Had a bad experience the other day.

[mighty]

I was fishing from the docks sunday and this boat pulled up and someone tried to hop out. Noticed I said tried, out the corner of my eye I see this and all of a sudden the guy was gone. I say did someone just fall in the water to the people around. Sure enough the guys in the water. I said someone feel in the water. While I am saying this the guy grab my net and run over to help the guy. I knew the guy fell in but from where i was standing it looked like he was climbing up the docks, but he wasnt. I felt bad afterwards because I was like man I could have just let this guy drown. It took three guys to get em out the water he was about 300lbs. Well that was my first experience seeing that and I tell you I hope its my last but as much as i fish i probably will see it again.

My advice,
It doesnt pay to be in a rush all the time. If the driver of the boat would had docked first the guy probablu would had fell. Lesson never jump from a moving boat no matter how close the dock looks.

May God be with all of you, on the water, on the road, where ever. The reaper is always around the corner.

Remeber this 9 out of 10 times our actions always determine our outcomes. For every action thers a reaction. Think before you act.

That's my word for today.

[Jeff Schiller]

I've been on the lake, in the middle of the lake, a couple of times and seen someone fall in or trying to get back in their boat.

One time a guy was at the back of his boat trying to get back in using the outboard and he was having trouble. I motored over slowly and by the time I got there he was back in his boat. I stopped and asked him if he was okay and he was.

The other time a couple of adults fishing with a young boy and the boy fell out of the boat. The guy in the back jumped in immediately and got the kid out quick. That was a cold day too. I was already close to them, but as soon as I heard the splash I stopped fishing and headed over there.

And I once came upon a couple of jet skiers a man and a lady on one ski. The lady had fallen off and the man had gotten off of his to go retrieve her. It was a really windy day and their ski was going in the opposite direction of them in the water. The man was caught between trying to help the lady swim (she couldn't swim) and swimming to his ski in order to try to help her get on it. I motored over and we picked the lady up out of the water and lassoed his ski which he got on. We towed them to shore and they got out at that time. The lady was exhausted from trying to swim even though she had a life jacket on.

The point is that we all have a responsibility to pay attention to others on the water. We mention often how boats pass too close to us and how that irritates us.

But no fish or pursuit of fish is ever worth thinking back to the "could'ves and should'ves" if someone drowns or gets injured when you were close enough to do something. I think most of us would help out.

The guy with the kid who fell in, when we got over there, the kid and the adult were already back in the boat. We fished next to them and laughed about it. Better to laugh about an oops than stick around and help mark where a human life was last seen.

Ya'll be careful out there.

[FishnLine]

I'm glad to hear it wasn't a bad outcome and hopefully a lesson was learned. I hope to never run across a bad situation like that.

[bowdenja]

Had a similar experience on the White River in Arkansas.

When the turbines are going the river gets up and is wild and mean. I was on a guided trip with my wife heading up river from the bridge at Cotter, AR. We no more than got the lines out, when both me and the guide saw three kids in a jon boat get sideways to the current on a snag. Arse over tea kettle went the boat and out in the river went the kids............ even in summer that river is C O L D.... cold!

I already had the lures in and ready to go before the guide could say anything. We headed of the kids...........2 boys and a girl, all of them in their teens.

I plucked the girl out of the river, instructed the boys to hang on to the sides and we headed to the bank. Once we got them standing we allowed the boys to get in the boat and headed back down river to the landing. Luckly they all had on life jackets. But they sure where scared and cold.

Dropped the kids off then me and the guide headed back to free the boat.........turned out it was one of the boats where we were staying. Bottom line we pushed the boat up to the bank, where it wouldn't drift off, the kids were no worse off than wet, and learned a good lesson on what not to do with a boat in current.

My afternoon guided trip was a bust, broke a rod pulling the girl in, but no one was hurt so it worked out ok. Rods are cheap compared to the other.

It's funny how things can go from a peaceful afternoon of fishing to a life and death matter............. just goes to show you have to be alert at all times.

john

[crappie10]

I was fishing a gravel pit , years ago, when a canoe, 150 yards away, tipped over. the kids were screaming for help and all we had was a trolling motor. They were yelling so loud, they couldn't hear us yelling back, that we were coming to help. The canoe was between us, so they couldn't see us either. that was the longest 2-3 minutes of my life trying to get over there to help. When we got there, they were crying and scared. Everything turned out fine, but they lost all their tackle and most of their pride