Like HBC I have solo fished for 30+ yrs, prefer it actually. I wear a float jacket/suit depending on the weather then switch to an auto inflator for the actual fishing. Besides my mounted VHF I keep a waterproof floating VHF hand held on a cleat secured to my dash at all times and if it gets crazy rough it gets attached to my waist belt. But the most important thing for me is I wear a coiled cable attached to the kill switch 100% of the time, I think it was called “the fish alone” or something like that and it never gets in the way, I never know it’s there. This will seem overkill but if I get caught in really big waves and want to continue fishing I also throw out a floating rope with knots tied every 2’ which is also attached to the kill switch and with some slack, also to a cleat with backing on the inside of the boat. If I do fall out and the fish alone does not work (can’t see why it would ever fail) I can still grab the rope as it goes by me and either pull the knot rope to kill the motor, or pull myself back to the boat by the knots. If I hook up, two easy pulls and it’s on deck just before he gets to the surface, floating rope is the key.
Tried this once with my wife in the boat, pretended to fall over at 2.5mph and with all my gear on, it was a challenge to get back to the boat, without the rope, I could have never swam fast enough to catch up. Since I fish alone and have some physical issues now I take no chances, I recommend everyone try this at some point, it’s a wake up call to see how hard it is to catch the boat, and that’s assuming you don’t get caught in the cables. Many guys have said “I would just swim fast and catch up, drop the ladder and crawl in, good luck. My waterproof “jump box” is also always reachable so if I have to bail out for some reason, I have my flairs, truck keys, cell in a waterproof bag etc. I think fishing alone is perfectly safe if you take precautions.
About 25yrs ago I followed an 20’ boat out of FP with a solo angler, no life jacket and it was only the two of us in 3.5’-4’ waves. Lost sight of him after about an hour as he went straight out, but he did not come home, OPP said his “Johnson” was out when they found him so he likely had fallen over while taking a leak, the figured being July, a life jacket would have saved his life sadly. He also had no cub/vhf or hand held, ever since that day I up graded to all of my extra safety precautions.
Sorry for the long post. Jason.
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