Stuck in Timber

I was out on Palestine Friday and was heading back to shore at a pretty good clip. Before I could react I saw some timber barely sticking out of the water directly in front of me, I ran over the top of it and high centered my yak. I was in about 15’ of water and the wind and waves were starting to pick up which left me in a very hairy situation. I thought I was going to have to get in the water and push it off, but after a couple minutes I was finally able to free it by rocking it back and forth. Anyone else ever had them happen to them? Was a good reminder of how quick things can happen and create a dangerous situation.

Did the exact same thing on Fork, but had the branch come through the scupper. There I sat. In roughly 50 degree water. Sat there for an hour till a boat came by that I could wave down. No way did I want to drop in to the water.

Has happened to me on multiple stumpy lakes.
The worst situation was alone, at night time, but finally was able to rock back and forth off the stump.

Try to always go with someone (I know that's not realistic every time) and take two hand held marine radios so you can communicate with each other if there's a bad situation.

It's called "Scupper Lock", and happens often when fishing timber. Most of the time leaning or rocking gets you off the tree. I've had it happen at Fork, Fayette, Brady Branch to name a few.

The funniest/most embarrassing time happened to me in 2009 at Fayette Lake. I was in 15 feet-ish of water and got scupper locked bad; couldn't rock it off. No big deal and decided to hop off the yak, float it off the tree, then do a deep water re-entry. This was during a KATS tourny so I was wearing my "manual" inflatable PFD. about half a second after I slid into the water my vest goes off and I was truly disorientated because I certainly wasn't expecting it. After I realized what happened, I floated my kayak off the tree, and jumped back in. Really not a big deal.........except for the powerboaters fishing the same timber jokingly heckling me for the next 10-15 minutes. Guess I should have read the fine print on my PFD.

Had the same thing happen on Palestine 5 years ago coming back from Old Folks. Lake was low and everything was sticking out of the water until winds got up when storm hit. Had trailing wind and waves as I tried to make it across stump field, waves lifted you up and sat you down on top of stump or stickups, next wave pushed you sideways while still high centererd. Cockpit flooded, banging on every stump and stickup like a pinball machine. It was ugly.

This always worries me. Guess I need to carry a hand saw and a marine radio just in case. Should probably have a handheld regardless.

That's definitely a bad situation, staying put and waiting for help was the best decision there. Cold water is no joke!

I am not a yacker, 70+ YRS. fished out of a small jon boat.I had a small grapple hook and 20f.t. of
para cord that solved some problems like yours.

Creepy stuff and it's only happened a couple of times and was able to rock off. These days with expensive transducers it's also a concern to get hung up on a stump somehow around the transducer - hasn't happened to me yet, but just thinking out loud.

So if you are going forward and get hung up, is it appropriate to paddle backwards and try push off in the opposite direction of the original hang up? Thinking that my anchor pin / anchor pole might come in handy in a shallow water situation and not using my paddle.

In warmer water can see getting in the water which would make the boat float higher in the water and pushing it off, but still creepy for sure.

Thanks for sharing your experiences on this one.

Be real careful getting out of a kayak around stumps. No telling how many lures have been broken off on it just waiting to snag flesh when you try to pop back up.

I've had this happen on Fork - a submerged treble hook caught my shoe. I broke the lure free of the branch without too much trouble, but before it came loose, it was a little intense. It would have *suuuucked* if it would have caught my calf.

Had it happen one time, and that was enough.
Sold the sit on top and bought a Wilderness Commander...No scuppers!

Happened to me on Falcon on a pretty rough day.

I was about to jump out but my partner yakker (again we had marine radios so he was able to come over to render aid as it were) he encouraged me to keep working with my paddle and rocking and to resist dropping in until I for sure had no other option.

He was able to use his yak to bump mine just the right angle and I got it off. Not a fun feeling at all.

I’ve pulled more than one guy off of stumps when they were scuppered!

A few years back while fishing the World Championship on the Fly on lake fork I was pedaling my Hobie adventure with turbo fins full speed and hit a stump at the base of the mirage drive. I went from full speed to full stop in 0.0 seconds. The mirage drive kept me from shooting straight off the front but the force on the mirage drive cracked the hull about 3 inches. I had a sinking feeling after that.

On the plus side I now can weld plastic pretty decent.

I know that dead stop feeling well. Was paddling at night headed to a spot near downtown Miami as I went under a low bridge and looked up at all the car traffic and didn't notice that current took me wide and hit a bridge piling head on. If I hadn't stopped paddling to look up I would have flown out.

This happened to me about a month ago on fork. I was on one of the coves by the 154 public ramp. I ran over a stump and part of it went right into the scupper hole. It was the first time it had eveer happened to me, so initially I sat there wondering what the h*** had happened. I tried rocking for a bit, nice and easy at first, to no avail. I thought of using my anchor to pull myself off, but I had disengaged from it to scout around. I was about to get in the water and figured, 'well if I'm going to get wet anyway, may as well rock as hard as I can (sideways)'. I managed to get off without incident. I actually had felt pretty stupid and embarrassed that this had happened until I read this post. Thanks guys for sharing.