I heard something about a fisherman who drowned recently while wading in the Nooksak (i think that's the one). Do any of you know any details around this? Very sad and very scary.

I've been wanting to discuss this topic on this forum for a while - now seems like a relevent time...

Do you have some guidlines you can share for safety when it comes to wade fishing and river crossing? There may be some inexperienced river walkers here that may benefit (i.e. not die) from our experience.

Recently for example, I was fishing with a buddy who has breathable chest waders. He did not have a belt (lesson #1 - ALWAYS where a good belt). We were fishing a small creek where it flowed into a much bigger river. We tried to work our way accross the stream, but I got uncomfortable about 1/2 way when it got to my waist and seemed to keep getting faster and deeper. He was upstream from me and managed to get himself 99% accross, but when he got there, it was nearly to his chest and he wanted to come back. Well, as you know, when crossing deeper and faster water, you naturally get pushed down stream while crossing. So he is on the other side now, directly accross from where I first tried to cross. By the way, I'm at least 3 to 5 inches taller than him. Well, I was shocked to see him start heading straight to me (instead of working his way upstream first)! About 2 steps into it, he goes down and is swept into the much bigger, deeper and swifter river. I wade out as far as I can and reach for him, he sticks his rod out to me and I grab it, thinking that he wants be to hold it for him so he can swim better. That's when I saw the real look of fear in his eyes. He wanted me to pull him in with his rod. Of course, it just came appart...
The next realization as I saw his head barely sticking above the water, was that he did not have a belt on. I had tight neopremes on, and they are very bouyant. So I jump in and tried to keep up with him (there was no way to follow along the bank. Well, he made it to shore by pure stamina (he's about 25 and very fit) and his waders were so full of water, he looked like he was wearing clown pants. But he came very close to dying.

Anyway, I've seen people do some crazy things while river wading/crossing and I wanted to share some pointers that I tend to follow:

1) Be extra careful if you are alone. Especially if there are not a lot of bankies or boaters around to hear you scream...
2) Plan ahead. Expect to be pushed down stream, so give youself some room for error
3) Ask youself "what's the worst that could happen?" If you think you wouldn't survive a fall (ie get washed through some nasty rapids - just don't do it! Otherwise, the worst may be that you get wet, cold and embarassed.
4) Felt soled boots are amazing!
5) A wading stick can help a lot
6) Know your limits
7) If crossing a tailout that eventually turns into some rapids (non leathal - but you never know), I like to cross upstream as far as I can. This means crossing where the water is deeper (waist high or so) and slower. Then, by the time I'm 1/2way accross, I expect to be in about knee deep but faster water, but with plenty of room from the rapids, that I can easily make it across several yards down stream. Many times you can just cross straight across - but you should always plan on it being a little deeper and stronger than you think, unless you've been through this spot a lot...
8) Carefully place your feet between rocks and not on them. Make sure you are steady before taking your next step. I rely mostly on my 'river feet'. Kinda like 'boat legs'. I just feel the rocks with my feet and let them find a solid hold before moving, this way, you don't have to rely on your eyes seeing the bottom.

Anyway, that's a start. Anyone have any thing to add or correct?

Really good post. Thanks for sharing your story and thoughts.

My two cents: I always bring my Folstaff wading staff when I fish rivers. It's a folding staff that fits in a holster on my wading belt and springs into action when needed. Got mine from Cabela's if anyone's interested. It's a tad bulky wearing it all the time, but it's worth the extra weight, because I like to do a lot of wading and exploring.

One more thought to add:

Polarized glasses can really help in spotting underwater obstacles and changes in water depth.

the most important advice , besides a wading stick would be to never wade in fast water above your crotch. the faster the water the shallower you should atempt

i go by two rules: if it feels too fast and deep it probably is and its not worth risking your life for ANY FISH!
tyler

It is always deeper and faster than it looks

I just wear hip waders. I am 6'2", if I feel a cold wet feeling on Mr. Winky I know I am in to far.

I've been on several rescues that involve people that have execised poor judgement when crossing a river. Most of them have turned out to be body recoveries, not rescues at all. I have also had the unfortunate experience of recovering children that were holding the hand of their parent when crossing a river. The outcome was not worth the experience.

I agree with all the information in the previous posts. If you have a doubt about wading across the river don't do it. If you decide to make the crossing have a plan "B".

Just my .02 worth. Great post and good information.

Captain

on another note, keep one eye upstream, this time of the year you can't be sure what is going to be floating down. I saw 50ft trees flying by on the nisqually a few weeks ago. best bet stay out of the water when its high.

great topic. I dont do alot of river fishing this is my first year. and I was at the quilcene in august going after silvers. this was my first time fording a river like that. I went from the hotel to the hatchery just in shorts and shoes. I thought I was gonna fall numoerous times and I'm 23, 6-2 and a framer in good shape so I can imagine what you guys are going thru up to your waist in slippery rocks and fast water. I'll stick to the sound and be real safe on rivers. tight lines all, Ben

Hey Brad,

You've seen some guys who didn't follow that rule, haven't you?

Another thing to keep in mind in how the gravel at the head of a hole will give way under your feet......and that's deep water below you. And if you had a hard time crossing on the way down............just think how it will be on the way back up.

Nice name PhishPhreak.....

Original and catchy!

GOOD TOPIC
A lot of great points.
Personally i like to wear felt sole STUDDED boots
Makes a big diff.
Stay away from rubber. When first got into river fishing, i was on the Sol duc. I wanted to get out a bit farther so i proceeded to wade out into the river with my old rubber soled boots. The water didn't look to swift. But looks can be decieving. Got out about thigh deep and i was getting scared.. CFS was movin' and i was slippin.
The belt thing, Never leave home for the river without it

Sorry Phish. Didn't mean to steal your creativity (:
I wanted sometheing steelhead related, but have you seen all the variations of Steelhead???

I read an article several years ago on the subject. Here are a few things I put in my memory bank just in case. (1) It may sound stupid to say but when you first fall in "Don't take a breath of air". Most drowing victims are taken by surprise and the first thing they do in a panic is to take a gulp of air. But they don't get air. They get water instead. And now with water in their lungs they really hit the panic button. You have to train yourself to immediatly hold your breath the moment you go in. This is difficult to do as cold water is such a shock to your body that you want to immediatly inhale or gasp. This is a mental thing. Think about it often whenever you are near water. But you can train and prepare yourself to do this. Lifeguards do it!(2) Don't try and fight a strong current. You just wear yourself down and swallow water. Instead, roll over on your back and point your feet down stream. That way you can use your feet to strike those large rocks instead of your head. And striking ones head on rocks is another reason people drown. You can also use those legs out front to guide you. (3) Remain calm! Breath when you can but keep in mind you may have to hold your breath a lot. And you may only get to take short shallow breaths. But don't panic because you can't breath at a normal rate.(4) At some point, hopefully, you will float into softer and or shallower water. At that point you should
be able to make it to shore. Or, someone will be in a position to get you out. Of course, the best advise has already been given in the other posts. And that is, don't get yourself in that position to begin with. Will I look like a fool if I show up on a drift wearing one of those suspender type floating devises?

When I was younger,I was fishing the upper Sauk up around Barlow pass. It was opening day and the river still had snow melt in it. It was clear and fast. To make a long story short,I was wearing a pair of rubber chest waders. And being that I was smarter than the river I tried to cross where the river was shallow. About knee deep. Slipped on a rock and fell down. The river carried me down stream quite aways. It scared the hell out of me and I threw those waders away. Never wore rubber waders again. Now I use neoprene and they are skin tight as I am big around the middle. And I don't cross where I don't know the bottom. Jim S.

this is kind of a silly thing to mention but I have seen it happen I am 6'8" and can cross in places others can't so don't assume you can cross because you saw some one else do it it might just get you in trouble just my .02

A few years back a friend and I were crossing a river and it was runnin fairly high and was about chest high were we had to cross..we couldnt fish the walk-in side because of the steap bank so we started across..he didnt have felt souls on his boots and I told him to make sure of his footing before he tryed to take another step..We got most of the way across and he slipped and down under he went...In the back of his vest he had two styrofoam containers full of shrimp and it floated.. his head and all was under water except for the containers which floated his vest I reached for his vest and pulled him out..After he was out he gasped a few times and told me when he went under he had become disoriented and didnt know where the top was.If it wouldnt have been for the foam containers I bet the outcome would have been alot different...Definently a scary deal!!!Since then he decided to buy a pair of felt souled wading boats!!TM

Many good points here; hope I can add to the value of this thread. One thing mentioned is to know your limits. I couldn't agree more, and the way to know your limits is to practice. Practice not only makes perfect, or at least better, but it helps you expand your limit to more challenging conditions. So where to practice? On stream practice should occur where you would naturally wade. My personal rule about where to attempt to wade relates to what is downstream. If a slip and fall just means getting wet and going for a swim, I'll generally attempt it, unless it's deathly cold out, presenting a hypothermia risk. If there's a rapids with a log jam down below, or some other likely leathal risk, then I look for another place to cross.

Another point was made about wearing a belt with chest waders. It's probably a good idea, but for a reason different than people generally think. First I should add that I don't use one, which may be a bad idea on my part. But the water that gets inside my waders isn't any heavier than the water outside my waders in the river. The potential problem of water inside my waders is the additional drag it can create if I try to fight the current. I did this hanging on to a log jam in a small river once long ago, and the drag of the current on my expanded wader exceeded my strength to pull myself out. I pushed off the jam and into the current, at which point the water in my waders wasn't really a problem any longer. Then I sort of lurched - a new swimming stroke I guess - my way to the slower current on the shallow side of the river.

This brings me back to the point about practice. Take your waders out to the lake next summer and jump in. Having prior experience with waders full of water is an excellent first step to avoiding panic should it happen unexpectedly on a river during the winter. Once you know you can swim around quite bouyantly in neoprene boot-foot waders, your increased self-confidence will help keep you from panicing if you fall in accidentally.

The point about small gravel shelves at the head of a pool that one poster mentioned reminds me of just that occurence on the NF Stilly also many years ago. Trying to swing my fly just so, I kept wading a little further out and further downstream until the pea gravel just slid away from me. At least it was the head of a long deep pool, so I swam to the riprap side - the closest- with my flyrod clenched in my teeth. Unfortunately it was November and I was colder than a witch's tooth 8^). Fortunately, the lady in the nearby house saw what happened, called me in, put my clothes in the dryer, and fed me brandy while I sat by her wood stove. Fishing was over for the day, but another wading lesson was learned.

It's also a good idea to pay attention to how the water behaves in rivers. If the water goes around something, like a big boulder, than you can also. If the water goes through something, like a log jam or sweeper, then consider it a killer and a place to avoid. If you wade upstream from such obstacles, do it far enough to allow time and distance to work your way to the river bank.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Some of my friends consider me a madman when it comes to fording rivers, but I've only gone in once. Experience is the number one thing to have, which only comes with practice. Here's a few others that I use:

1. Absolutely must have felt soles.

2. As I wade, I keep my side to the current, moving one foot forward, then bringing the other up even with it. This keeps the narrowest part of me catching the current, rather than all of me if I were facing up or downstream.

3. This has been mentioned above, but it's important enough to mention again. Deep water and rocks are bad enough, but a log jam below you is an absolute no-no unless you are very confident in the spot and your abilities. If you get stuck in one of those you may not be seen again until spring.

4. I will always choose three feet of slow water over two feet of swift water. The tailout looks easy, but it might be easier ten feet upstream with much less current, even if it is a bit deeper.

5. Remember that rivers around here rise quite rapidly with steady rain. A "close one" on the way in may be a "not a chance" on the way out, leaving you on the opposite side of the river from your rig.

6. Not having partners, or other fishermen or boaters, around should make you extra careful. Having them around should not make you more careless.

7. Belts with neoprenes make a semi-airtight balloon out of you. You can float pretty well. This doesn't mean you should do stupid things, but if something comes up, they're awfully nice to have.

8. Have waders that fit well. A baggy crotch catches a lot of current, as do really baggy legs. Conversely, if they're too tight you can't use your legs to their fullest capacity, reducing balance and leg strength.

9. Boots that fit well have much greater traction that those that are too loose, as your foot will tend to slide around in them more.

10. Wade arm-in-arm with your buddy if it's anything more than an easy crossing. Put the taller guy upstream.

I'm sure there are more, but these come to mind for me.

If you're a parent, don't do anything that you wouldn't want your son or daughter to do!!

Fish on...

Todd.