seemed to get a little instant karma.
3. We chose not to call the Game Warden, that was our choice that we made together. Hopefully whatever damage sustained to their boat will be enough to detour a repeat.

4. If you can't figure out by now I was the partner who culled 3 x's to help us secure a 3rd place.

Either call the GM ..... or not
help them ..... or not
Get in their face ...... or not

These things are your call. Do what YOU feel is the right thing to do, not what someone else "thinks" you should do.

For those of us that fish Athens all the time it is nice to have the information.
I personally have never had an issue on Athens ,,,,,,, but there is always that first time.

Thanks Nutman!
You are absolutely right. I've fished Athens and never had a problem. Love that lake.
Just a rare incident of a few young drunk kids.
And Just to clear things up, if they needed any medical attention or anything serious, we are good people, we would have obviously helped them.
They needed help getting sober and getting their boat off of the beach which we didn't feel obligated to do.

Well rendering aid may be a "choice" but the wrong choice is an illegal one, which is obviously what OP is so adamantly bragging about.

When they were headed right at you and picking up speed. How fast were they going? 5mph, 40mph?

Not Sure what you mean by Op bragging about. I'm just stating there was no need for medical attention. We definitely would have aided if needed. We just did not feel obligated to help them get their boat un beached.

Not really sure, but id guess somewhere between 20-30 mph and they probably beached the boat around the same speed, maybe a little slower.

20-30 mph and they got within 30ft before they turned. Should have called the GW. I would have wet myself if they were that close and that drunk.

We definitely had to check our undies! I think the only reason we didn't call was bc they received some instant karma. If they would have not beached the boat and kept driving around crazy we definitely would have called the GW. With their boat beached they were no longer a harm to anyone.

It doesn't take long to cover 30ft at 30mph. OP said he was thinking about jumping, if they hadn't turned he wouldn't have time to jump

So if they would have drove off you "definitely" would have called the GW?

HMM, How did the other 3 boats that these guys drove away from not warrant a call?

I can't speak to why they didn't call. I was not part of their decision making.

Regardless, I'm glad everyone was safe at the end of it and did well in the tourney.

Tight lines