winter boat safety

[gooch]

The Sportsmans Guide is a great place to buy cheap wool blankets and clothing as well as the foil type blankets and other "survival" equipment. I cant stress enough how nice a sterno is in the boat. They are a couple of bucks for a 3 pack at walmart or walgreens. I even started using them and saving the can to fill with toilet paper and alchohol and make a nice little hand and foot warmer for the deer stand. Also dont forget to tape some water proof matches to the can. Dripping wet and freezing is not the time to be trying to get a wet lighter to light.

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/

[Rattler]

I have been thinking hard about all of these items that ya'll are suggesting. But everyone is leaving out a very important item here. If your going to be cold, the one thing that you can't leave the landing without is a good bottle of Polish Blackberry Brandy!!

[CrappieHead]

I have been thinking hard about all of these items that ya'll are suggesting. But everyone is leaving out a very important item here. If your going to be cold, the one thing that you can't leave the landing without is a good bottle of Polish Blackberry Brandy!!

For me it is Wild Turkey so when the fish are not biting I can go Turkey hunting. Where did I sit the bottle down this time?

[Bowfin]

Dont' forget a loud emergency whistle clipped to your life preserver as a safety device. it also works to entertain the toddlers when they get bored, though nothing is a s good as a big tub of nightcrawlers for some toddler entertainment.

Good idea about the ladder. I'll have to see if I can find a cheap rope ladder for my jon boat since i fish year round.

I also kayak and canoe. i always have a light 6ft rope tied to the back of my boats that I leave in the water. i fell out one time and couldn't get back to my canoe. The closer I swam to it, the further my "bow wake" pushed it away. I eventually had to dive and swim to it underwater to reach up and grab the gunnel inorder to pull it to shore.

Always wear the life jacket. When I fell out of my canoe I went deep enough underwater that I couldn't tell the surface from the bottom because the river was so muddy. Because my clothes were so heavy I wasn't very bouyant either, so I couldn't just float to the top. It was really dissorientating and i was about out of breath by the time I found the surface. Then i had to chase down my canoe. Not good. Learned my lesson. always wear the jacket, even if you are a great swimmer.