Wear your lifejacket

[crappieken]

I had a first hand experience today on the importance of wearing your lifejacket. My buddy and I were baiting up bankpoles in a small river and had just baited up our 17th pole of the 20 we have out. We were both on the front deck of his 1448 Lowe jon boat and as I stepped off the deck onto the floor I saw some hooks laying there and stepped to the side of the boat just as he was stepping down from the deck. I heard him yell and turned just in time to see him go out backwards into about 8 to 10 feet of water. Any time we are on the river we both wear out lifejackets. He bobbed up the second he hit the water and fortunately there was a huge tree coming out from the bank into the water and he climbed on it and easily got back in the boat. He is 67 and I am 68 so we are not as agile as we were 40 years ago.

[unknown 5]

Watch those hooks when you are running your bank poles also. Yes, a good life vest can be a life saver.

[kygorski]

My jacket goes on when I start my motor, and stays on till I go get the truck and trailer. KI made a promise to my deceased wife that I would always wear my jacket after we needed to tell a friends wife that he had drowned that morning, he had a brand new stearns vest, still in the package, in his storage compartment.This happened on one of the great lakes, and he was alone, we saw his boat on the shoreline, being slamed into the rocks, and knew that meant bad news. He had a new daughter, about 4 years old.

[whizkids]

I put it on when I get in the boat and take it off when I get out after loading the boat on the trailer. I had a good friends son drown at the launch ramp when launching alone.

[GlenC]

So glad you both are ok.

Can anyone tell me the best place to buy life vests? I know it will be easy to find them for my kids. But me being a very BIG guy its gonna be tough

[fishingpox]

yessir,i'm glad everything worked out fine.

[frank lawhead]

don,t forget your kill switch--- some years ago I was just coming out of the hole when the minnow bucket started to fall over, so I grabbed fpr it and lost the boat which went straight right slaming me into left side and left me wondering where I was ---kill switch had shut down the engine--- nothing hurt but my pride
so it pays to be carefull

[DmDuck]

How do I go about wiring in a kill switch on a very old Johnson Sea King ? Mine doesn't have one and some Tournaments require them ...

[Fishnbuddy]

GlenC, Walmart has some for 2x and 2x. I'm about 270lbs and the 2x fits fine. They cost about $25-$30, if I remember right.

I wear mine all the time now after a friend fell off his boat and would have no doubt drowned if someone hadn't seen him in the water. He said he was just about to give up when they reached him. He's in his mid 50's and like all of us at that age and more we just don''t have the stamina or the ability to keep afloat for long.

Anyone who joins me on my boat has to wear theirs as well.

[crap-king]

So glad you both are ok.

Can anyone tell me the best place to buy life vests? I know it will be easy to find them for my kids. But me being a very BIG guy its gonna be tough

Sterns makes up to a 5X fishing life vest - BPS carries them as well as CAbelas - alot of our local tackle shops carry them as well here in the Carolinas