wear a life vest forsure but I think you should take swimming lessons. It is 100% mental and if i could not swim I would be so stressed I could not focus on fishing although I do know a guy that cant swim and fishes all the time without a life vest.

As much of a shock as it'll come to Chris B, who've I've spent hundreds of hours in a boat with, I'm like you. I sink like a rock and can't tread water to save my own life. I've kept an inflatable PFD since they came out and wear it all the time. I may take it off if the lake is calm and we're near shore or if other situations (shallow flats) warrant it. I've fallen out of the boat twice over the years and both time were before the inflatable PFD's came out.

Also like you, I've had many try to teach me. You'd never think that one could spend 8 years in the USMC and not learn to swim but after a week of swim quals each year, I'd get sent back to my unit with a great big "UNQ" (unqualified) tattoo'd on my forehead.

EDIT: I got the OP and slodsm mixed up.

If you can't swim you should always let your partner know as well, it puts thier life in danger also. I had a friend almost drag me under while trying to pull him to shore once. My advice would be to learn with a life jacket on, that way you can seperate the movement in water from the floating. You can learn them seperatly and then put them together at the end when you are ready and have some confidence built up.

At the very least learn how to float, dog paddle, tread water. It is not very hard to do.

My grandfather did the same thing to my Dad in the Cane River in Natchitoches. Dad dang near drowned and is terrified of the water to this day.

As to the muscle/bone density and sinking, it's the truth. When I worked offshore 30 years ago, we had to go through water survival and firefighting schools. There were eight black guys in the WSS and only one could float. The rest sunk straight to the bottom as soon as they attempted to float. This was a unanimous theme in all the classes over many years. How come? Higher bone and muscle density. Not being racist or trying to interject race to start an argument, so please don't flame me.

Anyone who intentionally throws me in a lake knowing I can't swim better hope I drown.

Some people make it sound so easy and yes for some it is. some people were made to swim and just needed a little lesson to get them going. I myself can not swim. I have had multiple people try and teach me but it just has not happened. And no i am not affraid of water i love being on or near water. I keep telling myself i need to learn, but some people are not made to swim plain and simple. So dont sit there and say how easy it is because everyone cant do it. Im sure there are some things you guys cant do that others can!!!

As wrong as it can get. Anyone can swim and you don't have to be bouyant.

My body type was not right for swimming and I could not float whatever I tried. I had teammates that could lie on their back and float fine.

I was one of the best swimmers in Texas in my day. Coach ran a swim class for children trying to learn. His class guaranteed that the child would learn how to swim or you would not pay. In several years and several hundred students he did not have one kid that got in the pool that did not learn. About half could swim decently after two group lessons.


If you can't swim and don't choose to learn at least use a life jacket that is not the inflatable type. That way there are no issues about staying afloat.

Don't feel too bad.

In the upper reaches of Canada, native Indians, whose very survival depends on all things lake related (fishing, wildlife, etc.), can't swim either.

The lake water never gets warm enough for them to learn how to swim.

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Swimming? You mean that thing that you do instinctively before you die?

Learn to swim or take up golf. It's too dangerous not to take the time to learn a skill that you need to save your own life or someone else's.

Not bragging or anthing but I can't remember ever not being able to swim

I would cry like a girl if someone tried to make me get in a boat that runs 70 mph if I couldn't swim.

A) You're not gonna get thrown out of the boat. Odds of that are almost nothing unless you're fishing with a maniac that runs through stumpfields at 60mph.

B) Gotta learn anyway man. You're wanting to hang out around a lake, it's too easy to at the very least fall in sometime. Those windy days on stumpy lakes are tricky even when the boat is still...