Thread: Use Your Heads Guys and Gals

Originally Posted by Jwater

What lake/ state did this happen in??

Ockechobee, Florida

My son fell in at Taylorsville lake it’s just a small lake and the weather wasn’t bad just slipped. I was just saying that to show how fast bad things can happen I’ve never fish okochober


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Any updates on this ?

https://www.flwfishing.com/tips/2018...-kayler-family

Thanks for posting that mrdux


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I've been following this one pretty closely. As a tournament angler, I know and understand what these people go through.

The first thing to look at here is the obvious. In every tournament I have ever fished, the angler and co-angler are "required" to wear a PFD when the big motor is running, or in motion greater than a trolling speed. I like to be on the side of the angler so I "assume" he was in fact wearing his PFD when this happened. IF that is in fact the case, I am really concerned as to what happened? Was it an inflatable? If so, we ALL might be able to learn a lot from this unfortunate incident. Did it inflate? Was there a tear? Did he not properly maintain it? All of these are questions that hopefully can be answered.

The next question is: Was the Angler (operator of the boat) wearing his kill switch? Again, it is usually a requirment in most tournaments so lets say that he was and it acted properly. If anyone has not watched any videos in regards to how fast someone can be ejected from a boat, I suggest you watch them. The amount of force put on the body when this happens is mind blowing. I've seen necks snapped, and men knocked out from hitting the rear deck of the boat.

Putting those two thing together leads me to believe that the boat hit something. Could be a wave, could have been the wake of another boat or a submerged obsticle. The driver was ejected along with the passenger. One (or both) hit their heads or caused other bodily injury. Once the person was in the water, it appears as though his PFD encountered an issue that either did not maintain his head above water or didn't inflate or keep him afloat.

Blaming a tournament director in any of this is not the issue. If you read the article, it states that they did not report for checkin. We can only assume that the issue happened when they were on their way to checkin. Which means that the start of the day had zero issues and weather might not have been a factor. In EVERY captains meeting, safety standards are discussed including inclimate weather events. Once on the water, it is up to the angler in the boat to make a decision. I wasn't there so I don't know what the conditions were but, based on what I read, they were in no way bad enough to warrant any delay.

Tournaments are delayed and or canceled all the time!!! Big events build in "blow days" just for this issue. Smaller events simply choose to end the event early or cut the event short. Directors spend hours upon hours the night before the tournaments pouring over weather, wind, currents and so on. Many of the events have a minimum of two teams plus the safety director that will go out in the morning (in boats) and do a safety check.

One of the BIGGEST issues with these tournaments is how they handle ONE WATER emergencies. In the tournaments I fish, a radio is required. Unfortunately, most of the guys fishing them do NOT have adequate equipment. Most of them are using handheld radios that will push a maximum of 5 watts peak power. On a good day they can transmit and receive at 5 miles without interference. Some have mounted radios BUT they don't have proper antennas. VHF opperates "Line of sight". The higher the antenna, the better the signal. Most of these guys don't want to put an 8 foot antenna on their 80k boat. Myself and our partner boat are the ONLY two boats in our fleet of over 300 that use 8 foot whips. The tournament trailer has an antenna that extends to 30 feet. Most of these guys simply cannot hear if there ever was an issue.

I've addressed this to the tours and the directors are in agreance with me but, again, it is up to the angler on their safety. The last tournament I fished in 2017, there was an emergency call that went out (from the tour director) in regards to lightning strikes in the area. I heard it. My partners boat heard it. NO OTHER team heard it. Also, we had radar running and it told us of the strikes approaching. We were able to make safe harbor without issue. I asked other boats if they heard the warning and NONE of them did. I did NOT feel sorry for them. It is their own fault for not having equipment adiquate to keep them alive. This is NOT on the tournament director or the series. It is on THEM.

Word on the street is they speared a big wave, throwing the co-angler out and damaging the boat. The boater tried to use the trolling motor but wasn't able to get back to the co-angler. The boater then wrapped himself in the trolling motor wiring so he was tied off to the boat. That's how he was found.

This came from an acquaintance who fishes FLW often but wasn't at this particular tournament.

Just horrible.....