Warning Signs

As we drive the highways and byways we always see those yellow signs that warn us of the impending dangers that lie ahead. If the route you’re taking has been traveled time and time again these signs are registered unconsciously in our brain and become part of the scenery on your way to your destination. Visual recognition and repetition has programmed our brain to take evasive action to avoid a catastrophe even when we were not aware of it.

In the woods or on our lakes or streams those warning signs of impending danger are not as visual as those signs on the highways so we must train ourselves to become constantly aware of our surroundings and be alert at all times. Even though we have hunted the same area or fished the same stretch of river year after year we become complacent and take things for granted that nothing has changed. Nature always gives us warning signs regardless of what we are doing in the outdoors. Most of the time they are very subtle and unless you are acutely aware of your surroundings they will go UN-noticed. Always assess your surroundings looking for tale, tale signs of impending danger before you commit yourself.

If your fishing cold crystal clear streams that no matter where you look you can most always see bottom, before you step away from the bank know how deep the water really is by using a wading staff or test the depth with a fallen branch. What might look like 1ft deep is in reality about 6ft deep. This is called refraction.

I was fishing the Pere Marquette River around Baldwin, Michigan. Being my first trip to this area I was really amazed on how clear the water was. No matter where I looked there were only a few places I couldn’t see bottom so I just stepped off the bank into the stream and my leg kept on going down with out touching. I was wearing chest waders and the loss of footing coupled with the strong current put me in a precarious situation that I was about to become a human cork to be carried off to Lake Michigan. Luckily for me there was a sapling growing close to the water that I grasped onto saving me from getting a fish eye view of the bottom while being swept away.

Chest waders are notorious for holding air in the legs especially if you are also wearing an outside belt. When you lose your footing, the air trapped in the legs of your waders brings your feet up and when both feet come up, your head goes down. You have now become a strange looking bobber and are at the mercy of the current. If the water is deep enough you will most likely drown unless you can save yourself or someone can get a hold on you in time.

When wearing chest waders and using an outside belt always be sure that the belt has a quick disconnect buckle and always carry a small, sharp sheath knife attached to the suspenders of the waders. If by chance you find yourself with your head under water, lose the belt and cut the suspenders if they get hung up while trying to remove them. First and foremost, stay calm and don’t lose your cool. Get rid of your fishing rod and concentrate on getting out of your waders and your head back above the surface of the water.

Wading lakes or streams without chest or hip waders can also become a hazard. Even when you can see the bottom there is always a possibility of false bottoms,broken glass, shards of metal or discarded hooks just waiting for you. Either wear wading shoes or tennis shoes with thick soles. If the bottom is strewn with round slippery boulders or flat rocks covered with algae, use a wading staff and a boot with felt soles to keep from slipping.

I was fishing a lake in cut offs and tennis shoes that had a sandy bottom and very clear water. The smallies were ignoring all my presentations and were only taking live crickets that I had noticed  being in the water close to the shoreline, so off I went to find a bait shop that sold crickets. After finding a bait store that sold crickets I purchased fifty and a cricket cage that was designed to dispense one cricket at a time and returned to where the fish were rising. I was concentrating on the location of the fish and trying to bait a hook with a cricket and wasn’t paying attention to where I was wading. The next thing I knew I was going down. It was like stepping into an uncovered manhole. The water was only up to my knees then over my head  in a split second. The bottom just dropped out and I never touched the bottom. I’m trying to hold unto my rod, close the cricket cage and tread water at the same time, needless to say I let go of the rod, the cricket cage top came off and all the live crickets converged on my head and face and trying to enter any orifice that my head presented. I finally made it back to a solid bottom and proceeded to remove all the crickets from my head, face mouth, nose and ears and then go diving for my rod. What had happened, over time the water currents had moved out the sand leaving a deep depression that filled with leaves and other vegetable matter giving the impression that the bottom was stable that close to shore.

 If I had spent a little more time at the bait shop or with the locals inquiring about the lake that I was fishing and if there was anything I needed to know about the bottom structure and if I was paying attention to where I was wading and using a wading staff I might have stayed safe and caught some fish. I learned a great deal from that experience plus the fish got a free supper from the crickets so I’m glad it ended well.

Where I fish there are a lot of snakes, mostly water snakes that can give you a good bite if you’re not careful where you put your hands and feet or your butt. Their bite is not poisonous but can become infected quickly Copperheads are known to reside around certain section of the creek so you have to be keenly aware because they are masters of camouflage in leaves and other vegetation and their bite is poisonous. Wild animals such as coyotes, skunks, fox, and raccoons will go way out of their way to avoid you. If you encounter an animal that exhibits unusual behavior, give it a wide berth and do not provoke it.

When these things happen just remember to stay calm and not make the situation any worse than it already is. You only get one chance on the merry-go-round of life so live it to its fullest and be safe out there while you’re doing it.