Life Jackets and extra clothes

[bcklash]

I borrowed this from BBC and it should be a warning to everyone and the main reason I'm posting this is my own son Adam aka "BassinBandit" he thinks he 8' tall and bullet proof about falling overboard and getting back on a boat. I hope he reads and heeds. Let's hope none of us ever fall overboard and can enjoy our day on the water. So please wear your pfd and have extra clothes on board.


I fell in this morning!
In my 40+ yrs of fishing from a boat, I have never fell in.
Air temp was 53 and the lake temp was 62, felt like ice water.
I was wearing, running shoes, socks, khakis, tee shirt, hoodie and my cabelas guide wear gortex bibs.
Spinner bait smacked the trolling motor, rod flew out of my hand. Without hesitating, I hit the deck and reached for my rod before it sank out of sight.
Next thing I know, I am doing a head-first-flip into the lake.
Righting myself and reaching for the boat seemed like a major effort, I never imagined how hard it is to swim fully clothed and I am a good swimmer. Luckily my old ranger is from the days of chrome , I had plenty of rails to grab onto once I made it back to the boat. Made my way to the back of the boat wondering if the ladder would hold my 270# and 30#s of wet clothes, it did. Not sure if I could have climbed the motor like days of old, glad I didn't have to try.
Peeled everything off and dried off with paper towels, luckily found a tee shirt and shorts in a locker, with them and the jacket I had just taken off I was dry and fairly warm, but my feet were numb.
Luck was on my side though, I was able to snag my rod & reel with a mepps giant musky spinner that I zipped tied to some clothes line cord that I had in my tool bucket. It was in 16' of water. Fished for a couple more hours, cold feet sent me home early
Lesson learned, always pack an extra change of clothes and invest in an inflatable pfd.
I always wear my life jacket when the big motor is running, but today I realized I need to wear a pfd when clothed for cold/cool weather fishing. Had it been really cold and being dressed for the cold like i do, fishing by myself as usual, the outcome could have been ugly.
Be safe out there, I have gotten complacent over the years.
Sorry for being so long winded, today was an eye opener for me

[bamabassman]

thanks ron. i DO need to put an extra change of clothes in the rig.

[carolina-rig-01]

Good post Ron, I also saw that on BBC. One more thing to add is that with winter just around the corner, cold water will zap your energy fast. In the amount of time it takes you to get back to the surface after falling in you can be so out of energy that climbing into the boat is almost impossible regardless of how many clothes you have on or how good of shape you are in. I am so thankful that my Triton has the Res Q Ladder, in my opinion it's one of the best things to happen to bass boats.

[keithdog]

I never thought about having extra clothes on board. Thats a very good idea here in the colder months. Thanks for the post.