Bad Weather Ain't Worth a Bass Boat
or Life
The reason behind this
article is I heard a night mare that
happened the first weekend in
May at Kentucky lake.
It goes back to what I have
said in other articles about checking
the weather before you
go out.
A tournament was held at
Kentucky Lake that
almost cost a few anglers their lives.
I am here to tell you it is not worth your life or
your bass boat if the weather is looking to get real bad. The
Tournament Director should have called
the tournament, but
instead they went ahead with the schedule.
It turned out one guy had his trolling
motor hit by lighting and now is looking at a couple of
thousand dollars in repairs. It not
only got the trolling
motor, but blew the foot control right out of
the deck and left the
angler with a great big hole where his trolling
motor was
once located.
The lightning
strike stopped the big engine from running and he
was lucky I guess that
the engine restarted and he was able to get back
to the ramp.
Another angler was telling me
that he was in a cove fishing and kept
hearing a clicking noise
and could not figure out where it was coming
from.
He raised his rod and saw
that the tip was shaking like crazy
with static electricity.
He dropped the rod to the deck and got out of
there. I would guess
that he was about to be hit by lightning and
that would have ruined
the tournament for him.
This is just two examples of
what not to do, and believe me if enough
of the tournaments
anglers had refused to go out due to bad weather
I know they would
have cancelled that day of fishing.
Here is a first hand account of an angler bank
fishing who wanted to get one more cast in instead of
immediately following the 30/30 rule.
This
rule states that if you see lightning and can hear the boom
before the count of 30, the next place that lightning could
hit is right where you are standing. And don't go back
outside until no lightning strikes for 30
min.
Anglers, it is not worth all
the bass in the lake to go ahead and try
and fish in bad
weather.
Look at the Big Dogs in the
Bass Masters, they
will cancel a tournament if the weather even looks to be
bad, or get bad while
they are on the lake.
You can fish another day if
the weather looks to be bad, but get hit
by lightning and it
might be you last fishing trip and that is not
a pleasent
thought.
Stop and use your head even
if the tournament director does not
see it the same way.
After all, he does not have to replace your
Bass Boat and even worse
can not replace your life.
Both anglers should have gone
home that night and said a small prayer, and be very thankful no one was
hurt.
Keep the Hooks Wet!
Steve
McGoldrick
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