gooded
02-24-2009, 06:08 PM
For safety's sake, I wanted to share with folks an experience I had on Lake Anna recently. I'm one of those guys who loves to do both freshwater and saltwater fishing. Anyway, it was one of those recent warm days we had, and I decided to tow the boat up to Anna (I live in the Richmond area) to knock around for the afternoon and see if a striper or largemouth might bite. As I headed down the lake, I had the unfortunate experience of witnessing a bass boat spin out and toss its operator into the 40-degree water. Long story made short: He didn't see a hazard buoy until he was on top of it and reacted by turning the boat too sharply at speed. I guess the the prop lost its bite and around she went.
It happened in the middle of the main lake. We were about a hundred yards away and the only other boat in site that I'm aware of. I rushed over, and my fishing partner was able to grab the guy's right arm as he struggled in the cold water. I grabbed his other arm and, together, we pulled the guy into my boat.
The guy wasn't wearing a life vest or his kill switch. As he struggled in the cold water, his boat idled away from him. Had we not witnessed what had happened, I hate to imagine what the outcome might have been for that guy or what his family might be going through now.
The guy refused some dry clothes we had on the boat and said he had some on his boat, which we caught up with, and everything ended much more happily than it had started -- thank goodness. In all the excitement, we didn't even catch the guy's name.
Anyway, do yourselves and your families a favor: Don't disregard water temperatures just because Mother Nature teases us with a couple of warm days this time of year. I'm sure that guy was thinking, "I don't have far to go, it's a beautiful day, what could possibly go wrong .... I admit I've done the same more than once. I'm also not proud to say I've broken bones while fishing -- bad fall in a boat on a lake in the wintertime with no fishing partner and no other boat in sight. I'll save the rest of that story for another post. Suffice it to say I had an interesting time getting home.
Sorry for the long post. I appreciate all the information this site provides, and I'll try to do a better job of sharing info in the future.
Dave
It happened in the middle of the main lake. We were about a hundred yards away and the only other boat in site that I'm aware of. I rushed over, and my fishing partner was able to grab the guy's right arm as he struggled in the cold water. I grabbed his other arm and, together, we pulled the guy into my boat.
The guy wasn't wearing a life vest or his kill switch. As he struggled in the cold water, his boat idled away from him. Had we not witnessed what had happened, I hate to imagine what the outcome might have been for that guy or what his family might be going through now.
The guy refused some dry clothes we had on the boat and said he had some on his boat, which we caught up with, and everything ended much more happily than it had started -- thank goodness. In all the excitement, we didn't even catch the guy's name.
Anyway, do yourselves and your families a favor: Don't disregard water temperatures just because Mother Nature teases us with a couple of warm days this time of year. I'm sure that guy was thinking, "I don't have far to go, it's a beautiful day, what could possibly go wrong .... I admit I've done the same more than once. I'm also not proud to say I've broken bones while fishing -- bad fall in a boat on a lake in the wintertime with no fishing partner and no other boat in sight. I'll save the rest of that story for another post. Suffice it to say I had an interesting time getting home.
Sorry for the long post. I appreciate all the information this site provides, and I'll try to do a better job of sharing info in the future.
Dave