[willcfish]

Sandbar safety, If you hunt rivers you need to be aware of this.
A friend of mine went under water for half a block when the edge of a sand bar unexpectedly broke off under his weight. It threw him into current and he was lucky to touch bottom so he knew which way was up. He thought he was done for.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeoGEPy3WOE

 

[MikeG]

You do know you already posted that video here, I take it?

 

[wooly booger]

Sandbars, undercut banks, etc. are all dangerous. Even more so if you are wearing hipboots or chestwaders. They fill and act as an anchor.

 

[HarryS]

even more dangerous in tidal waters. Everyday at incoming high tide the Hatteras shore patrol show up with two jet ski machines to rescue stranded fishermen that go and walk out at low tide,' when the tide comes in the current is too strong for any human to cross and it is over ones head.

Even signs at these locations can't get the message through to tourist fishermen. You can't cure stupid.

 

[langenc]

Sandbars, undercut banks, etc. are all dangerous. Even more so if you are wearing hipboots or chestwaders. They fill and act as an anchor.

I have not worn waders in quite a few years.

When my son and I go beaver trapping he puts on the waders. Included is a belt w/ larger plastic snap. The belt is about 4" from the top of the waders. He cinches the belt rather snug before going into the water even though just about all the places he goes is less than crotch deep.

WEe do the 'buddy system' just in case.. I had to help him once when he got caught. He would not have gotten out by himself.

 

[2Bits]

Anybody been in a Rip-Tide?

 

[cptjack]

I have surf fished and rip tide can be a killer once took a friends son a mile down the beach, you swim with the tide ,impossible to swim against it

 

[1Calicocat]

I have had a fear of waders for years. Working in the Florida Everglades and Lake Okeechobee year round, I always kept a pair on the airboat. I seldom wore them in the marshes unless the weather was very cold and I knew the area very well. Greatest use I had for waders was to keep warm and dry while running the airboat. Even on a hot July day you can darn near freeze while running an airboat in a thunderstorm.

 

[Bong Son Buck]

I have had a fear of waders for years. Working in the Florida Everglades and Lake Okeechobee year round, I always kept a pair on the airboat. I seldom wore them in the marshes unless the weather was very cold and I knew the area very well. Greatest use I had for waders was to keep warm and dry while running the airboat. Even on a hot July day you can darn near freeze while running an airboat in a thunderstorm.

Or riding a motorcycle!

 

[BuffHunter]

Mud flats can also turn into a trap. Once while duck hunting my GSP started whining and acting nervous. Ignoring the dog's good sense, I continued to plod on through the mud, when suddenly I was up to my waist in thick, wet mud. My dog had also gotten stuck up to his belly.

It took a lot of work and effort for me to free one leg (I had to keep leaning back and forward to compress the mud enough to free myself), but I eventually was able to crab crawl backwards out of the mud. I then managed to get a rope around my dog's collar and hoist him out, although it was rather painful for the dog.

Covered entirely in mud and with mud all over my Charles Daly Superior Grade O/U, I had to call it a day and spent 20 minutes trying to get enough mud off of myself to let me get in my truck and drive home.

With night falling, I could have died of exposure out in the middle of a mud flat with no one around for miles.

Lesson learned.

BH

 

[langenc]

Buffalo--etal-many of our outdoor pursuits are dangerous butnot recognized as such. Your dog is a wonderful companion but you had to save him.

I had one experience duck hunting/trapping. Stepped of the back of the 12' boat an there was no bottom?? Good thing I had BOTH hands on the gunwales, had that happened to day, ouch. This was 40 yrs ago.

Couple yrs ago I was along w/ my beaver trapping son. It was an odd place for beaver. They had been cutting on top a hill many feet UP from the creek, dammed. I was w/truck up on the hill.

Son was setting trap and I heard him say "Im going to need some help down here." He had got BOTH hands into a 330 conibear that was staked solid. I got wet above the knees but got him out. Had he been alone I suspect we'd went out looking for him many hours after he didn't come home.

Maybe we all need to adopt the Boy Scout BUDDY SYSTEM for more of our activities. They use it esp for swimming, just swimming or events involving many scouts. You have your buddy and are his. Both need to be aware of location of buddy even amongst 15-20 other swimmers.

 

[BuffHunter]

^
Trapping, especially beaver. and muskrat can be particularly dangerous.


I agree going out with a partner is good insurance, but I've always had an independent streak and like to get out in the outdoors alone (except for a dog or two). The biggest real danger that I have to guard for, is breaking a leg or spraining an ankle when out by myself. That's when you really have to slow down and pick your footing.

Like an old mountain man once told me, "The mountain don't care. Live or die, the weather does what it will and you have to be responsible for dealing with whatever nature throws at you."

Having good common sense goes a long way in keeping you alive. I have a good friend/hunting buddy that is a really smart guy (VP of a bank) and has killed a lot of game (both small game and large game), but every time I go out hunting with him, he winds up getting into some kind of predicament. It's either getting his truck stuck way up above timberline, or getting trapped in some box canyon he can't get out of. He is a fairly aggressive person, but he doesn't seem to have the common sense to know when to back off.

I think that's what gets a lot of people in trouble. If I see a dangerous looking section of a jeep trail, I will get out and check it before trying to make it across, he almost always just goes for it (he came close to losing a new truck that way once upon a time).

Still adventure without some danger is not really adventure.

BH