Bad Weather Ain't Worth a Bass Boat or Life
The reason behind this article is I heard a night mare that
happened the first weekend in May at Kentucky lake.
It goes back to what I have said in other articles about
checking the weather before you
go out.
A tournament was held at Kentucky Lake that almost cost a few anglers their
lives.
I am here to tell you it is not worth your life or your bass
boat if the weather is looking
to get real bad. The Tournament Director should have called the tournament, but instead they went ahead with
the schedule.
It turned out one guy had his trolling motor hit by lighting
and now is looking at a couple of thousand dollars in
repairs. It not only got the trolling motor, but blew the foot
control right out of the deck and left the angler with a great
big hole where his trolling motor was
once located.
The lightning strike stopped the big engine from running and he
was lucky I guess that the engine restarted and he was able to get
back to the ramp.
Another angler was telling me that he was in a cove fishing and
kept hearing a clicking noise and could not figure out where it was
coming from.
He raised his rod and saw that the tip was shaking like
crazy with static electricity. He dropped the rod to the deck and got
out of there. I would guess that he was about to be hit by lightning
and that would have ruined the tournament for him.
This is just two examples of what not to do, and believe me if
enough of the tournaments anglers had refused to go out due to bad
weather I know they would have cancelled that day of
fishing.
Here is a first hand account of an angler bank fishing who
wanted to get one more cast in instead of immediately following the 30/30 rule.
This rule states that if
you see lightning and can hear the boom before the count of 30, the next place that lightning could hit is
right where you are standing. And don't go back outside until no lightning strikes for 30
min.
Anglers, it is not worth all the bass in the lake to go ahead and
try and fish in bad weather.
Look at the Big Dogs in the Bass Masters, they will cancel a tournament if the weather even looks to be
bad, or get bad while they are on the lake.
You can fish another day if the weather looks to be bad, but get
hit by lightning and it might be you last fishing trip and that is
not a pleasent thought.
Stop and use your head even if the tournament director does
not see it the same way. After all, he does not have to replace
your Bass Boat and even worse can not replace your life.
Both anglers should have gone home that night and said a
small prayer, and be very thankful no one was hurt.
Keep the Hooks Wet!
Steve McGoldrick
|