Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Unexpected Trouble

A good friend of mine writes for a national magazine's website.

Big surprise here, it's a fishing web page. Even more of a surprise, it's a bass fishing web page. Imagine that...me having a friend....a writing friend at that.

Jaison has been writing his column for about 2 years now, and even though we have never met in person, we have talked on the phone, swapped comments back and forth, and even found some time to talk about bass fishing, and our writing.

The column Jaison shared this week was one of a close call. His chosen title was ... if I remember it correctly .... "Life Is Too Precious for Stupid".

My buddy lives in Virginia...one of the many states that experience actual seasons and all that comes with the different seasons. Cold weather that comes and sticks around for a while type of seasons.

Seems that Jaison and one of his fishing buddies hit the lake recently. Seeing as it was a cold day, all the precautions were taken to ward off the cold as best a person could and still be able to move around in the boat. The usual layering of clothing was the standard attire, topping off with a good parka over big overalls.

If you are a regular boater, you may see where I am headed with this...if not, just read on in the next paragraph.

Finding a desirable spot to fish, the big motor was stopped and Jaison found his way to the front deck of his boat, sitting on the pedestal seat to work the trolling motor. This all being pretty standard operating procedures among bass fishermen.

As the story goes, Jaison remembers reaching for something, but ends up looking up at the boat from the outside of the boat in the inside of the lake. The cold lake that is.

To answer your next question....No, Jaison had taken off the (his words) bulky life jacket when he sat down on the pedestal seat.

Efforts between Jaison and his buddy were fruitless in getting him back into the boat. The extra clothing was dragging him down. My guess is right about now, Jaison was at least 2 or 3 minutes from meeting our Creator face to face.

Through sheer refusal to quit the fight, a grip on the side of the boat was managed and his buddy got the motor cranked and idled towards the shore where Jaison finally was able to touch solid ground and make his way from the lake.

I haven't talked to Jaison other than a couple of emails where I relayed to him my concern for him and grateful that he survived the ordeal. Not making light of the situation, he did recall in his column about making a deal with God. Probably not much more than any one of us would have done had it been us in his shoes....let's make that...his water-soaked bib overalls and winter parka.

I did ask Jaison if he remembered to mark the coordinates of the 'hump' they were fishing, so he could go back another day to try again....but then, that's my jab at him for now.

Glad you're OK Jaison and thanks for sharing your story.

Folks, if you want to read his story in his words, go to BASSMASTER.com and look for Jaison's story under The Reel World.

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/bassmaster/news/story?page=b_blog_annarino_2009



3 comments:

  1. Jake- You rascal! Thank you for the story and for the kind words. I appreciate your friendship, bro. Just to be clear, that whole situation could have been avoided if I hadn't been so stubborn about that life vest. You can bet that from now on,I'll be wearing that thing while on the water. Period.

    Made a deal with God...Ha! Methinks the Good Lord doesn't negotiate such things.

    Thanks again, sir!

    Jaison, The humbled life vest wearer

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  2. i added a life jacket to my BPS wish list and sent it to my wife and my daughter...will wait to see if they value me as much as they say they do....LOL

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  3. Jakester,

    By way of update- picked up an automatic/manual inflatable PFD yesterday. Holy Cow, them thing's ain't cheap! Nonetheless, I got an early Christmas present that should last many years. Hope you get one, too. It's pretty comfortable and very light. I don't foresee any issues wearing it even in summer.

    Thanks again for mentioning the column and for your stalwart stalwartness.

    Jaison

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