Anyone ever get thrown from a boat going 50 mph? My buddy and I were out Saturday doing some hybrid trolling. We had taken the whale tail off the motor and replaced it with a trolling plate. We had fished all day with no problems and was getting ready to call it a day. We were on our way back to the ramp and my buddy was driving. The boat traffic was pretty bad and had some serious waves working so my buddy only had it up to 50 mph. We were making good progress although it was very bumpy until we hit this huge wave. When we came down, the boat did a right turn. We both bounced off our seats and then we hit again. This time the boat turned even harder to the right. That's the last thing I remember. When I got my senses back, I was looking at white water. My head was at the back of the boat looking at the prop. I turned to see if my buddy was alright only to see no one else in the boat. I looked behind the boat and there he was smiling at me from the water. I crawled to the steering wheel and turned the boat to get him. He was ok except for a bump on his leg. Instead of being thrown in the water, I had hit the two rod holders on my side of the boat. One hit me in the rear end and the other got me in the head. Broke both of them off. I didn't need stitches, but did take awhile to stop bleeding. Now I am sore all over. My back side is so sore I can't sleep at night. I think we will start wearing our life jackets while running and use the kill switch. The whale tail is going back on also. We were very lucky.

you guys are pretty lucky for sure.

My steering broke a couple months ago. Fortunately we were only going between 35mph and 40mph. Could easily have been at 60mph. Boat more did a 180 than turn right. Scared the dog water out of me. Neither of us left the boat but it was close. I always wear a vest and have the kill switch hooked on. Did that day too. It's definately a reason to if you need one.

I was fishing a team tournament one time with a buddy who at the time had a Gambler 2200 bass boat. We were on our way to our first spot, and I had been scouting all week and had found a good concentration of good fish at one spot. When I was scouting a guy in a Blazer bass boat had seen me catch a few fish on the spot, so one day when I left the spot I saw him troll over to it, and start fishing it. I told my buddy the morning of the tournament that we would have to try and outrun the guy with the Blazer if he had a higher draw number than us. Well wouldn't you know it he drew out about 7 boats ahead of us, and my buddy said "no problem my boat does almost 80 we can beat him" Well we passed 6 boats and was just about to pass the Blazer doing between 75-80 and all of a sudden the bow dug it and the boat did a complete 360. I was hanging onto the stainless handrail on the console as hard as I could but could not hold on. I slammed into my buddy and all I saw was white water flying everywhere. Luckily we had helmets on, and the life jackets kind of held the helmets, and our heads from getting jarred too much. All I saw was stars when I came to. My arm got fractured in the process, and then I hear my buddy say all your rods are gone off the front deck. Only one happen to go in, all the rest were on top of his rods on his side of the boat. The guy in the other boat never slowed down, and got on my honey hole. We fished all day with my arm aching, and swelling. We ended up 7th out of about 65 teams and got a pretty good check. My buddy now has a 08 Bass Cat Puma with a 250 XS on it, but we are a little more cautious when it comes to passing up boats now.

You guys have someone very special looking over you upstairs. Ya might wanna say thankyou.

Sounds like you guys were very lucky.

always, always , always ware the life jacket and have the kill switch attached. prefishing, playing, whatever, please have that on. I see so many folks on the water without a jacket on. More of the bass rigs then any and I would think they would have more sense then most.

wow dude, thats crazy, glad u guys are alright

What you guys are talking about is bow hooking.

I've been addressing it here lately because there have been several incidents of it lately.

Bow hooking is generally caused by the boat going over a wake, and as the boat breaks over the centerline, and falls forward off the wake, the bow of the boat drops down, and the stern of the boat comes up. If the prop of the boat clears the surface of the water, this is when bow hooking is extremely dangerous.

When the prop re-enters the water, the sudden force of torque plus the over-reving of the prop itself will cause the back end of the boat to spin out.

Boats will often spin 180 all the way to 360 degrees or more. Often throwing the occupants of the boat.

Anytime you go over another boats wake, be prepared for this. If you feel the prop leave the water and see your RPM's shoot up, you better back off the throttle. Because you only have a split second to react to this. To avoid the situation, start slowing down as you go over the other boat's wake.

im not being a smart ace, im still new to running fast. should you also trim down in a situation like this?

I usually trim down when crossing a large boat's wake... I don't much care for the feeling of the boat breaking loose bouncing across them. I like to have some boat in the water when crossing large wakes at high speed.

The day I feel the need to go over 40 mph on the lake is the day I give up fishing.

Mike,
Does the Hot Foot actually become a safety feature for this situation? I always wear a jacket and have recently aquired a new kill switch that will always be used from this point forward. My boat goes towards 60mph and my research has led me to believe this happens more frequently over 60 plus. If you ride the wake and maintain controll with motor thrust or the balance of thrust. Would you consider this approach reasonable or should you just back out all the way?

Im sure glad no one got hurt here. But if waking up next to a spinning prop is not a life changing moment. Than what is? Sure glad your buddy was ok in water as well. Sorry to hear this.
Tony

Ya'll are very lucky. Glad everyone is ok.