Who among you actually wears your life vest when you fish? If you don't wear one, why? If you do, what kind?

Never used to but three years ago my wife bought me a self inflatable and I wear it all the time I'm on the water.

SE Kansas grass grower

I wear mine all the time, a self inflatable Mustang, why take a chance?

Most of the time.

All the time.. I keep it snapped to my kill switch before I put in at the ramp. To many stories and I don't want mine to read "he wasn't wearing his lift vest" ( or seat belt ). With the rising water we've had lately, you're an Id10t if you don't put one on.

When running big motor not while Im fishing.

Since I fish alone a lot I wear an inflatable all of the time.
It's not that I can swim but you can tire very quickly in wet clothes and if you hit your head when falling out you're done.

I never wear one while fishing or while big motoring, I do hook the kill switch to my shorts or pants, unless it's a tournament

This for me too.

How do the automatic life vests work? Do you have to pull a cord as you go into the water or does it inflate when it detects your in the water? I dont ever wear a life jacket. I almost drowned when I was a kid. I slipped on a wet pier, hit my hit and then rolled into the water under the pier. In that scenario, would a self inflating vest work? I know I wouldnt of had time to pull a rip cord as I was trying to stick my arms out from my body.

Its a natural reaction to stick your arms out when falling so that's why I've always wondered how these vests work. I wouldn't buy one if I have to pull a cord. If it auto inflates without me doing anything then I would buy it.

So apparently they can inflate 3 different ways including auto inflate. In this case i will probably get one in a couple weeks.

I just bought a new Mustang self inflatable and will wear it 100% of time I'm in the boat/on the water! I like to fish during the week and so do a lot of by myself. Why take a chance at falling in the water cause some big boat flys by like they are the only one on the lake!

I have both auto-inflate and regular jacket type PFD. I wear one or the other 100% of the time in the boat. No excuse not to. Over 80% of drownings were not wearing a PFD.

http://www.usps.org/eddept/files/other_20_handout.pdf

When I first read this I thought you were going to say you wear both - kind of like wearing both a belt and suspenders!

I wear an Onix inflatable all the time. While I can swim fine, you never know the exact situation you may find yourself in.