PFD Discussion 2024

gatorblazer reply :

I read on another site where two guys had a pretty bad boat wreck. The doctor told one of the guys that his PFD saved his life, but not from the water. He was wearing a standard non-inflatable PFD. The cushion from the PFD prevented his heart from being crushed when he hit the console. The doc said that had he been wearing an inflatable, he would have been killed. Any thoughts from you guys regarding PFD's and your preferences?

R520dvx reply :

I have read way too many posts about inflatables either not inflating or quickly deflating ..... I wear a good regular style. I do have an inflatable sitting around collecting dust !!

DINK WHISPERER reply :

I use the pull cord inflatables without ever even second guessing it. You bring up a very good point.

Jig Man reply :

I wear the inflatables in the winter when the water is cold and I am fishing by myself. During those times I don't run over 35 mph.

When the water and air are warm I run faster and use the regular pfds.

NBR reply :

Please excuse jumping this thread. R520dvx where did you read the threads re not inflating or quickly deflating? Getting older I find I am getting a bit staggery and I'm considering using an automatic self-inflating. I find standard PFD's way to hot in the summer.

I want to look into the failure to perform quewstion a bit more.

fishfordollars reply :

I still wear the old school PFD. I only wear it when the big motor is running. I fish by myself a lot. Guess I have broken all the rules. Let the bashing begin.

Sfritr reply :

Quote
I still wear the old school PFD. I only wear it when the big motor is running. I fish by myself a lot. Guess I have broken all the rules. Let the bashing begin.

X2 on that one

K_Mac reply :

I wear a Stearns manual inflatable belt at all times on the water. My history of falling in requires I wear something. I realize this is a compromise, and that a regular PFD would be safer. I just can't stand the bulk of one. The regular auto inflatables seem to be subject to inflating in wet conditions which rules them out for me. The hydrostatic autos are great, but are cost prohibitive IMO.

Fishfordollars I will not bash you. I fish alone often, and for years did not wear a PFD. I will tell you the 2 times I've fallen off the boat I was not wearing one. The last time I was fishing <50 yards from the ramp, and hadn't run the outboard other than backing off the trailer. I simply had forgoten to put my belt on. I'm not sure what happened but one minute everything is cool, the next I'm in the drink. There was just enough wind that it kept moving the boat away from me at exactly the speed I was swimming toward it. When I reached down for the deploy cord on my belt and found I didn't have it on , things got much more interesting. I had a spininng rod in my hand and my pants had slid down around my ankles :. I let go of the rod and swam for the boat with all I had. By the time I reached it I was in water shallow enough to stand. It frightened me enough that I will not make that mistake again.

Fishes in trees reply :

I fell in once. March - windy - 40 or so degree water. No life jacket. It got interesting. Looking up over your head and seeing the hull of your boat you understand "This ain't good."

Fortunately, the first summer I had my boat I practiced falling out of it, I had a plan to get back into the boat and it worked. I went back to the ramp, changed clothes and kept fishing. Buy the time I got home that evening, I realized a few things, that I hated wearing the regular pfd and I had to do something different.

I bought an inflatable. I wear it all the time. I had it go off once in my truck. I think it went off due to excess humidity inside the truck, windows up, inside a metal shed during the middle of summer. I don't know exactly how it happened, I just went out to the truck one day and it had deployed and then deflated.

I still wear it. I think it is the best option for me. Last year I did buy one of the better ones, with the HIT inflation and now I wear that one. I bought the HIT just because I felt it was better, not because I was afraid of using the other one.

If I ever fall out of the boat, and it doesn't deploy and I drown, at least my heirs will know who to sue. Other than that I try not to think about it. I do wear it all the time, and I'm getting to the point that most of the time I don't even notice it.

RoLo reply :

I've always worn the permanent-style non-inflatable PFDs, but in the midsummer heat of Florida,

they can get mighty obtrusive. I found myself wearing the permanent vest less-and-less,

so I decided to buy an auto-inflatable vest with good intentions of wearing it all day on the water.

Frankly though, that has not happened.

If I'm not going to wear my auto-inflatable PFD all day, then I'm most likely going to return

to the permanent non-inflatable vest. I really don't have the same level of confidence

in the inflatable PFDs, that I have in the non-inflatable vests. This is a very serious subject guys,

and I intend to follow this post because it might help me reach a definitive conclusion.

Goofing around in the bow, I fell into Lake Kissimmee about a month ago.

My wife was helpless, as there was nothing she could do with a 220-lb clown, bobbing in the water.

As luck would have it, we were offshore, it was over my head, I wasn't wearing a life vest,

it was bitterly cold, the water was 59 degrees and I spent about 10 min in the drink.

My outer jacket of brushed polyester immediately wicked up the water

and felt like it weighed about 30 lbs. I had to walk on my elbows along the gunwale

from the bow to the transom, where the cavitation-plate probably saved my life.

In the process, I lost a pair of sunglasses and my hat, and though I retrieved my hat,

the sunglasses are still out there. To this day, I don't understand how my hat came off,

because it was secured with a chinstrap. I wanted to continue fishing that day,

but my wife said "You're soaking wet, and we're going in right now!!".

She was right of course, so I called it a day. :-[

Roger

K_Mac reply :

Roger in addition to the combo, in two times falling off the boat I've lost two high priced pairs of prescription glasses, and trashed two cell phones. You would think a guy would learn after the the first time. : :-[

When I was young, being ten feet tall and bullet proof, it never occurred to me that I could fall off the boat. Even if it had, I would not have considered I might get in trouble. Times sure have changed...

Kirby

Goose52 reply :

Good discussion and super relevant to me. I just bought a new canoe and got a non-inflatable PFD to go with it. While the non-inflatable is comfortable in colder weather, I was thinking that it would probably be too hot to wear in the summer. I was thinking about getting an inflatable PFD for summer use - otherwise, I had a feeling that while I would always have the non-inflatable in the boat, I probably wouldn't wear it since they're so hot. So, I was on-the-fence about the decision to spring the bucks for an inflatable.

Anyway, I've had the canoe for 4 or 5 weeks and was waiting for water temps to come up to give it a maiden voyage. It was a nice day last Monday, and the water temp was up to 50 degrees so I cartopped the canoe to one of the local lakes. I put on my PFD, got the canoe in the water, and took off. Paddled around for a while - like most canoes it's not real stable but it was manageable (for fishing, I will be using outriggers). I was experimenting with paddling from each seat, checking out the balance/weight distribution, and while changing postions from the forward seat to the aft seat, I rolled the canoe - it happened in a flash. I was in that 50deg water, 150 yards from the nearest bank, and the canoe was inverted. I rolled the canoe upright, put the paddles in the swamped canoe and started towing the canoe to the nearest bank. Good thing I'm in reasonable shape or I couldn't have managed that swim. And boy, was I glad to have the bouyancy of that PFD. I did have a whistle attached to my brand new PFD so I could probably have crawled into the swamped canoe, blown the whistle, and waited for (maybe) the cavalry to arrive but thought I'd try to make the bank. I got to the bank, rolled the canoe over again to empty water, and luckily had a bailer and a sponge wedged in the canoe (1st voyage - I was thinking it might leak so I have the gear with me) so I cleared the water, got back in, and paddled to the other end of the lake where I had the car parked. That night, I got on-line and ordered an inflatable PFD (and also ordered the canoe outriggers!).

Moral of the story for me is that I will ALWAYS have a PFD on while in this canoe, outriggers or not. I will wear the non-inflatable in cool weather and when it gets too warm, I'll wear the inflatable. Inflatable PFDs should be inspected/test inflated periodically as well so I need to make myself do that on a set schedule during the season and then inspect/test inflate again before first use in the spring/summer. While wearing the inflatable, I'll still always have the non-inflatable with me in the boat as well. Also, everyone should have a whistle not just in the boat, but attached to every PFD that they own.

BTW K_Mac - strangely enough, my prescription eyeglasses stayed on the whole time, as did my ball cap. My cell phone was dead, but as soon as I got home, I pulled the battery, and reversed the flow on my shop-vac and blew air into the back of the phone for about 5 minutes - by the next day, the phone was working again !

RoLo reply :

Quote
Roger in addition to the combo, in two times falling off the boat I've lost two high priced pairs of prescription glasses, and trashed two cell phones. You would think a guy would learn after the the first time. : :-[

My sunglasses were also prescription (~$250) and though I was wearing a water-resistant watch,

it apparently escaped harm, because my hands spent most of the time hanging on the gunwale,

I also had to lay out and dry every document in my wallet

Quote
When I was young, being ten feet tall and bullet proof, it never occurred to me that I could fall off the boat. Even if it had, I would not have considered I might get in trouble. Times sure have changed...

Only us elderly anglers can appreciate that statement.

My body cannot keep with my mind, but I keep telling my body,

get used to it to fella because from now on, this is the way it's going to be! ;D

Roger

NJBass12 reply :

Reading all these stories I thought I would offer a tip just incase some one falls in and has trouble getting back in the boat. Work you way back to the outboard, using the trim switch on the motor trim the motor down. Stand on the cavitation plate, hug the motor and trim the motor back up all the way. The motor will lift you out of the water and you can slide down along the top of the motor right in to the boat.

Goose52 reply :

Quote
My sunglasses were also prescription (~$250) and though I was wearing a water-resistant watch,
it apparently escaped harm, because my hands spent most of the time hanging on the gunwale,

I also had to lay out and dry every document in my wallet

My watch was OK as it is water resistant down to a few feet. On the wallet, I must have had a premonition as I left it in the trunk of the car :

RoLo reply :

Quote
Reading all these stories I thought I would offer a tip just incase some one falls in and has trouble getting back in the boat. Work you way back to the outboard, using the trim switch on the motor trim the motor down. Stand on the cavitation plate, hug the motor and trim the motor back up all the way. The motor will lift you out of the water and you can slide down along the top of the motor right in to the boat.

Boy, you guys from Jersey are a crafty bunch

I never even thought of that, but that's a super idea.

I was jublilant just to remember the cavitation-plate,

but never gave the outboard tilt-button a thought.

Another good idea is to keep a "roll-up ladder" in a storage well,

which can be hung from the gunwale in the case of 'man overboard'.

Roger

RoLo reply :

Quote

Quote
My sunglasses were also prescription (~$250) and though I was wearing a water-resistant watch,
it apparently escaped harm, because my hands spent most of the time hanging on the gunwale,

I also had to lay out and dry every document in my wallet

My watch was OK as it is water resistant down to a few feet. On the wallet, I must have had a premonition as I left it in the trunk of the car :

I'm glad we're having this discussion, because it's an important part of angling.

Though I joke about my age, I was in my teens when I first discovered

that getting back into a boat is a much different ballgame than bailing out of a boat.

The legs tend to float underneath the hull, making it difficult (or impossible with high freeboard)

to pull yourself up-and-over the gunwale. A couple of failed attempts,

and you'll be looking for the transom cutaway. Now...when you interject the loss of muscle tone

caused by hyperthermia, you've only got minutes to get yourself aboard.

Roger

Goose52 reply :

Quote
Now...when you interject the loss of muscle tone caused by hyperthermia, you've only got minutes to get yourself aboard.
Roger

It's funny how a lot of thoughts go through your head in a short time. Within a few seconds of falling in that 50 deg. water, I thought of the chart in my PFD manual that listed the time before incapacitation at the various temps (about 60 minutes @ 50 deg - based on that table I had waited for water temps to get out of the 40s before trying the canoe), then I figured I should try the swim to the bank as if I waited in the swamped canoe it would be awhile before anyone could get out there, THEN, for some reason I had an image of Leonardo Dicaprio at the end of the movie Titanic, hanging on the side of the flotsam, turning iinto an icicle! Funny now - not as funny then :-?

Tpayneful reply :

I got the Bass Pro Sopspenders auto-inflatable PFD for Christmas. I wore it almost the entire time that I fished in Florida last week. I always wore it with the kill switch lanyard attached while we were running. It doesn't get i the way. I had to get something so my children would stop calling me a hipocrite for making them wear their PFD's. It is the law for them. Now I will not be a hipocrite.

Goose52 reply :

Quote
I had to get something so my children would stop calling me a hipocrite for making them wear their PFD's.

Good kids !

Long Mike reply :

At the ripe old age of sixty-three, being of sound mind (some of you may disagree) and weakening body, I decided to install a fold down-ladder on the stern of my boat. I know that I no longer have the strength to lift myself over the gunwales at the side of the boat and have my doubts about getting into the boat using the big motor. I wear a Mustang auto-inflate PFD at all times when fishing alone or whenever the big motor is running. If I'm behind the wheel the PFD is attached to the kill switch.

fishfordollars reply :

Quote
At the ripe old age of sixty-three, being of sound mind (some of you may disagree) and weakening body, I decided to install a fold down-ladder on the stern of my boat. I know that I no longer have the strength to lift myself over the gunwales at the side of the boat and have my doubts about getting into the boat using the big motor. I wear a Mustang auto-inflate PFD at all times when fishing alone or whenever the big motor is running. If I'm behind the wheel the PFD is attached to the kill switch.

Same here Mike. Harder and harder to lift myself back in. I'm not even sure I could pull your A** back over the side of mine. You need to plan to get yourself on down to my house asap. You need to get behind a tree to tie on a lure right now. It is on. Conroe and Rayburn are putting them out as we speak. Will be on toledo the next two weekends and after that I will be expecting you to be here. Get it in gear.

Jack

gatorblazer reply :

Good discussion going here. I'm leaning towards the inflatable for my boat as it wont top 40mph, and then using the standard pfd when i go as a co-angler in an actual bass boat.

Catt reply :

I've have never fallen out of a boat (knocking on the wooden desk top)

I prefer the ole school non-inflatable vest for a few reasons, first I see no need to change something that works and works quite well. Second even though I partially disabled I can still put on a non-inflatable vest and take it off in a matter of seconds. Thirdly I like the added warmth the non-inflatable vest provides during winter runs at wide open throttle. And last for the price of a quality non-inflatable vest I don't worry about being careful with where I put it so I can throw behind the seat of the truck, kicking it under the boat console when it's in the way or worry about loaning it out and not getting it back.

TrackerG reply :

A good topic....A couple of comments I will add....I havent fallen out the the boat yet...and try to be careful not to. but I keep hearing stories of losing glasses in the water...and wallets getting wet...cell phones in the drink.....

Why on earth would u carry these items on the boat?

Before I even board the boat to unload in the water....my wallet, cell phone, and truck keys go into the glove box. I wear prescription glasses so i put the "chum" strap on my glasses. So far the only thing I have lost in the water is a few fish...(from not setting hook properly) and one $7 rappala crank bait. (line broke when I cast...dammit anyway) Im not OCD but im pretty careful about checking things before I launch.

MtCarmelTriton20x reply :

I wear an inflatable all the time but a word of advice from experience. If you buy one go for the more expensive one that doen't inflate with moisure alone and has the hydrolic pressure sensor. The cheaper auto inflatables will inflate in you storage boxes when the humidity gets high like during a heavy rain and inflate which will then scare the crap out of you. Oh and they are almost impossible to get out till they deflate some.

Chuck H. reply :

I have been wearing a Mustang hydrostatic model for 4-5 years. I bought the HIT model so I could wear it an all weather conditions. I wear it all the time and will literally forget I have it on. When I get out of the drivers seat, I pull the kill switch lanyard and leave it hanging from the vest. I was thrown out of my boat 2 years ago due to a steering malfunction. I was running around 45. The vest worked perfectly and literally saved my life in the 45 degree water. There are pros and cons about the inflatable vests. All I know is I can vouch for the one I have.

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