FALLING OUT OF A BOAT

Someone made a post about falling out of their boat while fishing and there was no ladder on the boat.  This is why it is important to never have your trolling motor on constant.  If your motor has tilt/trim there is an easy solution.  Go to the back of the boat (hopefully the motor will be off) and climb on to the motor.  Hit the tilt/trim button and this should lift you out of the water.  If you are an older fisherman like me (74), always wear your life jacket,

At any age and with any swimming skill level, you should wear a lifevest. Current can overtake any human and someone hitting their head and being unconscious will not be able to swim

The self inflate models use a capsule that dissolves when it gets wet. This type has proven not to be very reliable.

Mustang makes a model with H.I.T that deploys automatically in 4” of water, plus it has a pull cord to to manually inflate. This is the safest and most reliable model you can buy. The DNR uses this model of vest. They are more pricey, but worth the money in my opinion.

Given my age, I purchased an inflatable life jacket about 4 years ago. Very light,, easy to wear and comfortable. Sorry I didn't buy one a long time ago. Only complaint is it self inflates but  it also has a pull cord. Pull cord is easily pulled by accident while fishing if it gets caught on something. I had to partially velco it into  the vest. I highly recommend one for anyone in a boat!

LOL, Ive never heard or read that one Migr8r. 

As we get older the chances of a fall defintiely increase.

“Anytime you hear of a drowning they always say and he wasn't wearing a life jacket.”

And usually with their zipper down. Use a bucket. 

Anytime you hear of a drowning they always say and he wasn't wearing a life jacket. 

Also consider this. If you use the "kill switch" on a lanyard when your boating (and you should), the passengers in the boat can't run the motor to get back to you if you fall out and pull the switch with you. I keep a second kill switch key hanging on the motor mount just in case.

A few years ago a buddy fell out of my boat. It was hilarious. He has a decent muskie come in at boat side, sets the hook but didn’t connect with the fish. His momentum carried him backwards into the water. His rod/reel combo was valued at over $500 and was floating. The hat he was wearing was a Brewer hat signed by every member of the ‘82 team and that was floating. He was thrashing around like crazy. I quickly assessed what to save first and the first thing I grabbed was the hat, then the rod, and finally him.  

We still laugh our butts off about that one. 

boy o boy did this ever so happen to me just last year!!! i have a procraft 180 dc pro bass boat so naturally we do a lot of casting up to the shoreline especially. my son and i were fishing a wooded shore, and he got his lure stuck in the shore line wood. we always pull up and retrieve the expensive rapalas we throw. i am sitting in the seat up front and trolled up to the lure on a branch sticking out. grabbed the branch and it was rotten so it snapped like a potato chip and forward i went right over the side of the boat. i was sinking very fast. i pushed up twice really hard and grabbed the front of the boat.it was way too high in the front to pull myself back in so i kept thinking like....how in the world am i gonna get back in the boat! i finally said the boat is sitting very low in the back, and if i put my foot on the whale tail, i could do this....lucky i have one. i put my foot on it and hit the trim while my son pulled and i got back aboard. luckily it worked out but as good as i can swim, i was still scared. the good thing was we went in to changed my soaked clothes and went right back to the same spot and continued to catch plenty fish. what an experience.

Tuffy2

No one can. That's what I tell everybody. What temp you can you survive ?  Maybe 60; maybe A big 60+.

I always wear a life jacket, plus I have a boarding ladder on the back of my boat. $200 is cheap insurance to save your life. I’m 74 also and I don’t think that I could use the outboard to get back in the boat, especially when the water is 50 degrees.

Always wear your life jacket pretty much sums it up no matter what your age.