How to kill yourself while wading alone. FACT !!

[padlin]

Not quite the same, but some of the breakwaters I fish off for stripers are very slick especially in the dark. As I got older I felt less sure of myself, even with spiked wading boots. I picked up a Mustang auto inflatable to use for this 7 years ago, hopefully it never has a reason to fire off. Can't say I'm crazy about the look, thankfully there aren't many out in the dark.

 

I use it in the canoe in the summer too.

[DaubsNU1]

In college I was always on a quest to find good public duck hunting spots.

 

Late 1980's, alone in December, blustery overcast morning I was walking some public land on the Platte River in Central Nebraska. 

 

Wearing my Northerner rubber chest waders, crossing small channels of the Platte...most were ankle to knee deep. Of course I crossed one island and thought I could make it just one more channel over...

 

As I'm moving across the river I can feel the sand shifting beneath my feet (as it always does), the water getting ever so slightly deeper, the current getting stronger. 

 

Soon I'm forced to hold my Remington 1100 over my head to keep it out of the water...I look down and the river is just inches from the top of my waders. 

 

Of course I did not have on an form of PDF(!). 

 

I realized right then and there this was a bad plan...and slowly turned around and made it back. Did not find any new hunting spots that day...but lived to tell the tale.  Lesson learned!