Poor Judgement/Essential Items

Jay K

Jay K

Active member
I want to share with you guys something I learned from the last hunt of my season this year, hopefully this helps some people avoid what myself and friend went through.

My Bad Judgement:

Hunted with a buddy I connected with through a group of duck hunters online. Great guy. We went out Monday morning. First off, I take full responsibility for my decisions. I should not have been traversing open water with it blowing 25 kts sustained. You have to know your own abilities. I got complacent and pushed the limits of myself and my 12' Higbee sneak box. Around 5:45am, in the dark, in the middle of the bay in NJ...I stuffed the bow. We slowed down because my buddy got turned around. The tide was ripping hard against the wind. Next thing I know, there she goes. Buried her right into the back of another wave. Gotta be honest, I thought that was going south real quick. I had 6" of water on the bow and it was coming up the dodger quick. Luckily she came back up. Immediately it was survival mode and we tucked into the nearest sedge.

Essential Items:

As soon as we got to the sedge to hunt, the events of the day took another turn. My buddy, no sooner after turning his motor off, sees his kill switch lying on deck of his boat in 3 pieces. We tried sorting it out. I am mechanically inclined as was he. We tried all manner of fixes: Splicing the wires together, leaving them apart (the correct way) to no avail. It ended up with a long drawn out ordeal of trying to figure out how my little 12' Higbee was going to tow him back across the bay in a damn near gale with my 15hp motor. I was able to tow him back but it was a really tough situation. In the end, it turned out the wires apart were the way to go but because we didn't have electrical tape or wire nuts, the wires were still grounding out inside the motor cowling.

I highly recommend anyone who does this carry AT LEAST the following:

Multi-tool with wire clippers (Leatherman, Gerber, etc)
Knife
Multi-screwdriver (ones with multiple tips)
Adjustable wrench
Zip-Ties
Duct Tape
Electrical Tape
Small bag of wire nuts (would have saved us a whole lot of hassle if we had)
Tow rope
Spare rope

I did kill some ducks. Hunting, for the short time we did, was fantastic. However, that's all basically secondary because it could have been a bad day for us.

Huge thanks to Craig F as always. I rang him up to get his input. He rallied up a good friend who was going to get us in if need be.
 
Jay~


Thanks for sharing your cautionary tale.


Question: Do you have oars ?


Although I have hunted in many winds where rowing home would have been all but impossible, I nevertheless have always fitted my gunning vessels with sturdy oars. My last hunt before I moved north from Long Island (1994), I rowed my sneakbox about 1 1/2 miles home because my Johnson 15 had given up the ghost (head was shot) after many seasons of yeoman service.


BTW: A length of extra line (as for towing) is required in NYS, I believe. I keep a coil of about 30-feet of half-inch nylon lashed so it's not snarled when I need it.



All the best,


SJS

 
Steve,

The next day I started thinking about solutions in that situation. Oars did come to mind. Both of our boats had oar locks. However, we both had single paddles. You may a great point. I would love to find a way to tuck oars under my deck somehow in the event something like that happens again.
 
Interesting point. My boat also has oar locks ( would want to row it very far). I have tow rope, leatherman, small hammer, spare spark plugs and drain plugs, flares, fire extinguisher on the boat. I also put on my SOSpenders and clip my floating waterproof VHF to the strap when under way.
 
These kinds of things are great learning opportunities for sure, especially for you learning a new area and how it may be effected by the wind, tide, etc.

I had a slightly less harrowing situation earlier this season where my shift linkage to my lower unit came undone while setting decoys and I had to manually reach down and shift the motor into forward to get back to the ramp. Not a big deal, but what I learned was the large toolbox I bring with me does me no good in my truck if I need it out on the water. I added a leatherman tool to my smaller boat emergency kit after that.
 
Craig,

I remember that day. Even with that situation, the current really rips in there as well. It's funny but as I go through situations like I did on Monday, spots I hunted in the past don't seem nearly as daunting as they did when I first started. I guess it's all about accumulating experience. Monday was one of the most vastly shallow spots I have ever seen. Would have been a hell of a hunt if we didn't have issues though.

Thanks again for all the help. I really do appreciate it.
 
Jay

Your list didn't have an extra kill switch key. That is a small item to add. My hunting buddy was nearly stranded deep in the woods one time when a tree limb snatched his key and flung it. Glad you guys made it in and you are telling us the story instead of a newspaper.

Eric
 
Eric,

Conveniently, Johnson tucks one in under the tiller handle of my motor. When my buddy first said his kill switch broke, I immediately thought of that. Once again though, you mention another key item to add to the list.
 
My Don Warren sneakbox has two bungee cords on each side undeer the front deck to store a pair of oars out of the way.
 
The size of the boat depends on how big my box is but my favorite on a small boat is a one gallon spackle bucket because it?s a bailer and completely water tight and free. Whenever I?m working on my engine I look at the tools I have out for the job like 10mm socket and the extension I need to drain the carb bowl and only put tool relevant to my motor inside. I always have duct tape on a tape board maybe 3 feet as well as bailing wire zip ties extra lanyard fuel fitting short piece of the right size fuel hose a few hose clamps a extra pull rope a fuel hose mender and I 12 gauge flare because I have a 12 gauge shotgun. Around the outside of the bucket I have 1/2 inch rope but it might only be about 25 feet. I also have a serated knife for prop fouls and leather man that can cut wire for when I get a crab pot in the prop. Also tie a whistle to the bail on the bucket and I love vice grips so one of those goes in where I can fit it. The screw driver is multifunctional one and on the two strokes I have extra spark plug or two. I?m the boat somewhere I also try to keep a can of starting fluid for my Suzuki.
 
Man I'm glad y'all got home safe!

I was in shorts, barefoot in a pirogue with my chocolate lab in the South Louisiana marsh this past Saturday afternoon.....Sunday morning it was howling and temps were dropping. Outstanding duck weather for the last day of duck season for our Coastal zone too, just came a week too late.

These duck hunters knew the weather was bad and still took a chance going upriver in a mud boat......the river won, thankfully word spread on the VHF radio and the 3 duck hunters were rescued.

My family knows that if I get in a bind that I can't use Cajun engineering to get myself out of....I'm always wearing my lifejacket, always have my handheld VHF radio and always have a flare gun handy. I just signed up for Sea Tow too. Sea Tow came and saved these hunters on Sunday. The mighty Mississippi river doesn't play.


View attachment Bad day on the river.jpg
 
Glad all worked at well. I shoot out of a Southbay and carry a small ammo can for tools and extra parts etc. I also have a larger one stuffed under the rear deck with all the stuff I will not need [I hope]. Have a 1/4" cord tied to it so that I can get to it. Always thought about a tarp also.
I seal extra tools in a foodsaver bag. Also extra chamois shirt, socks and warm gloves. Foodsaver saves a lot of room and keeps them fresh. Also have a change of clothes in the truck. Fell over board poling and got water down the neck. Had the extra clothes in the truck for the ride home, some nice...
Happy hunting, be safe...
 
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