Boater Missing on the FLW

[AKRISONER]

bit of scary and humbling news today out of Florida. A co-angler in the costa FLW series is missing after the boat they were fishing on got swamped.

https://www.wptv.com/news/state/one-fisherman-found-another-missing-on-lake-okeechobee

Not to spark up the debate about bass boats...but I have always said that those things are friggin stupid when fishing big open lakes. Id personally never buy one because how in the hell is a boat thats 1 foot off of the water ever going to stay afloat in a 6 foot chop.

Really really scary and sad stuff.

[msp]

I hate hearing stuff like that. A reminder to be careful out there during all seasons

[OhioFisherman]

23 minutes ago, msp said:

I hate hearing stuff like that. A reminder to be careful out there during all seasons

This, some years back some Cleveland Indians players were killed and injured down in Florida while out fishing, I believe they hit a dock while running at night. Fishing should be a no wake zone?

[Garnet]

It's not likely anything to do with 6 ft waves.

The Big O has these boat lanes with 90 degree corners and they run them wide open. In

early Jan you can usually see boats coming from the opposite direction. A little later

the cane grows up and they are blind corners. They have boat collisions almost weekly. 

[Lape0019]

They have found the boater but they have not located the co angler yet.

[AKRISONER]

1 hour ago, Garnet said:

It's not likely anything to do with 6 ft waves.

The Big O has these boat lanes with 90 degree corners and they run them wide open. In

early Jan you can usually see boats coming from the opposite direction. A little later

the cane grows up and they are blind corners. They have boat collisions almost weekly. 

no one crashed into eachother...the boat got swamped...the owner survived. Theres a video in my link of the boat swamped up on shore.

[lew]

4 hours ago, AKRISONER said:

.Id personally never buy one because how in the hell is a boat thats 1 foot off of the water ever going to stay afloat in a 6 foot chop.

 

Years ago a bunch of us from this board went to Quinte for a weekend in November and it was very windy with huge waves,  infact I've been fishing Quinte since about 1952 and have never seen it as rough.

There were 3 guys from a different group in a bass boat that took on a ton of water and sank to the gunnels near the ferry crossing but fortunately nobody was hurt and one of our group towed them to shore. Basically all you could see was the windshield and engine cowling sticking above the waves and the 3 guys up to their knees in water.

Don't know if it was bad luck, bad driving or just too much waves for the boat but at least they all got out safely.

Edited January 5, 2018 by lew

[grimsbylander]

4 hours ago, AKRISONER said:

bit of scary and humbling news today out of Florida. A co-angler in the costa FLW series is missing after the boat they were fishing on got swamped.

https://www.wptv.com/news/state/one-fisherman-found-another-missing-on-lake-okeechobee

Not to spark up the debate about bass boats...but I have always said that those things are friggin stupid when fishing big open lakes. Id personally never buy one because how in the hell is a boat thats 1 foot off of the water ever going to stay afloat in a 6 foot chop.

Really really scary and sad stuff.

Very unfortunate situation for sure. Without knowing all the details or having any experience with the boat type, I think passing judgement of what's stupid or not seems premature. 

[Garnet]

What happens is near misses and you rip it off threw the cane. It's crazy .

I've heard about guys hitting  reed heads and getting ejected.

 

 

[grimsbylander]

2 minutes ago, Garnet said:

What happens is near misses and you rip it off threw the cane. It's crazy .

I've heard about guys hitting  reed heads and getting ejected.

 

 

True, but at this point nobody knows what happened. If the area they were in had 6 footers as guesstimated above, there was no way they were going fast enough to get pitched out. And if the boat was in heavy water and simply got swamped, it doesn't explain why they were separated from the boat. There's something missing still to this story and either way, it's bad news.

 

[Garnet]

And the driver should have been wearing latch cord to kill engine.

Sure sounds like ejection at speed.

[grimsbylander]

2 minutes ago, Garnet said:

And the driver should have been wearing latch cord to kill engine.

Sure sounds like ejection at speed.

Sure does.

[PUMP KNOWS]

They weren't wearing a pfd?

[AKRISONER]

52 minutes ago, grimsbylander said:

Sure does.

im hearing the opposite from some of the guys down there...although its all speculation.

6 minutes ago, PUMP KNOWS said:

They weren't wearing a pfd?

This is whats sad...theres a strong rumour that buddy decided to ditch the swamped boat and swim for it...temperatures were hovering just above zero this week on okeechobee.

Rule on the FLW and almost any bass tourney is that a pfd must be worn while the engine is powered.

Edited January 5, 2018 by AKRISONER

[Garnet]

Fishing FLW they would have life jackets on and done up.

[BillM]

Scary.  

[grimsbylander]

6 hours ago, AKRISONER said:

Not to spark up the debate about bass boats...but I have always said that those things are friggin stupid when fishing big open lakes. Id personally never buy one because how in the hell is a boat thats 1 foot off of the water ever going to stay afloat in a 6 foot chop.

Sorry but this kind of crap pisses me off. I saw your post on the bass boat site where you got this story from...AKRISONER: "kinda sobering for us that think its fun to venture out in really bad weather especially in the cold". So on BBC you're just one of the guys right? It's fun to go out in bad weather? But then you hop on here and talk about how stupid it is. NICE. Didn't have the stones to offer up your opinion over there?  One of the boaters was a nine year veteran of the FLW tour alone and the other had 61 events under his belt. Too bad they didn't have a twenty-something kid that fishes out of a tin boat in Point Au Baril to tell them what's up. 

[AKRISONER]

20 minutes ago, grimsbylander said:

Sorry but this kind of crap pisses me off. I saw your post on the bass boat site where you got this story from...AKRISONER: "kinda sobering for us that think its fun to venture out in really bad weather especially in the cold". So on BBC you're just one of the guys right? It's fun to go out in bad weather? But then you hop on here and talk about how stupid it is. NICE. Didn't have the stones to offer up your opinion over there?  One of the boaters was a nine year veteran of the FLW tour alone and the other had 61 events under his belt. Too bad they didn't have a twenty-something kid that fishes out of a tin boat in Point Au Baril to tell them what's up. 

i dont think there is anything contradictory about what i said when i clearly said "kinda sobering"

Translated: this has me re-thinking some of the decisions i make when i go out.

I stand by the fact that I still dont believe its a good idea to go out in a bass boat or any other low gunnel boat on big open lakes like that. If you dont think this will have the FLW rejigging some of their policies, i would bet that you are wrong.

 

Regardless lets not spark a huge debate about the FLW when theres a guy out there missing...that conversation can start once all of the details come in.

Edited January 5, 2018 by AKRISONER

[grimsbylander]

1 minute ago, AKRISONER said:

i dont think there is anything contradictory about what i said when i cleraly said "kinda sobering"

Translated: this has me re-thinking some of the decisions i make when i go out.

I stand by the fact that I still dont believe its a good idea to go out in a bass boat or any other low gunnel boat on big open lakes like that. If you dont think this will have the FLW rejigging some of their policies, i would bet that you are wrong.

 

Regardless lets not spark a huge debate about the FLW when theres a guy out there missing...that conversation can start once all of the details come in.

[porkpie]

45 minutes ago, grimsbylander said:

Sorry but this kind of crap pisses me off. I saw your post on the bass boat site where you got this story from...AKRISONER: "kinda sobering for us that think its fun to venture out in really bad weather especially in the cold". So on BBC you're just one of the guys right? It's fun to go out in bad weather? But then you hop on here and talk about how stupid it is. NICE. Didn't have the stones to offer up your opinion over there?  One of the boaters was a nine year veteran of the FLW tour alone and the other had 61 events under his belt. Too bad they didn't have a twenty-something kid that fishes out of a tin boat in Point Au Baril to tell them what's up. 

Ahahhahaahhhaaaahhahaaaa..... Thanks pal, you made my day!!!  

[Garnet]

Newer 521 ranger . 6 ft wave no issue.

Hung throttle  maybe. Steering is hydraulic not likely failure.

Just a bad deal for sure.

[DRIFTER_016]

1 hour ago, Garnet said:

Newer 521 ranger . 6 ft wave no issue.

Hung throttle  maybe. Steering is hydraulic not likely failure.

Just a bad deal for sure.

Could easily stuff the nose and hook the boat at speed.

I've been out in plenty of conditions that would scare the crap out of most people.

When you are used to bad conditions it is more likely you make better decisions while out there on the water.

Have been out on some of the biggest lakes in the country in some pretty small boats when the weather has changed.

Spent a night sleeping on a beach with my guests when the winds picked up and blew ice down the lake on 12 foot waves.

Easy choice to hunker down for the night.

Had other days with similar waves but without the ice and have had no issues in 16-17 foot boats. Just a little slow going is all. 

[Old Ironmaker]

I always thought all Rangers were "Bass Boats". They are not all the same. Dan Columby a member here and a Musky charter guide out of Nippising took me out in his 20' Stratus 3 years back. The thing is deeper than my StarCraft and much more stable. The 200 to 300 HP pushing these things is the issue in my opinion. I think we have all seen the adds where a Ranger is flying through the air skipping of the tops of whitecaps and guys thing they can do the same. Speed kills as it is said. A PFD won't do much if you hit your head when flying out of a boat and one is rendered unconscious face down in the water. Not all PFD's will get you face up when in the water when you are out cold. Not many do. I think we have all kissed the ground after getting to shore safe and sound, sometimes more than once. Experience is a lifetime of mistakes, wisdom is not repeating them.

As far as the root cause we will need to wait until all the facts are in. Tragic and sobering.

Edited January 5, 2018 by Old Ironmaker

[Garnet]

Stuffing these 521 is difficult. But if you try hard enough anything is possible.

Hooking it at speed is most likely.

I hooked a 375 ranger in Big Bay in the 80's.

Not going that fast just on plane slugging it out. Hit a popup wave spun it around

and we where heading back to Deseronto  and buddy passenger  was on my lap.

Stick throttle and cable steering in that late 80's Ranger sucked.

I seen a video of the boat washed up on rip  rap. It likely drifted there.

Didn't see any cane stuck it trolling motor.

The guide trip I went on years ago on Okeechobee you see places where boats

went ripping threw the cane to avoid collisions scared the crap out of me. My

guide was good.

They must have the gps trail back .

[buick14]

On 1/5/2018 at 11:58 AM, grimsbylander said:

Very unfortunate situation for sure. Without knowing all the details or having any experience with the boat type, I think passing judgement of what's stupid or not seems premature. 

Agreed !