How my OAF hat saved my life.

[dan hufferd]

I launched my boat well before daylight, in the rain, Sunday morning. I was going to boat from Moonshine beach to Big Cedar to meet up my uncle who was in from out of town.

I have fished this section some but not very much. 

I think I was the only idiot out in the rain at 4:30 am so I thought hey hammer down.  I know there are islands but I have them on my map.

No moon visible, raining, hunkered down behind the windshield, flying by the GPS, nearing the first island, slowed down, peaked over the glass, made it no problem hammer down. same thing with the second island no problem, but nearing the 3rd one (it's really small)  I thought, I should be getting close, but I didn't really slow down much as I "knew" I had time. Peaked over the windshield, my favorite OAF hat blew off (which will cause the fisherman to instantly slam on the brakes to retrieve the favorite hat) as the boat slowed I was able to see that I was only a few yards from beaching my boat !

Oh yeah what is that thing that pops up when I turn the depth finder on ? Something about not using this as your primary source of navigation.

The moral to the story, make sure to buy an OAF hat, and don't trust the gps too much, they don't give you that message for nothing.

I never got my hat back, but I guess that is a small price to pay for a big lesson. 

Don't hate me, you've done it too. :-)

[nomolites]

I'd say you have friends in high places.

Mike

[dan hufferd]

14 minutes ago, nomolites said:

I'd say you have friends in high places.

Mike

I know that you are right ! Maybe a little warning about missing church on Sunday too. I normally would not fish on Sunday or only in the afternoon. It got me thinking about all kinds of stuff. Ha Ha !

[Bass Enforcer]

Scary story. No fish is worth risking your life for. I know we all live by that philosophy but sometimes excitement takes over. This is a reminder for all of us. Thanks for sharing that story and thank God nobody was hurt.

[fishinwrench]

In no way do I intend to belittle you, but the fact that there are people out there running around guided by their mapping program is disturbing as all get out.

An anchored fishing boat got creamed here several days ago in broad daylight.  The guys in the fishing rig saw him coming, waved their arms, yelled and screamed, but he just kept coming.  They jumped from the boat just before impact and survived.    Seemingly intelligent, and successful dude with an intelligent and successful career in the medical field was just running down the lake watching his Navonics screen.  

That just blows me away.  Remember that the next time some doctor diagnoses a condition and schedules you for treatment.

If you promise to never do it again, and spread your story far and wide I'll buy you a new hat and get one for myself while I'm at it.

Phil, send me the bill please.  

[dan hufferd]

6 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

In no way do I intend to belittle you, but the fact that there are people out there running around guided by their mapping program is disturbing as all get out.

An anchored fishing boat got creamed here several days ago in broad daylight.  The guys in the fishing rig saw him coming, waved their arms, yelled and screamed, but he just kept coming.  They jumped from the boat just before impact and survived.    Seemingly intelligent, and successful dude with an intelligent and successful career in the medical field was just running down the lake watching his Navonics screen.  

That just blows me away.  Remember that the next time some doctor diagnoses a condition and schedules you for treatment.

If you promise to never do it again, and spread your story far and wide I'll buy you a new hat and get one for myself while I'm at it.

Phil, send me the bill please.  

I know dumbness took over, I agree that was the reason for sharing. You don't have to buy my hat, but you should get one for yourself.

Thanks for the feed back.

[bobby b.]

Yep, God was looking over you for sure.

I was told that a veteran fishing guide hit that island (one tree island) with his wife in the boat some years back, think one of them died.

I do mark all those hazards on my locator when I see them, even run away buoys from the high water and then remove them later as needed.  A few summers ago I almost hit a boat fishing in the middle of the lake without an anchor light and then there was the two swimmers that liked to swim across North Indian at the crack of dawn.

 

 

[m&m]

Thanks for sharing. I always wear my yellow OAF hat when fishing. 

Mike

[lobina grande]

I've always wanted an OAF hat.  Is there anyway to buy one?

 

[skeeter]

Kinda'  reminds me of the time a few years back when the Ranger-owner Tournament organizers turned the Ranger mob loose during a very heavily fogged-in morning despite the almost zero visibility conditions. 

We left our slip in the Baxter Marina in our ZX210C Skeeter under trolling motor power only and stayed close to the launch-ramp bank which we could just barely make out only 1 & 1/2 cast-lengths away,  and expecting no success but it beat just sitting around, we continued down along the bank to the super-shallow COE campground point waiting and hoping for the fog to lift.

Suddenly we began hearing high speed boats zooming past headed up the two Indian Creeks and listening very closely for any incoming.  We gradually made out this other near-by boat floating just off the same shallow point and were finally able to determine there was a camera-guy with one of those large shoulder-carried video cameras standing in the stern pointing the camera at us.   Laughed our rear-ends off when you could hear the disgust among the three guys in the camera-boat when they could finally make out the six inch high "SKEETER" on the side of our boat.  We found out they had launched at Baxter and were there to video the various Ranger-driving entrants.  When we asked them who the consarned, total NITWIT was that had turned all those boats loose in the heavy fog we got the reply "well....they all are equipped with GPS and that makes it safe " !!!!