Being as concerned with safety as the next guy on Paddlewise, I thought I would pass along something else to think about. As those that have read postings of mine know, I paddle a lot around an artifical lake in southern Michigan. The lake is managed for trophy muskellunge, and I've seen muskies approaching five feet taken out of the lake. A couple summers ago I was out on a night paddle with a group, and we had cylume lightsticks as markers. One lady had one dragging in the water from her stern loop, and a muskie hit it. Scared her pretty good, for an instant. We had another night paddle last Saturday night. One of the group was an experienced family with a big double, mom in front, dad in back, and five year old daughter in the middle. As I understand it, the daughter was dragging a lightstick in the water, and dad, who had heard me tell the story of the last paragraph, teased her that she might not want to get the light stick in the water or else a muskie might hit it. She had no more than taken the lightstick out of the water when her mother, in front, accidently hit a large muskie with her paddle. The fish reacted, then hit the boat with a large WHACK! that could be heard all over the place. It gave everybody a start, and we're just darn glad the little girl had listened to her father -- we think it had been attracted by the light stick. Now, there are all those people from Florida and Australia and other alligator and croc-ridden areas, and I suppose they must be used to natural hazards. There are those that paddle where there are sharks around, and I suppose that has to be taken in stride and no one thinks too much of it. I know I never thought too much about this natural hazard, but, on reflection, they do use those same light sticks to fish for swordfish, out in the ocean, so I suppose there has to be some sort of parallel attraction, not being a fish expert. Still, I think the next time there's a group night paddle out there, I'm going to take a roll of duct tape so that no one has to have light sticks dragging in the water . . . never thought I'd have to deal with that particular natural hazard out there. -- Wes --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wes Boyd's Kayak Place NEW URL! -- http://www.kayakplace.com Kayaks for Big Guys (And Gals) | Trip Reports | Places To Go | Boats & Gear --------------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Oct 24 2002 - 06:12:16 PDT
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