Tug and Barge with "Balls"

[zipper]

Hey ya'll. I was fishin with my 9 yr old son (who by the way caught a 43"er) about 1/2-3/4 mile down from the Willie on the Columbia last Sunday and out from the Willamette comes this big old tug pulling a rather large barge/ship type thing and skipping along behind the barge about 50-75 feet are two anchor balls! I'm watching this with the kid and explaining what probably happened and along comes a Jet Sled chasing the barge... the guy seemed to have a long handled hook and a guy hanging off the bow ... They caught up quickly and grabbed the ball that was trailing the farthest back then gave up the chase. I was wondering if anyone else saw that or if it was someone from the board... I've never seen that done before. My son thought it looked like fun - I thought it looked like a good way to get yanked out of a boat! Was anybody there? Did a bunch of boats have to scramble to get out of his way? Come on... tell the story! zip

[ 01-21-2004, 03:09 PM: Message edited by: zipper ]

[Steelie Steve]

:shocked: :shocked: :shocked: :shocked:

[wootersen]

We didn't see the one you are talking about, but we were fishing pretty close to the spot you are talking about a week ago. A barge came by with 1 anchor ball trailing behind it. Not quite sure why it was there :whazzup:

[Small Fry]

We fish above the Saint Johns bridge on Sunday and saw a barge headed down stream with several balls in tow. I figured they were moreage lines since I could see a line attached to the barge.

[MacEFL]

Elwix and I frequently fish the Columbia City area and noticed that most of the barges have those balls behing them. Never did figure out what they were used for but they were always tehtered to the barge!

[Bobber Down]

The line's that trail behind the barges are safety lines. If one of the deckhands fall overboard, it gives them something to grab onto..................BobberDown