Be careful out there...

John, Do you know Mark Webster? Works at the Tall Pine... Good Buddy of mine. I was with another freind that morning, and it was raining heavily too. Same thing, missjudged the distance from bridge to stump and location off bank. Hit at a glancing angle thank God. Scared the crap out of us. We were lucky. Cant tell you how many people I have seen in trouble out in the stumps in the mouth. That was during summer and full pool.!
Anyways, we typically ran the river with no spot light. Now if I hunted there I would use my GPS and mark the stumps location. Thats how I find my huntin spots on the lake I hunt now. Drive right to it in pitch black night. It just amaze's my Hunting partner that they are that accurate.

Recognize all those spots in the pictures. Had some really good days there over the years. Too bad its so crowded now. Cant even park your rig at the south launch if you are not there by 3 am on opening day. then the late commers set up on your spread, and then they sky bust. Mark and I used the North launch that used to be a "secret" Now I hear its crowded too. He says during the week it is still okay, and during rifle season it isnt too bad. Last year there was maybee a whole 2 other hunters at the lake I hunt. Its a long ways away but nobody knows about it. Has a mix of puddles and divers, and dont HAVE to use a boat if you dont have one available. There was a couple weekends that I was the only one there. Kinda wish there were more to keep birds movin around, but usually took limits of puddlers by noon, one oclock. Sucks to have to go that far,(2+ hours) but just take camper and make a weekend of it. Its also in Elk country big time so ducks in am and bigger critters afternoon.

Again, glad everything worked out and everyone is okay. Another reminder to us all to be very careful while we are out on our "adventures afield". It would be unfortunate to have something terrible happen to any of use while we are doing what we love. Honestly John that could have happened to any one of us. Good luck this year.

And every one.....PLEASE BE SAFE AND CAREFUL THIS YEAR!!!
 
I know Mark well, we used to be co-chairs of the Bigfork DU Chapter. We always talked about getting together for a hunt, but never did. The crowds are'nt bad if you hunt weekdays and after rifle season starts. I hate opening day, I usually run my last field trial of the year over in Washington that day.

I have had the spotlight - no spotlight debate with my hunting buddy for years. As an old boat captain with good night vision I always argued for no lights, let my eyes adjust to the dark an keep a sharp eye out. The problem with my accident is that I way underestimated how much the drizzle cut down our visibility. A GPS would have kept me away from docks, shoreline and that stump, but there could be something floating down river or even some guys in an unlit boat that GPS wouldn't know about, so I still believe in only going as fast as you can see. I will be adding a large screen GPS and depth sounder just for extra safety.

Another ironic story; I was having my annual physical last month and told my doctor about the accident. He said it reminded him of a bad accident back in the 80s when somebody ran full speed up on the rocks at Wayfayers point at Bigfork killing a guy in the boat. The very night after he told me that story last month Greg Barkus ran his boat with Congressman Denny Rehberg up on the same rocks. Almost killed Rehberg's assistant Frost. We also had a fatal accident last summer with somebody running full spead into a boat out on Flathead lake that was just sitting there in the dark. I guess the Sherrif decided that it was the sitting boat's fault because they didn't have any lights, but again it seems crazy for any of us to be blasting along at full speed if we can't see an unlit object on the water far enough ahead to swerve or stop, boat, log, whatever.

Elk and duck hunting combo, now that's something most guys don't get to do often.

John
 
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"I have had the spotlight - no spotlight debate with my hunting buddy for years. As an old boat captain with good night vision I always argued for no lights, let my eyes adjust to the dark an keep a sharp eye out."

EXACTLY!! It's nice to have a spotlight if needed but I would much rather run in the dark with no bright lights. My clients are constantly trying to light things up for me and to make my point I just drop the anchor and close my eyes and put my hat over my eyes for a few minutes. "If you would PLEASE stop ruining my night vision...it would be greatly appreciated". The other night I was going along in my drifter and came to a downed tree that must've fallen within the past 12 hours. I could see from the moonlight that I was going to make through the crown with a little wrangling. The guy in the back decides to flip a flashlight on and blasts me in the face and at that very moment a beaver that had apparently drifted down nearly against the boat smacked his tail so loud that it resonated off the boat hull. The guy in the back had to have messed his Calvin Klein undies....he had his arms pulled in after that, tucked into his waders. I said,"See what happens, it's not only the guide that gets pissed off when you flip the lights on". Thank you Mr or Mrs Beaver...it made my night! Though I'd prefer if you wouldn't drop big ass oaks in my path!
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FYI on the depth sounder it's CRITICAL that you get the transducer set right so you can run with it and get accurate readings. Ideally it'd be through hull for a duck boat.
 
Lou...wow, that's nasty! Growing up on a lake I've seen/heard of my fair share of drunken accidents. One of the worst was when a guy from Indy took the ski-boat out for a night cruise with a couple of girls. He was drunk as I recall and at some point he decided to take the boat for a spin around Wawasee. Somebody had a big sailboat anchored offshore and they were staying on it. A sheriff deputy that lives on the lake instinctively walked to the porch to see the boat, an inboard at full song on a lake at night is always very audible...and at that exact moment watched the ski boat nearly cut the sailboat in half. As I recall the injuries were fairly extensive for the guy and one of the girls but not life threatening and this was by and large due to the sheer luck of the deputy seeing this and racing to the seen in his boat and pulling them from the water before they drown. The sailboat occupants weren't injured thank God.

On my high school graduation night myself and some friends...lots of lady friends took my parents pontoon "Queenie" out on the lake and of course we were well stocked with refreshment. The girls must've been the siren song because every guy with a boat and a hankerin' showed up over the course of the night. At some point a couple of guys in a tri-haul came up and grabbed on to the pontoon and started banging the boats together. I told them that we didn't have any room and that he was scratching my old beater pontoon. The guy hits the throttle and tore the outer front railings off the pontoon with the stern of the boat and smashed one of the lights. I actually ended up finding this dumbass the next day by examing every single tri-haul I could find at the docks around the lake. He was from the trailer park. You could clearly see the gel coat was torn and gouged from the aluminum railings.
 
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Yea that rehburg accident is fresh in our minds. The only difference between us all and that group was we are all typically not boozed up When we are on the water.those yahoo's obviously had been drinkin heavily. I heard they were in Lakeside at "The Docks" Rest/bar just before that. ( Lakeside is a small community that I have old ties with) Now the big thing is the med records are being hushed up, and their blood tox levels are being blocked from public scrutiny. that is BS in my opinion. Any normal joe would be strung up on DUI charges. Gotta love politics. Be Nice to be unaccountable for my actions...... Someone gets killed on that lake every year, too bad. It will just make the law makers change things. Next we wont be able to hunt... I know, tryin not to be too negative, forgive me.
 
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