for all of us that go places we should not

[Aeon]

a couple times in my life i have had the omg this is dumb but i am going to go anyways choice to make. Refuge guys wont get it as much but part of the fun in public land hunting is the risk. Sometimes its not worth it

 

[SurfNHuntSD]

Damn.. read about that. I've definitely made some similarly bad choices while freelancing but have been lucky. 40 mph winds kick up while in my canoe on the sea comes to mind..

 

[BOWUNTR]

Wow... most everyone has pushed it and been close... sucks. I do 90% of my stuff solo, by myself, without telling anyone. I just got an In Reach... It's definitely not worth it if you don't come home. Ed F

 

[WildBilly2]

Sad sad....rest in peace brother

 

[Lungpopper]

Sad, but way better to go doing what you love than laying in a bed waiting to go.
Godspeed

 

[fish dog]

Many years ago when Baldwin Lake had water and you could freelance it I almost died up there. I had a 14 foot John boat and was hunting from it at Baldwin when the Santa Ana wind came up. Within just a couple minutes it went from zero to about 40 mph wind. It looked like the old lead in to that WWII documentary show "Victory at Sea". I only had oars and an electric trolling motor and couldn't make any headway in the wind. I finally decided to just keep the bow into the wind but angle in towards the shore and made it to shore with only about 4 or 5 inches of water in the bottom of the boat. I was like a quarter of the way around the lake from where my truck was so I just tied a rope to the front of the boat and pulled it along the shoreline until I got back to the truck. I don't think it would have taken more than an inch or two more water to capsize the thing.

 

[Dawnandusk]

Many years ago when Baldwin Lake had water and you could freelance it I almost died up there. I had a 14 foot John boat and was hunting from it at Baldwin when the Santa Ana wind came up. Within just a couple minutes it went from zero to about 40 mph wind. It looked like the old lead in to that WWII documentary show "Victory at Sea". I only had oars and an electric trolling motor and couldn't make any headway in the wind. I finally decided to just keep the bow into the wind but angle in towards the shore and made it to shore with only about 4 or 5 inches of water in the bottom of the boat. I was like a quarter of the way around the lake from where my truck was so I just tied a rope to the front of the boat and pulled it along the shoreline until I got back to the truck. I don't think it would have taken more than an inch or two more water to capsize the thing.

your story is very similar to mine.
Fishing with my son and a friend all of the sudden the wind picked up and before we knew it the waves were so high that my propeller was spinning in the air. I had to navigate the waves in a way I could keep getting traction, i got as close to the shore as I could and made it. The face of fear on my son and friend took my sleep for days...

 

[ilovesprig]

Boy, have I been here...And not very long ago either...RIP brother...

 

[utahduckhunter]

Very sad news

 

[TRICER]

Very sad. we have all done it. There are a few times I can look back on where I shouldn’t have made it back. Humbling and sad.

 

[Snake Charmer]

Used to solo hunt the river for waterfowl back in the early 90's a lot and got myself into a couple of situations, Fortunately the river is not like north Dakota and I through my own actions and was able to pull my ass out of the sling by not going into panic mode and using gained knowledge to keep myself from extreme scenarios that I would not be able to recover from. I think the key take away is do not leave yourself without a reasonable way out. You don't go offshore to fish in bad weather and always buddy boat when you can especially when weather is expected and don't go solo hunting without some way to beckon help or back out of a bad scenario on your own I.e don't push it. I did experience a situation once where I group hunted with some folks and had boat submerge and flip I was on and saw how folks can lose survival instincts, fortunatley it was not a life or death situation and all got to shore with just a bit of gear being lost. I've also seen scenarios where group hunts happened and folks did some things that if they had gravely injured themselves that the group may not have been enough to get them to help and emergency help was not an option. Like Ed F said not coming home is not worth the price, leave yourself an out always...

 

[TheGDog]

Ah man, those Poor girls missing their Daddy. Damn.

And re: going solo. Yeah man. I tell Mama what my general plan is. OFten do screenshots with plot points and all that. And on that outing I won't stray very far from the plan. If I feel an area not on the plan is worth scouting. That's what the next visit out there is for.