Is there a written weather cut for this ? small craft warning, 50k winds, etc.
Lots of issues in the past, remember your field will run out into any kind of weather there is. 6-8 footers don't stop them. Personally i think this kind of stuff has allot to do with it. I mean most guys are running big water boat's ranger 620's or better.
Tourney anglers rescuedPrize-winning fish escaped Complete tournament results, B1, 3 By RICK NEALE, and BRIAN LAVRICHStaff writer; Sports editor KELLEYS ISLAND -- When crashing waves swamped angler Pat Byle's boat, his 20-foot Ranger filled with water up to the instrument console. Soaking wet, he radioed for help, battling to stay aboard amid 8-foot whitecaps near Gull Island Shoal. Luckily, Byle and his passenger were rescued. But when he tried to transfer his fish onto a competitor's boat, two beefy walleye got loose and swam off into the depths -- costing Byle $50,000, a $35,000 boat and a Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Tour title. Byle's boating accident -- and fish misfortunes -- capped Saturday's decisive day of Lake Erie walleye tournament action. Had the Wisconsin man not lost control of his pair of fish in roiling waters north of Kelleys Island, he said he would have returned with about 30 pounds of walleye. That would have defeated the other nine Wal-Mart RCL finalists by a 10-ounce margin. "I'm not 100 percent sure what happened," Byle said afterward, visibly shaken. "It happened so fast." The incident happened during a gale warning about 9:30 a.m., near a popular fishing site about two miles south of the Canadian border. Northeast winds of up to 25 knots churned the lake, spawning 6- to 8-foot waves. Bob Domek, an Illinois pro fisherman, heard the distress call and motored to the scene. He pulled Byle and his amateur partner, Steve Anderson of Illinois, from the lake. "We saw them yelling and screaming," Domek said. "It took a while to get there because the waves were so big." Domek said only about 4 inches of Byle's boat were above water by the time he arrived. "When we pulled up, I knew we only had a couple of chances to do this. So I told them when they get the chance, to just dive into the boat," Domek said. The stranded men managed to board Domek's boat -- but two of the five walleye didn't. U.S. Coast Guard Station Marblehead dispatched a 47-foot rescue vessel and a 27-foot boat to the area. Boater's Emergency Service also sent out two boats to join the search effort. Coast Guard personnel eventually located the swamped boat and floating debris, then towed the boat to shore. Byle survived Saturday's winner-take-all, Wal-Mart RCL fish-off with three walleye totaling 15 pounds, 15 ounces -- good for sixth place out of the 10 finalists. David Kolb of Riverview, Mich., won the event with five walleye totaling 29 pounds, 6 ounces. After rescuing the anglers, Domek's boat was battered by waves, shattering his windshield. The boat started to flood, but the men were able to pump out the water and get back to shore. Byle said Lake Erie conditions worsened in a matter of minutes Saturday morning. "We went out to make another pass when a wave came over the back of the boat. So we had to get water out of the boat," Byle said. "I couldn't get the engine going when another wave came about 10 seconds later. "I went to call for mayday and another wave hit before I could give my coordinates. I'm very happy to be alive. I'm very proud of what Bob did."
|