BBox_

I stumbled on this discussion today after having an incident of my own over the weekend. I just got my first bass boat this spring and have always been out fishing on kayaks. Iv always worn the life jacket on kayaks but decided I was ok not wearing it on the boat. All was fine Saturday evening and the top water bite was phenomenal. Two buddies and I were enjoying the calm water for 1 more pass before we headed in to beat a shower coming our way. Well by the time we decided to pack up and head for the boat ramp, that little shower completely blew up into a storm and it was bearing down on us. As it was getting dark, I started heading across the lake to leave when 60 mph winds with gusts even higher came from nowhere, quickly turning the smooth water into something my little bass boat was not meant to handle. There was no time to stop and grab the life jackets and safely put them on before the wind hit, because we were already driving and there was no way to stop at that point or we’d be pushed up into the dam. Long story short, we made it back to the boat dock, but just barely. We were extremely close to capsizing basically the whole trip, and couldn’t even keep the boat pointed in the direction I wanted to go at some points. And we made the trip without life jackets. Had the boat flipped we easily could have not made it. Lesson learned. Wear your life jackets!