On the Water Safety Tips for Both Kayak Anglers and Boaters

Hey there and thank you for stopping by as we discuss what I believe is an important topic for both kayak fishing anglers and boaters alike,

In this post, we are going to briefly discuss what I believe are some extremely important tips that will help us all out while on the water doing what we love.

It is my goal that this will help us respect each other more and will ultimately save lives.

Why We Are Writing This Post About Safety Tips For Boaters and Kayak Anglers?

We are writing this blog post today because of the experiences that we and others that I’ve either been on the water with or have personally spoken to have experienced.

Personally, I’ve almost been hit by boaters more than 6-7 times in the past six months alone since I have started kayak bass fishing.

The first experience I had was on South Holston Lake. I was camping that weekend with my family. We had been out that morning fishing on our kayaks when a large sized boat came barreling through and had the driver not turned and slowed when he did, someone could have been killed.

On top of that since the boater was pretty close to us the wakes that his boat produced were at least 5-6ft swells.

In an effort to try and make sure my younger son was ok, I did not get turned in time and flipped my kayak over, losing several hundreds of dollars worth of tackle and $100 dollar spinning reel.

Yes, it could have been worse, I could have lost my life or one of my family members could have as well.

Just recently, a friend of mine that I kayak fish with quite frequently almost got hit while on the South Fork Holston River somewhere between Christians Bend and Surgoinsville, TN boat launch.

A boater was coming up the river and once he was spotted my friend yelled at me to get to the bank so we could get out of his way, yet the boater continued coming right after us, even after briefly stopping for a moment.

In this scenario, we were trying to get out of the way, yet he just kept charging at us.

This lead to an exchange of words between my friend and the boater.

Again, I am grateful that no one was hurt, but the situation could have produced a tragedy out on the water that day when in reality this can all be prevented.

What I believe is one of the biggest factors in this rise of accidents or near accidents on the water.

Personally, I believe the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed more and more people outdoors than I can ever remember. Much like the toilet-paper shortage people who had little to no experience on kayaks or boats for that matter rushed out in the midst of the pandemic and got into this sport.

Can you blame them? No, you can’t. Who wants to be stuck inside their homes all day everyday? Not me for sure.

That said, when you get an influx of inexperienced boaters and kayakers on the water, you can expect disaster to happen.

Add on top of that the fact that we also see more and more people who don’t care about their fellow man and you can rest assured something is going to happen.

From people not wearing PFD’s while on their kayaks to boaters just barreling through at max speeds and not paying attention to others someone is bound to lose their life.

What can you do to make sure you are doing your part to ensure everyone’s safety?

As we begin to wrap this post up today, here are a few helpful tips that I believe will serve us all quite well.

I hope this article wakes us up to the reality that we are facing. I hope that people will start paying more attention and focus more on the wellbeing of others than just on themselves.