So I took the day off got out on the lake before dawn. Looking forward to a long full day of fishing.

So I am motoring out to my spot, it is pretty dark so I was only going about half throttle. When I spot something in the water dead ahead, I had to cut right real hard to miss it. Was an 18 ft Deep V with 2 guys fishing. Out in the middle of the channel not a single light on the entire boat.

Do people not think!? Had I been full throttle, or not seen them for a couple seconds longer, I would have ran right over them! They are lucky too. On any given day in the morning there are a dozen or so boats out there usually full throttle in the dark.

It is not the first time I have seen that but the closest call I had. I can honestly say, there is not a single night I have fished without a light on the boat. At an absolutely minimum I have a VERY bright LED lantern on. Usually, I will keep the anchor light on.

So, the question is, ..did you say anything to the dorks..?

Do you use a spotlight or something to see what's in front of you? :-?

I was a good deal past them before I really got a sense of how close that really was.

And now I do not have a spot yet. That episode has brought that hole in my arsenal to my attention. We had one on my father boat growing up and while it helped spot debris in the water, it was not great for boat traffic. Truthfully, moonlight lights the water up better for that than a spotlight. Course not much of that that I can recall monday.

It is one of the reasons I run slower at night. With the visibility I do have, I figured that was about the distance I can see and safely react. I was right, but it was way too close for my comfort.

I remember growing up in Buffalo how many horrendous accidents there were on Erie and in the Niagara in similar situations. They never did turn on any lights. You'd think they would have after i can that close. They were just sitting there fishing.

Do you use a spotlight or something to see what's in front of you? :-?

I have a pair of 4" motorcycle headlights mounted on my bow.

I thought navigation lights were mandatory at night?

I thought navigation lights were mandatory at night?

They are.  Happens around here all the time.  Lake of the Ozarks is horrible about boats with no lights on.

This happend to me a couple weeks back during a night tourney @ 2am on the main channel. I thought I saw something and started backing down. Got up to within about 200 yards they flashed a flashlight at me. I started to let em have it but went on. I went on about a quarter mile and hit a duck at half throttle. Scared the crap out of me....I started to put it on the trailer then but I didnt. I should of trusted my first thought! There is no way I could sit on the lake at night with no lights on....Its crazy!

This is one way to thin out the pinheads in the gene pool.  

They should have had an anchor light on, and, they should not have been "dead" in the channel, anchored or not.

Channels are for navigation.

And yes, when I was a commercial lobsterman, I had trawls set in the shipping channel of Buzzard's Bay.

But lobster gear in state waters could not be hauled between the hours of sunset and sunrise.  And, I paid attention to the commercial traffic, which was considerable, and stayed out of the way of freighters, tugs, and tankers who could only navigate in the channel.

On foggy days with zero visibility, I checked the radar frequently and when a large vessel was headed our way, I contacted them on channel 13 on the vhs to let them know I saw them and would get out of their way as they approached.  I'd ask if they preferred me to move to the north or south to give them clear passage.

Having said all that, here is a partial list of some of the things I have seen that could easily flip or destroy a small boat travelling at speed.  Some would not even be seen with a spot light or headlights.

Mounted and inflated large truck tires, telephone poles nearly submerged but with enough bouyancy to barely break the surface, mill timbers (16" X 16" by 20'), fifty five gallon drums containing who knows what, barely breaking the surface, dock pilings and sections of docks, capsized boats, etc.

Zooming around at night may be thrilling.  It's just not wise, or safe.

I don't know if you spoke to the folks in that boat, but it's just possible that they broke down, and their batteries were dead.

Did you think to check with them?  I would have, if for no other reason than to get them out of harm's way.

Been there, done that.

One time I was just putzing along with my boat near a boat ramp on a dark night.  I had the throttle only slightly above idle when I nearly bumped into a boat in front of me.  Had the other boat not swerved, it would have been an embarassing little scrape.  And I was paying attention.  My passenger was a big guy and he was sitting in the front of the boat blocking only a very small area of my view-but it was enough, apparently, to prevent me from seeing the other boat (which had all the required running lights).  Contributing, I think, to the "near miss" was that there were bank fishermen nearby with a very bright light which lessened my ability to distinguish other light sources.  Anyway, that rather sobering experience told me it's very easy to have an accident at night-even if one is cautious.  Sitting out in the middle of a lake with no lights is a perfect recipe for disaster.  Dumb.

Oh, just so you know, I believe there is a typo in the Subject heading.  I think you meant "Darn near..." rather than "Darn need..."  It changes the meaning just a bit.

I've read this post twice since yesterday and was going to post that when I saw this one. At first glance I was thinking "need to kill someone?"

LOL. Man well at least I spelled everything right. Was so focused on not using the other word which could replace "darn" I just ran into that.

You know, I was so aggravated i did not even think to see if they were in trouble. They were fishing though, both of them were sitting on either end of the boat with lines in the water and they were maybe 1/4 mile from the launch.

I had thought about talking to them but then figured, I would just get in a screaming match, and I did not want to start the day on that note.

I do see it frequently on Wylie, and it is loaded with debris after a good rain. Once saw what looked like a 8"x8"x20' beam  floating with <1 inch of it above water. No way I would see it at night.

I do not know of any spotlight out there that would give me enough visibility to run full out (about 40 mph on my boat) at night. 1/2 throttle is about it for me and only on night where i got a full moon or some other weather condition that gives me decent visibility though items like the beam above or some of the other items listed in that previous post I would not see or avoid either so it is a risk no doubt.

Even with those guys being dumb, I am not sure if I would ever be able to go back out on the water if I were to run into them and kill someone. i just could not live with myself. That more than anything is what gets me mad about it. I am usually a pretty safe boater. I always have a vest and have my cut-off attached (though I have pulled it accidentally more than once). At night I have at a minimum the nav and anchor lights on while running and I will use my solar LED lantern to light my deck pretty brightly while sitting still.