What do you do when fisherman try to catch you?
Context: surfing yesterday at a jetty because it was windy. Beachy break, almost but not quite shorebreak, soft mellow and small close to the jetty to the left, about knee to waist high. A short walk to the right where swell hits straighter on, chest to shoulder high, sometimes pitching. Me and my buddy paddle straight out on shortboards, current will drift us down to the peak.
This place is close enough to shore to have to dodge people who wade out too far, so I usually scan the inside for obstacles. Enter fishing cart on the beach. Family sitting around under their umbrella, talking, drinking, idk whatever people do on the beach, nobody fishing. At this point, we don't think anything of it since there are no lines in the water, fishing poles haven't been touched since we got in the water.
As we drift past, the dad decides to wade out as far as he could, fishing pole in one hand, other hand doing the open palm "what?" gesture as we stare at him throw the line right on top of me and my friend sitting about 10 feet apart. After about the 3rd cast like this, the slack fell right into my lap, and between him reeling in and the motion of the ocean, I couldn't immediately get untangled, so instead of waiting for the hooks to get to me I held on, wrapped the line (braid) around my fin and started paddling, breaking the line. Apparently they didn't like that and tried to yell at us to come in after we completed waves, which we promptly ignored with the same "what" gesture and paddled back out. About 30 minutes later after following us down the beach still casting near but not as close and yelling, I think they chummed the water, which is illegal on that beach for obvious reasons. Birds started diving all around me and I saw multiple sharks zooming around within 20ft of me so I noped out.
Im non confrontational, and I didn't feel like having this dad try to fight me in front of his family, but I really wanted to go explain that we have one surf spot in the wind, but 32 miles of beach to fish, oh and, maybe go fishing where the fish live by the jetty, not the roughest impact zone in the vicinity. Not to mention the possiblity of hooking someone, getting them sharked, or cut up by the line, as their line did cut me when I got tangled due to him pulling. It only takes 20lb braid to take someone's head off.
Do I start surfing with a knife in case I need to get untangled? Tangled in fishing line is a pretty common occurrence here, as even with a crowded lineup, people still decide that's where the fish are gonna be. Previous experiences with politely offering solid fishing advice, explaining danger, or just conversation have been met with hostility or me having to deescalate. If it were the 90's things would be a lot different but I don't wanna go to jail. Pretty sure the city won't do anything about it because recreational fishing is a huge part of our income.
TL;DR- fisherman followed me and a friend bombing us, eventually getting me tangled, so I cut their line and they got angry