How many fisherman know how to swim?

[DrVette 0]

That is funny...i had a job one summer at a local country club and they made me get the red cross certification. The problem is that all i ever did was clean the pool after parties. I think that it was required because i was the only one left in the place at 2-4am around the pool... they wanted to make sure i could drag my own behind out if need be?

I took a couple hundred yards worth of ride in vest and waders in the Arkensas river once...Very scarry! I probably could have gotten out sooner but i refused to let go of my pole in that high water...couldn't afford to replace it then. I seriously doubt that i could survive holding the pole now if it happened again...but now i own several rods.

The water is no joke! And if you don't know how to swim or have health issues i think that it is a form of suicide to tempt fate in anything over knee deep...Even then things happen. I did some volunteer search and rescue work when i was younger and saw first hand just how quick the best can get pulled under. I lost a freind that taught scuba due to a slip in SanIsabel lake...avery steep sandy slope with enough strong weeds to tangle his ankles just under the surface was all it took. And he even taught cold water rescues in that lake. You never know.

[Isonychia 0]

I learned to swim fairly late (12 years old), but when I finally did learn the lessons took very well. Got the swimming merit badge in the Boy Scouts, got my lifeguard rating when I was in college, and at age 45 could swim a mile with ease. Can't swim as well as I used to (bad back), but can still get around well enough.

 

John

[Fly Tyer Guy 0]

I know how to swim, I'm not the best at it, but I can swim.

[flyfisher46 0]

I enjoy swimming, Can imagine though it would be difficult if your waders get full of water.

[brownsnatcher 0]

know how to swim, have been on Lake Ontario with 10ft waves, but they two things besides anything ever

happening to my kids. are fire and water because I know the danger of both, that scares me the most.

if you know the dangers and are scared of them, then you are in most cases more aware of what you are

doing and whats going on around you.

Just my two cents

[CoachBob 0]

I am not a strong swimmer and never go on the water without a PFD -- even when the boat is still and especially not when wading in deep waters or when deep waters are nearby.

I use the inflatable models and never even notice they are on. So far I have managed to convince most of the fly fishermen I know to do the same. SOSpenders and Sterns should give me a commission.

 

I spent years in the Coast Guard working on reports of boaters who drowned because they did not wear a PFD. Dragging a canal for bodies is not my favorite pasttime. In almost every instance of a drowning death, there was no PFD and in most instances if someone in the boat had a PFD they survived.

 

The past president of our fly club is a strong swimmer but turned over his canoe and was rendered unconscious with no PFD. Only the CPR efforts of brave strangers saved his life.

 

[Chase Creek 0]

I can swim, but I'm with steeldrifter - better to avoid situations that might lead to that. I'm a cautious wader. However, I have been known to walk on water when I sit down on a midstream log to change flies and find I am next to a snake. Don't like snakes.

[Peterjay 0]

When I was a kid, we spent most of the warm-weather months either fishing or swimming in creeks and small streams, and on many occasions, the two would accidentally overlap. I learned a couple of things: it's possible to swim wearing hip boots or waders, but it was hard enough that I wouldn't want to do it under adverse conditions. We also figured out that the old saw about the water in your boots pulling you down was a myth. (water in water weighs nothing) The real trouble was that it was clumsy as hell and climbing out of the water with all that weight was next to impossible. We see a lot of greenhorns around here taking insane risks fishing from the rocks and jetties and every year it seems that somebody or other drowns. If conditions are bad enough, the ability to swim isn't going to help much. I agree with CoachBob about PFD's. There's always an element of risk in fishing, but there's a lot we can do to minimize it.

[DHise 0]

I grew up bodysurfing in Southern California. You learn how to swim fast when you see 20 foot waves coming at you in sets at the Wedge in Newport Beach.

[utyer 0]

I learned how to swim when I was 4 or 5. Learned to fish soon thereafter. As I started fly fishing, I found my self neck deep more times than I can count. I was a pretty bold wader, but most of the time, I wasn't wearing waders. Still I have fallen into cold waters in December, and November. I always carry extra clothes now, and a towel. Last time I fell in was last fall. I should be more cautious, and I should wear a vest. I know of too many people who have drowned who could swim, and just got into impossible situations. I do wear a vest in a boat, but not while wading.

[Futzer 0]

Safety tip, swim downstream with the current, not against it. I have float tubed the A and B sections of the Green River a couple hundred times. PFD is law now, but at one time was not. Atleast one tuber a year dies here as there are many places to get a foot trapped and drug under. Every time I have been at the take off, someone, alone, in a borrowed tube or pontoon has asked me, "So this is my first time on the Green, anything I need to worry about". Second safety tip never float anything alone the first time and know as much about the water, the holes, rapids etc before you go, no matter how well you can swim.

 

Be safe, Futzer

[saltydancindave 0]

All those pool laps for water safety insructor, especially the side stroke with one hand out of the water; certainly will save a rod & reel if need be. As for a PFD, dislike fishing in the things in 90+ temps & forget to put them on in a boat more often than not, probably from overconfidence in swimming; so looking at the inflatable belt packs or the over the shoulder kayak type for more movement & less discomfort. The Green River.....remember my cousin having to use his drift boat to ferry a dead man down to the take out, but didn't know that until hours later. He had dropped off Dan the fly fisherman & myself at a little shalllow eddy where they heard there were lots of trout hitting on craneflies the day before & we had tied up a bunch by lantern the night before. By the time the other friends had hiked up the trail to tell us the drift boat wasn't coming back down the river because of the guy that overturned his float tube; we had pet names for all the trout that were being caught. Oddest weather ever fished in. Sunny & warm to start & BWO's were the trout ticket, then it started to pour down rain & had to cut the anchor line. Then some freezing rain, then colder & snow, then lightning coming down the sides of the canyon & we were in a wooden drift boat; or an instant toothpick factory ! Sleet, freezing rain then sunshine again ! :bugeyes:

[jimmywhiplash 0]

:crying: I can't swim !.....something to do with me almost drowning at the age of 7.....but it doesn't stop me from being on the water.....just makes me alittle more cautious.

 

Hi flygirl

hope you wear a life vest when your fishing I was once caught out very badly when float tube fishing I hooked my tube and caused a huge hole to appear when I was well out in the lake I was fishing I only just made it to shore I didnt have a vest on at the time but I always wear one now

[Fred H. 0]

Yeah I can swim. My older brother taught me when I was three or four.Paddeled me out to the middle of the lake and tossed me in.Shucks it was easy after I cut myself out of the sack.

[Dart 0]

Yup... I've always felt that I'm a good swimmer. I remember taking swimming classes as a kid and earning the Red Cross certification that some of you speak of... although now I don't know where my card is or what I was actually "certified to do."

 

My aunt and uncle live on a lake and my cousins grew up water skiing. I would guess by the time they were 7-8 they could barefoot and slalom. Since they were a couple of years older than I was, I looked up to them and wanted to be like them. One day my aunt got tired of hearing it and at the approximate age of 4, she strapped me to a knee board behind a Ski Nautique and took off! Well, I didn't fare so well, but I didn't immediately let go of the rope as I thought they were going to leave me. One thing that I did learn was that even if you have a PFD on, being drug behind a ski boat will drown you if you let it. I was young, but that memory is as clear as yesterday... and so begun what I recollect of my swimming "lessons."

 

As far as wading, I've yet to go wading. I've never trout fished or even seen a pair of waders. I'm with Chase Creek in saying the water isn't as intimidating as the water moccasins!