I almost died Saturday morning. Was a beautiful morning and first time out in the kayak since Harvey. Went to a local lake. Found a spot where I caught 4 cats in about 15 minutes. The last one about 3 pounds. Well he swallowed the hook and as I was trying to hold him he flipped around and finned me in the fatty part below the thumb and came out at the thumb about 1 1/2 inches away. Blood squirted and pain ran up my arm, burning and painful. Last thing I remember was I am going to black out. Well sure thing, I woke up under water, flipped the kayak. Faught my way to the surface, and yelled for help. Lucky there was a boater near by I couldnt hold on to the kayak. He pulled me out and towed the boat back to the ramp. Dumped out the water for me and loaded up my truck. Now for the very stupid part, I was sitting on my life vest. When you are passed out and sinking to the bottom it does you no good what so ever. 3 days in the hospital, bag after bag of antibiotic day and night. LIFE VEST IS MADE TO BE WORN!!!!! CALM WATER OR NOT!!!

Glad you made it .

Wow, glad to hear it didn't wind up much worse. It's crazy how fast something unexpected can happen! I need to get better at wearing my PFD in the boat as well.

So glad you made it through. I have a small Jon boat, and my vest is always on...and anyone else in the boat. It happens so fast.

I try to explain this to others. If you get knocked out (become unconscious), chances are you will be unable to put on your life vest. If you get knocked out of a boat, what good does the life jacket do, sitting in the boat. The list goes on & on. Such as get struck by lightning & blown out of the boat.

One good example some years back. My boss was fishing alone one night (or very early morning) at Lake Somerville. He all of a sudden realized his boat was sitting very low in the water. About the time he realized what was happening, it was going down fast. His first thought was to attach the clip to the front of the boat that was attached to a buoy, so the boat could be found & pulled up.

However, he seems to have had all of the life jackets locked (or at least it was the button type release) in one of the compartments. Needless to say, it all happened so fast, as he was trying to save his boat (to be able to retrieve it), he failed to have time to get his life jacket. So there he was, in the dark, no life jacket, all alone out in the water, boat already sunk. He was very lucky to have grabbed a hold of his ice chest. He held on tight. Shortly thereafter, he heard a voice in the darkness say, Hey, there's a bait bucket, and as they grabbed it, they also stated it still had bait in it (minnows). He heard those voices, then started to yell. They eased over, found him & got him into their boat.

He was extremely lucky, due to his ice chest. And later that day, he was able to retrieve is boat.


Anyways, glad to hear you survived! And that you will now wear it, instead of becoming a statistic.

wear mine full time I am not afraid to say I'm a sissy.

Wow, glad you will be OK. I'm steadily getting better about wearing a pfd on my boat. Still don't as much as I should, but trying to get better about it.

Glad you are OK! One important lesson learned!

We had a similar situation yesterday on Tawakoni. But unfortunately, the older gentleman who's small craft turned over passed away.

I always hated wearing a life jacket.
I bought one of the self inflatable ones and now I will forget to take it off when I get back in the truck

Prayers up for the victims family and friends. Post like these remind us all not to take the life jackets for granted.

My PFD goes on before I step into the yak and does not come off until I am back on land. I had a similar experience last fall though I did have my vest on and luckily another boater was already close the me. I ran a treble hook into the meat of my thumb and ended up passing out. When I came to, the boater was holding me from falling out of the yak. Glad you got a second chance. Be safe.

Greg

Thanks for the warnings. I learn from these and run through as many possible scenarios in my head as I can, so when (not if) I have to deal with a situation, I am at least partly mentally prepared.

Glad your ok bud, never take things for granted,always expect the worst so you can be prepared for it !!!

Stories like the make an impression on me, more-so the older I get. So it's good that people will share them.

Another eye opener was a FB video that's going around. Shows a fella alone on the deck of his bass boat, he must have been wearing a gopro or something. A jetski hauls [censored] across the lake headed right for him, turns at the very last second and sideswipes the guy's boat, throwing the fisherman into the water. He remained conscious and injuries, I understand, were minimal. But it could have been terrible for one or both parties. Just showed me that even if you are doing everything right, things can still turn bad in an instant.