When running in reduced visibility, and relying heavily on a chartplotter, your ability to focus on actually looking ahead is greatly reduced. I’ve seen both professional mariners & recreational boaters run completely out of heavy fog, or rain & still have their head stuck in a chart plotter. It only makes sense to run a little slower and 100% more aware while under way in reduced visibility. I am not by any means saying that the operators of either of these boat operators were not on top of their game, it’s just a fact that when underway, in these conditions, your safety isn’t in just your hands.
The US CoastGuard has some pretty strong regulations concerning boats underway in restricted visibility. I would think that these simple rules of the road would come into play in this situation.
My thoughts and prayers go out to all involved and their family members.

What does any government have to do with tourneys setting rules? It's about keeping people safe and if fishermen want to participate in a tournament they have other rules to abide by that are way less important than everyone making it home at the end of the

I know things get lost in translation when you post, the reason for the “”’s and big government was a spin off of common sense ideas, not literally government but the idea of putting gps on a boat to monitor speed when you can’t see 100’ and running 80mph, what person in their right mind does that?

Fished many offshore tournaments where you left after the sunset and the big boys would turn on radar and haul butt in the darkness only seeing what was above the water line not under the water line. Then after the sunrise you would look for anything floating to fish around the same stuff you hoped to avoid that night

We drove 6-10mph

I used to fish the Anderson Tournament on Smith years ago. Night tournament. This was out of Speigals marina. Over 500 boats. Me and my bil drew #20 starting position. Granted I’m running a 175 hp and moving at 60 mph. Next thing you know I get passed by 200 boat’s doing 90. F this I told my bil. Not worth getting killed. Kinda worked out well. Caught fish but did not finish in the money, but won enough prizes to cover the entry fee and gas

This is what I do also.

Man. That old Anderson Boats start was a show. Watched about 7 waves of boats come by one day. In and amongst that seventh wave was some tubers and one old pawpaw in his ‘74 model, 50 horse not much bigger than a John Boat. I still think he had bigger balls than the ones in the first wave running 100 with just their props in the water.

Sheeeeeettttt, not to brag, but i was in a '78 16' trihull astroglass with a 85 merc on it. Might max at 34mph...had an allison pull up beside me with the driver having a motorcycle helmet on...check up n look at me like "wtf"...then was GONE. Saw him next morning and we smoked him weight wise 😀.

I just watched this from a fisherman who was there and has footage of the boat that was hit just minutes before the collision and fog was not the problem. It was a beautiful day. It WOULD SEEM that somebody was distracted and just got run over. The important video is about the 4:50 point.


Smith Lake

Changed your post a little bit.

I saw that video last night. Obviously from this, visibility was not a problem..

I saw that yesterday as well.

and that video removes the fog excuse and opens the door for criminal prosecution charges.

I talked to one of the pros the other day. He said that fog wasn't an issue. So this backs him up. I don't know that area, but a guy i work with helped with the body recoveries. He said that it happened in a no wake area. Said the buoy was only about about 30 yardsfrom the boat.

The buoy is a shallow water hazard just off the lower tip of that little island. In high water, I guess it’s submerged.

10-4... you worded it better

Unless something has changed, any buoy there is a hazard buoy not a No Wake Zone buoy. When the water is up, that all looks safe to cut across, but that peninsula can be shallow. When we ride up that way, I always stay to the north where it’s deep.

I shot a round of 3D yesterday with a guy whose nephew was the survivor from the boat that was hit. Fog absolutely was not an issue. Said he believes the guy in the other boat was watching his GPS. His nephew said they had already had close calls with 2 other boats. He was at the center console fixing to crank the outboard to move when they were hit. He wound up with broken ribs and a punctured lung.

Watching the video and seeing the boat that was hit anchored in the water with no fog and good daylight. This accident was 100% the fault of the moving boat driver and guessing with 3 deaths he will be up on negligent homicide charges x 3 along with several other unsafe type boating charges. Sad for all involved.

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That makes sense. He isn't always reliable.

As a kid we spent our family weekends at miller flats. Everyone knew not to run that cut.

48 news reported a few days ago that fog wasn’t an issue as a video shown. Instead stated it was a blind corner coming around the wbend is what other locals said about that area.

Speed is the issue
Just like all those wrecks on 65. Folks need to slow down just a bit. It’s gotten ridiculous

We had a house 5 minutes from the impact site for over 20 years and have taken that turn thousands of times. The bouy to the land is to warn of shallow water. Many years you can drive a truck out there because the water gets so low. Locals cut that corner all the time and many a non local have bottomed out there. That is the reason for the bouy. This is an extremely popular area to stripe fish. Purely a guess but I would bet the tournament guy went from 60’ to 8’ so fast that he was watching his electronics and just didn’t see the stripe guy. Terrible accident.