Wade fishing awareness cautionary tale

[mikechell 0]

Ordinarily fishing is in no way shape or form a perilous activity.

I believe that's basically the whole point of this thread. Fishing isn't "normally" dangerous. This very fact leads many into a false sense of security ... a feeling of complacency that only rears it's head when it's too late.

Case in point:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/fl-pn-missing-fisherman-lake-okeechobee-20180105-story.html

[Poopdeck 0]

All fish are worth taking chances with your life or you wouldn't do it.

Mike, I was responding to this. No fish are worth taking a chance with your life. No, I would not fish if I believed it were. Who really fishes because of an adrenaline rush from the danger. My guess is nobody. Again, freak accidents happen but this does not mean we are risking our lives every time we go fishing or that fishing is a dangerous activity.

 

The freak accident can be minimized by wading staffs, knowing how to swim, PFD's, maintaining our gear, fishing with a buddy, first aid kits and so on. These things should be encouraged but this does not mean fishing is a dangerous activity and that we pursue fish because of some association with danger.

[tjm 0]

Poopdeck, It was not about adrenaline rush at all, it was just an observation on the hazards of living. Driving to the fishing hole is dangerous, a few drivers die each day on the way to somewhere.

Ignoring, denying, minimizing are quite simply an Ostrich approach to life. Accept that work is worth dying for or you would not drive to work, putting yourself at risk of death. Bathing is another risky endeavor, some of is take that risk anyhow. Accept that all living comes with some risk of death or injury, then you can look at options to reduce that risk.

 

To say an activity has little danger if you take multiple precautions before or while doing it is misleading in that if little or no danger were intrinsic to the activity there would be no precautions to take.

 

I really have no idea if people involved in deadly accidents experience any "adrenaline rush" in that last moment or not. Would a rush (how ever intense) be worth it?

 

Not on topic perhaps, because it was a boat involved, but the guy that fell of the boat last week in south Florida's Okeechobee is still missing on the 5th day. As a professional tourney fisher, he may have thought there was no real danger in another day on a semi-tropical pond. Apparently no one had any idea where that team was headed out to,so, the would be rescuers had to search a very large area. How do you suppose his people feel about the dangers of an "ordinary fishing trip"? Wonder at the total cost of all that event cancellation and protracted search?

 

Forty years in construction impressed me with value of taking every activity just as serious as can be. I don't want blinders of any sort. Anyhow, stay as safe as you can, or not, up to each of us to chose.

[Philly 0]

I've had my share of falls. I don't wade very often these days, my sense of balance isn't what it use to be. The scariest was up in Vermont, one spring before I took up fly fishing. I'd brought a pair of cheap waders, no one told me they were made to be worn with wading shoes. I stepped into the river and started wading across, was almost where I wanted to fish and I slipped, found myself floating feet first downstream in ice cold water. I must have gone 50 yards before I hit a bar and was able to get myself out. I looked down at my sneakers sticking out of the wader feet and made my way to the bridge that crossed the stream and had a cold walk back to the car. The most painful, again before I took up fly fishing, I was walking across rocks in shallow water, in sneakers, and stepped on a mossy rock and went down face first. I broke the fall with my hand and when I got up I had a broken little finger and a cut above my eye that took two stitches. The dumbest, I had been fly fishing for several years, had my studded wading boots on. I was fishing a sandy beach at Corson's Inlet. It had been a long day and as I was wading in I tripped over the only rock within a hundred feet of me, went face first into about 2 feet of warm salt water, and managed to fill my waders. It was more embarrassing than anything else. As I've gotten older, had both knees and a hip replaced and mortality looms closer. I've become very cautious and hardly get my feet wet these days.

[j8000 0]

Dangerous. You have probably a more chance of a car accident on the way to the fishing hole than fishing. Bottom line, the most dangerous thing for a person is being born. Everyone dies from that sooner or later.

[mikechell 0]

Dangerous. You have probably a more chance of a car accident on the way to the fishing hole than fishing. Bottom line, the most dangerous thing for a person is being born. Everyone dies from that sooner or later.

Some of you just refuse to see the point.

Fishing, in general is not dangerous. We all know that. Fishing can be very relaxing BECAUSE we all know that. You "nay sayers" aren't presenting anything new.

BUT ... tell that to the wife of Nik Kayler and see what kind of reaction you get.

http://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/2018/01/10/body-missing-fisherman-nik-kayler-found-lake-okeechobee/1020465001/?from=new-cookie

 

Anglers aren't danger seekers. Our thrill is in the catch.

But disregarding the fact that you CAN be killed, just raises the possibility that you WILL be killed.

[Saltybum 0]

I used to run 20 plus miles offshore Canaveral by myself looking for fish. I always check the weather to avoid unexpected hazards but never wore a pfd...until after have been married a while and the wife bugging me. Now...I always wear my automatic inflatable vest.

In cooler seasons I did also always keep my wetsuit stashed in my boat in case of emergency.

 

As tjm said it doesn't take COLD water to kill you just cooler than you. There are hazards of many sorts wading even our balmy Florida flats. I got the scare of my life a couple summers ago while wading and thankful to be alive today. About 11:30 am an early cloud decided to get very tall over me but not wide. Unusual since everywhere else were just the typical little cotton balls before the late afternoon build up.

I was suspicious of this one cloud right over me and kept watching it getting taller but still barely wider than 400 yds. I was thinking this doesn't look right and I'm about to make my decision to head back to shore maybe two hundred yards in knee deep water.

 

Yeah you guessed it. POW! S*&%T! I never prayed so hard while moving as fast as I could while this damn thing fired off at least five or six more bolts before I got to my truck. Thankfully none hit the water. Once in my truck I checked the radar on my phone. One small red dot directly over me and nothing else in the whole state. After my pulse and nerves settled down I went home.

 

I surfed with sharks, waded swamps with gators and cotton mouths etc. but nothing scares me like lightning.

 

Be safe, be cautious, be vigilant so later you can share your adventures with us.

[Lesg 0]

You guys might have seen this before. Nothing to do with wading but a response to Saltybum's lightning comment.

 

https://youtu.be/I9GCgasvsgk

[mikechell 0]

Lesg ... that's a video of an explosive charge being detonated. The "lightning bolt" seen, is actually the detonation device, "Det-cord"

Army Corps of Engineers "digging" a channel !!!

[Poopdeck 0]

Unquestionably a controlled explosion that I would not want to be in the middle of without a PFD.

[Fisherboy0301 0]

Unquestionably a controlled explosion that I would not want to be in the middle of without a PFD.

Are you implying there are some that you WOULD want to be in the middle of w/out a PFD?

[Lesg 0]

Mike,

No military experience here. Your explaination makes sense, even though it was posted on you-tube as a lightning strike, I wondered how it could be caught on camera. Thanks for the clarification.

 

Les

[mikechell 0]

You're welcome. Seen a few planned demolitions and "landscaping" explosion in my time.

 

Here's what a real lightning strike on water looks like. Not nearly as exciting ... but it'd still get your blood pumping if you were on this boat !!!

 

[Lesg 0]

Yep. Real adrenaline rush for sure.