As long as it doesn't interfere with other fishermen, I'd say go for it. If I were younger and/or in better shape, I'd be tempted to try it myself, but it sounds like the potential for a bad experience is high.

i dont see anything wrong with it sometimes you have to take things a step father then the next guy is willing to go to catch big fish

This is just another fishing technique in my opinion, But these people need to be wearing PFDs and be equipped with small strobe lights or other materials to let boats and other fishermen know where they are.

I agree with j.jones - as long as you aren't messing other people up, fine, but you should take some precautions to let people know you're there. In the video the guy says boats would get close to him to pretend to run him over, but they just as easily could have not seen him - he's wearing dark colors in dark water in the fog. Unless you have a death wish, just be smart about it.

Ooops, life insurance policy just cancled for obvious reasons, death due to placing fish overones life not covered under policy!

Absolutely not cheating. Unorthodox maybe, but he isn't using any different gear than anyone else, except he's taking a few more risks and getting out further. It isn't anything that any of the other fishermen on shore couldn't do by hiring a boat.

Personally, I think it's kind of cool. Not something I'd do myself, but still cool.

I don't think it's cheating. If you can fish from a kayak or spearfish, why not this? But it's more dangerous than spearfishing because they do it in the surf zone. Most of the spearfishing I do is in water with good visability--where the predators can tell the difference between me and their prey. In the surf, that's not such a sure thing.

how is this cheating? If this is cheating, then what about all the bass fishermen with ridiculously overpowered boats? This guys is different, sure, maybe even a little nuts, but it sounds fun!!!!!

People probably thought the same thing when Noodling became more popular, although this is obviously more dangerous, its just another way to fish.

about as close as you can get to battling a fish one on one, doesn't look like cheating to me

I think it looks cool! I am both an angler and a spearfisherman, and I understand why he likes his version of fishing 'cause he gets more exercise. And if he wants to risk his own neck doing it, we all have that right in this country. BTW the full wetsuit he's wearing works as a PFD since he is not wearing any SCUBA weights.

Woo Hoo towed 100 yards... Big deal. If the guy wants to drown himself its a free world. My he skish all he wants. Don't understand how that knife is going to help him if a charter skipper decides to run over him...?

There was an interesting experiment done on a guy with flippers in a pool...he was the fish being played, and a flyrod using a light tippit was fastened to the guys waste. The guy would flipper kick, and flee trying to break the light tippet, and the angler would release line, and cushion the tippet properly playing the guy with the angle of the rod. When the guy would tire, the angler would put pressure on the guy....the manfish didn't last all that long, and was brought in. And that is why larger fish can be landed on lighter leader tippets...let'um run when they want to run using slight pressure, and pressure them when they want to rest.