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Boating "Tips"
(By "The Bass Coach" Roger Lee Brown)
Throughout my past years of tournament bass
fishing, teaching students and charter clients,
I have witnessed many boating accidents, close
calls, and have seen many inexperienced anglers
just waiting for accidents to happen the way
they operate and handle their boats. There are
several tips a boater should learn before he or
she launches their boat when spending time on
the water. I share these boating "safety" tips
with all of my students while attending my 3-day
bass fishing school as well as my bass charter
clients because I hope that I can help to
eliminate some of these incidents that do happen
unexpectantly (kinda like preventative
maintenance on the water.)
One of the first and probably the most important
tip would be to ALWAYS KNOW YOUR WEATHER
FORECAST!.... I’m sure that I can speak
for most of the tournament anglers as well as
the serious bass anglers who spend a good amount
of time on the water when I say "Always expect
the unexpected." It seems like at least 80
percent of the time (especially during
tournament days) you will find bad weather
conditions. Weather can play a very important
role to a angler and can very easily ruin a good
day on the water unless one is prepared for it.
For example let's say that I was going to fish
on Lake Champlain, Kentucky Lake, or Lake
Ontario. All three of these different lakes are
very big bodies of water and when you get a good
wind come up, these lakes can become very
dangerous if you:
A. Have a boat that don't handle well in rough
water.
B. Don't have enough boating experience to
handle your boat in rough conditions.
C. Don't have the right size of boat that can
handle rough conditions (what I mean by this is
to have a big enough boat to safely get to where
you want to go on a certain body of water. For
example, if you fish a river that has protection
from the wind you would not need to have as big
of a boat as you would need if you fished big
open areas of water that can get rough in a
hurry.)
Secondly, anglers need to know how to operate
their boats in most any kind of conditions that
may arise. Let's say that we launched our boat
early in the morning when the weather was nice,
clear, and calm, and the forecast for the day
was light winds of 5 to 10 miles per hour (yeah
right! how many times has your local forecaster
ever got the weather right?) and we went to some
of our favorite fishing spots and nothing was
biting, and then we went a little further and
further and as the day went on before we
realized it we were about 10 miles from where we
launched our boat. Now, all of a sudden the wind
starts to blow a little harder and harder more
like 25 to 35 miles per hour instead of what was
forecasted and the waves start showing white
caps and grew to 2 and 3 feet high and we only
have a 16' to a 18' bass boat (ugh-oh). The
first thing we want to do is make sure that all
passengers on board are wearing life jackets,
especially the driver of the boat making sure
that his or her life jacket is connected to the
safety cord that fastens to the kill switch.
Next, make sure that everything is secured to
the boat deck (boxes, rods, baits, etc.) or they
are put securely in compartments to keep them
from flying back and hitting anyone in the boat
while in motion.
Before we get started for a rough trip back to
where we launched out of, I would strongly
recommend two very important items you should
have on your boat which are:
1. A electric trim (or tilt) switch for the
outboard gas motor (which usually comes equipped
on your boat when you purchase it)
2. A "Hot-Foot" (normally an option in most bass
boats,) which is a accelerator pedal that is
connected to the floor and works just like a gas
pedal in an automobile. I have had a "Hot-Foot"
installed in all my boat(s) ever since they were
introduced on the market because I personally
feel that this is one of the best safety
features you can have when operating a boat,
especially in rough water conditions. This pedal
allows a boat driver to keep "Both" hands on the
steering wheel especially when the water gets
rough (for maximum boat control), and it will
slow your boat down real quick when you let your
foot off the gas pedal. The only problem that I
have found with a "Hot-Foot" is that some of the
boat dealerships I have visited claim that it
voids ones warranty if they had one installed in
their new boat, so please check with your
dealership and make sure of your boat warranty
before installing or having one installed.
Now, let's start back to the boat launch.....
The best way I found when encountering big waves
or choppy water is to slow the boat down and
keep the nose (or bow) of the boat trimmed down
as much as possible. If you have a side of the
lake or body of water that may have calmer
conditions, ease over to the calmer side by
driving the boat in-between or parallel with the
waves. If conditions get really unsafe such as
small craft warnings on a body of water and if
there isn't a close place to go to instead of
the launch, sometimes a "Zigzag" pattern will
help. As mentioned above as far as keeping the
nose (or bow) trimmed down as much as possible
angel the boat about a 15% angle and zigzag back
and forth to each side if the waves are coming
straight against you on your way back to the
launch. A larger boat will of course handle
better than a smaller one in rough conditions,
but when you get 2' to 4' waves coming against
you even the 20' boats will have a rough wet
ride. The worst thing you can do in rough
weather is panic!, just take your time and be a
smart (not a rookie scatterbrain speed freak)
driver always keeping safety in mind and you'll
get wet, but you'll make it back safely. I have
been in these situations many, many, times
through my years as a bass pro and I may get
nervous sometimes, but I always managed to get
back safely without injury to anyone on board my
boat.
I would like to give you a few tips on boating
that I have had to learn the hard way over the
years. Hopefully these tips can make a
difference for you one day and not ruin a good
day of bass fishing.
Tip-1... Always have either a spare battery
(charged-up) or a heavy duty set of jumper
cables on board. The reason for this is because
I've been in 2, 3, and 4 day tournaments or have
been with clients or students and not running
the main gas engine very much (which usually
charges the main battery) while running my
livewells and electronics all day long (which
usually run off of your main battery), not
realizing this at the time I go to start my boat
up and there isn't enough juice in the battery
to turn my main gas motor over to start. Believe
me! it happens to many anglers..........
Tip-2... Always let someone know where you are
going and an approximate time for your return.
Situations in the past that I have encountered
were anglers that didn't know how to handle
their boats in rough water, or they broke down
(stranded without communication), or for what
ever the reason didn't make it back to where
they launched out of at their designated time.
Try to carry a 2-way radio, cell phone, flares,
and emergency flag in your boat and always
expect the unexpected!
Tip-3... When running up or down the water and
you come to these large 25'+ boats that leave
these huge wakes behind them and you want to
pass, trim your nose (or bow) downwards and slow
down while turning your boat slightly angled
into the wakes. Once you get past the wakes,
"keep on truckin"! (I mean boating)..... Oh
yeah, there is one other small little thing I
need to add to this tip: KNOW YOUR SPEED LIMIT!
Most bodies of water don't have speed limits but
the ones that do watch out for the law because
you will get a ticket, and that can surely ruin
your day of fishing. A good angler will always
follow and obey all Federal and State Laws and
Regulations... as well as always being courteous
and thoughtful of others.
I hope this article will help not only bass
anglers but all boaters! Each year the bass
boats keep getting bigger and faster and I just
hope the drivers use their good judgment and
always, always, think safety as a number one
(numeral uno) priority.
Until next time, take care & God Bless! If you
may have any questions or comments I would love
to hear from you at:
rlbrown@capital.net or go to
www.capital.net/~rlbrown
or
www.fishing-boating.com/basscoach
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