To get right of way becouse you are hindered by fishing equipment, you need to show the proper day signals as you do at night with lanterns. In this case, it was not obvious that they was fishing, did not fly any signals, and thus can not claim that the cat should have understood that they was fishing (might be some vessel size limitations on this).
Rolf is making the point. The correct day-signal is the hour-glass, please find a drawing attached. I know we are talking about a smaller vessel here, but as long as the engine is larger than 5HP, the signal must be shown.
In my sailing-area (Baltic Sea, Germany) we have right next to our club a bunch of fishermen - and of course none of them is showing the signal. This is fine with me, but then it is their responsiblity to make me aware of their lines - in time.
If this would have happen to me, I would try to stop as soon as possible and return to the fisherman to solve the problem on the spot. May be I'd have offered him some money, but this offer would have been withdrawn as soon as he started insulting me.
