Is It Time to Rethink Safety in Competitive Fishing? by Bruce Callis
Life is so very precious! Life is so short. Every day is a gift from God. Remember to tell those whom you love that you love them. Do it for you and for them.
The past couple weeks have been so tragic for fishing. During the MLF Invitational Tournament, 3 individuals lost their life. They weren’t in the tournament, but a tournament angler was involved in the accident. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the individuals and families of them all. It is such a a tragedy what happened and we don’t need to be doing anything else but praying for them.
We don’t have any answers to so many questions. Like who’s fault was it? Was it because of speed. Was the weather a factor? So many factors played into the accident and we can’t jump to conclusions.
As someone who has been involved in tournament fishing, I have seen and been in the launch of the boats to start a tournament. It is all about getting to where you want to start and beating others there. It doesn’t matter if it is a local club or a big trail, it is all the same. Where you start has everything to do with your day.
But what really matters is what you do to get there. How much are you willing to chance to get to the spot first? Are you willing to put your safety and the safety of others at risk? We have seen people run waters that was so rough it could swamp the boat. How much are you willing to do?
I’ve heard a lot of people saying that speed was a factor. I can say that the operator of the bass boat was probably going fast. When you are going to a spot on plane, you aren’t going slow for sure. Should there be a speed limit? I don’t know. If you know how to handle your boat you are only going as fast as you feel safe.
Everyone is talking about how dangerous bass boats are, and how all the graphs on the front block their view. The big organizations have made an effort to clean that up so that it doesn’t block the view. We have heard about the safety of the coangler. We have heard that if you need to wear a helmet, you are going too fast. We have heard a lot of what-ifs.
The helmet isn’t worn because we are going fast. You wear a helmet on a motorcycle because it protects you from anything that may come at you. Bugs, sticks, birds, and rain can all be a hazard on the road and on the water. If you have ever been on either when it starts raining, you know how hard those drops hit you in the face. You need a helmet or a face guard to operate safely. A windshield helps, but it’s not like in a car.
If you have ever ridden in a bass boat, the driver is not just flying up the water without a care. No one wants to be in an accident. We all want to go home at the end of the day. The driver of the boat is always looking ahead for hazards. Some bodies of water are worse than others about floating debris. We have all seen videos of what can happen when you hit something under the surface. Boats and motors are extremely expensive.
I’ve heard it said that bass anglers think they own the water. Honestly, they and everyone else does if it is a public body of water. But for the most part, we don’t think we are the only ones who are supposed to be out there. There are things that annoy us at times. Yes, we feel others should respect what we are doing and we should respect what they are doing as well. I’ve been in a tournament and had someone in another tournament come cut in front of me where I was fishing. Did it make me mad, heck yeah. And I told them how I felt. But that doesn’t happen often.
I love my kayak, but boats and kayaks don’t mix well for a couple reasons. The wake off a boat can be terrible in a kayak. And as a boater, they can be difficult to see at times. That is why most kayak anglers on bodies of water that have power boats on them use as much safety equipment as possible. That orange flag helps a lot. Boaters get upset because they can get into places they can’t, but we coexsist doing what we both love.
I’m not going to guess about any of the recent accidents and what the causes were. And I am not going to place any blame on anyone. But we do also need to think about where we anchor up to fish. We have to make sure that we aren’t in a spot where boats of any type will be traveling through. It is like anchoring in the middle of a channel. For river anglers, you know a barge could come through and it is dangerous. On a lake, the channel is supposed to be a safe place to travel. We all know that a channel can be a great fishing spot at times too.
There is nothing worse than a boating accident and we need to remember to wait until we get all the facts before we start blaming anything. Tournament directors have a tough job. They make sure that anglers aren’t launching during unsafe conditions. If there is bad weather, like fog, they delay launch. They don’t want anglers to get hurt. I’ve heard too many tell anglers to be safe on the water and lets all make it home tonight.
Fishing may need to think about finding a way to limit the speed, but what if you need to escape harm and that speed regulation actually causes harm? Then people will be hollering about that as well. There is no easy fix. It is still far safer than driving. It’s the same as a plane accident. We only hear about how many were injuried or killed not that the actual number of accidents that result in a death is far less than driving on the road. For everything we try to make the highways safer, it still happens. And we can’t forget the outside factors of animals and weather. There is no way we can make everything 100% safe. We keep trying to regulate everything and eventually we aren’t going to be able to do anything.
Let’s hope that we find out what happened in the accidents and try to figure out what we may do to help prevent them from happening. Education is probably a good idea. Boater safety courses for anyone operating a boat or jet ski? No one wants an accident. No family should have to go through what has happened. But let’s get all the facts before we make assumptions as to what happened.