TOPIC:

As I was holding the couch down looking for a new boat an article popped up that I wanted to talk about. Long story short a young man with his family of four went out on Lake Superior on a SUMMER day on a kayak. It was a calm day but ultimately the kayak capsized. The soul surviver was mom she was the only one who stayed with the kayak and was easily found. Hypothermia took the 2 children and father. They were all wearing life vests. I would like everyone to kick in on this one with some thoughts about what you would do in different situations. I know we have a lot of new to Lake Michigan fisherman on here that maybe don’t realize how dangerous our hobby and past time can be. We all may take the cold water for granted from time to time. Here is a good chart that will show what cold water does to in with in a certain time period wearing life vests theses times would greatly change if you are not. Keep this in mind in June and some of July we are not exactly safe in the summer at times. If you don’t want to comment that is fine but if you are unaware spend the next 20 min informing yourself over the web it may save your or a loved ones life.

I will start.... I know most of us don’t do this but it is a law and will get you a ticket. Your coast guard approved throwable must be in a ready to use position. This means in the open ready to grab within a second so not in a compartment. I would even go as far as attaching a rope with 75 feet of line to it. So you can pull them in.

Good info Bill and thanks for sharing. I have added a glow stick to my throwable. I fish many times very early and late.

I just want guys to think about what if things went very bad one day. The attitude of it won’t happen to me is no place for the Great Lakes. Even something minor goes wrong what would you do and why. Panic equals chaos and chaos equals tragedy.

I have my Marine radio tied to my GPS and registered with the coast guard. When I went to have it installed, one of the guys working there said that a lot of fishermen will not tie it to the GPS because some of the radios send the GPS coordinates when you key the radio. I told him my fishing spot is not more important than my life, go ahead and hook it up.

That one is huge ed. I can thank frank from calument marine for the help linking mine up. The first time he seen my boat he checked and found mine was not linked. Fact when you hit that panic button and you are not registered with a Mmsi number the coast guard will not respond. They don’t know who you are without it. It allso speeds up the response time by 100 percent in the case of an emergency.

A lot of the new radios have gps built in. A quick visit to towboat us website and you get your number. I just replaced my radio for that reason.

I fish alone alot witch is not the smartest. My advice that comes to mind is always let some one know where your launching. Send a text when u get there and when u get off the water.

Normally I will text my wife. Something like hey babe, I'm out of EC today. Plan on going out around "xyz" area to start. Probably be back in around 5pm. Then I will text her when I get back to the launch.

3 - 5 seconds before paralysis starts setting IN regardless of all the above if water is in the mid 50s or less for Great Lakes is 90% of the time
SO OK BESIDES ALL MENTIONED ABOVE ALL GREAT INFOR LET ME ADD THIS
think about this !!!! after you get a wet partially paralyzed person to the boat HOW THE HELL YOU GOING TO GET THEM IN THE BOAT ? a 200 lb person wearing cold weather gear just turned into a 300 lb person any thing less than a DIVE ladder is pretty much useless (DIVE LADDERS ARE DESIGNED FOR SCUBA DIVERS TO HOLD THE WEIGHT HAVE BIG HANDRAILS AND 5" WIDE STEPS )
THE LITTLE LADDR ON THE BACK OF YOUR BOAT IS ABOUT USELESS FOR ANY THING MORE THAN GRABBING ONTO !! IF YOU ARE WET COLD THROW A ROPE AROUND PERSON UNDER THEIR ARMS WITH SINCH KNOT
SHUT MOTOR OFF GET PERSON TO THE BACK OF BOAT IF ITS A OUTBOARD ASK THEM TO BEAR HUG THE MOTOR AS BEST AS POSSIBLE PUT THEIR FEET ON THE CAVITATION PLATE JUST ABOVE THE PROP HIT THE TILT BUTTON IF YOU HAVE A IO HAVE THME STAND ON THE CAVITATION PLATE AS CLOSE TO THE BACK AS POSSIBLE HIT THE TILT BUTTON LET THE POWER TILT LIFT THAT PERSON AS FAR OUT OF THE WATER AS POSSIBLE DRAG THEM OVER THE GUNNEL OR OVER THE OUTBOARD INTO THE BOAT IF YOU HAVE A BIG INBOARD BOAT INSTALL A GOOD DIVE LADDER
DO NOT MESS AROUND GET BACK TO PORT CALL COAST GAURD HAVE A AMBULANCE READY AT THE RAMP HYPOTHERMIA CAN KILL AND FROST BITE CAN HAVE YOU LOOSING LIMBS WEAR A INFLATABLE VEST AT ALL TIMES WHEN WHATER IS NOT AT SWIMMABLE TEMPS THE FUNS OVER IF SOME ONE GETS HURT ! HAVE ANY QUESTIONS STOP BY CALUMET MARINE WE ALWAYS HAVE TIME TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE SAFE AS POSSIBLE OUT THERE I AM NOT A FAN OD KAYAKS! UNLESS WATER IS SWIMMABLE

THANK YOU BILL FOREST THE COWBOY/PIRATE WITH NO HORSE FOR BRINGING UP THIS GREAT TOPIC
OK SORY FOR THE JAB IT IS REALY AL ABOUT THE FUN !!!!!!! LOL

PS IF ANY ONE NEEDS A SAFE BOAT I CAN HELP WITH THAT AS WELL !!! HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM CALUMET MARINE !!!

CAN WE TALK ABOUT SAFETY TOO MUCH?

I SAY NO!

Important decision to think about and the right choice could save your life.



You will only have 3-10 seconds to make the decision before the next wave comes in and then the boat capsizes and you are in the 40 degree water so NOW is a good time to give it some thought. This goes along with my recent post about bilge pumps. Sooner or later it happens to everyone that spends a good deal of time on big water fishing. You may be the guy that only goes out on the good days, but the problem is weather changes fast and the weather man if often wrong.



My day was about 20 years ago we had left out of Calumet Harbor (Chicago) and heard reports on radio of good Coho action in front of Pastrick in East Chicago, Indiana. It was a nice sunny day with SW winds at about 5-6 mph. So we fired up the 200hp Evinrude on the 200 Four Winns Horizon for the 8 mile trip. The ride over was a pleasant, water was cold but sun was warm. We had a nice top on the boat and a cover on the open bow with extra snaps for added security or so I thought. The Coho action was fast and furious and after about 2.5 hours we filled our box, pulled lines, and headed home. What a surprise we had when we rounded the corner at the second light and found the wind had switched to NW and picked up 10-15mph. Waves where a 6-8 and building Life vest went on immediately. After about 20 minutes of trying to find the right angle and speed to make way back west. Waves began breaking over the bow and about every fifth wave hit the windshield. So hard it unsnapped the canvas top from the windshield ripped open the bow cover and deposited what seemed 400 gallons of water in the boat and on my lap. We where instantly soaked and the boat took on an immediate squat.



Now the decision is this:

Option #1: Take the best angle into the waves regardless of the direction we really need to go. Then power on and trim up to keep the bow as high as possible to give the pump time to catch up. With an 800 GPH pump and what seemed like 400 gallons already in boat a quick guess would be 30 minutes to pump out the boat, this would be eternity in these conditions. Because this boat had a 25" extra long transom, high freeboard aft, and the front end was crippled with the bow cover ripped we went with option #2.



Option #2: Whip a 180 turn, trim the motor all the way down to give the boat a little stern lift, throttle up, and surf the waves back trying to match boat speed with wave action. I had to be extremely careful not to skate down a wave and stuff the bow into the preceding wave, being ever watchful of the unforgiving 5th wave. The whole time watching the bilge pump output. As soon as the water was pumped to the point where it was below the floor, the back of the boat began to come up. We got our wet posteriors back behind the break wall and headed to the nearest port. We made a couple phone calls for some for some dry clothes and a ride back to the truck and trailer from the marina where we launched.



At last, we and our gear were on dry land and all was well with a great new respect for changing conditions on the lake and being prepared for the unexpected. The fun is over if someone gets hurt!



Moral of this story; Be prepared, keep a exit strategy in mind and never have a boat on the Great lakes with ONLY one bilge pump.



Honda Cat

World Cat 270HT

4 - 1500 GPH bilge pumps

2 in each hull section