Essential outerwear for kayak fishing

Kokatat Booties!   

In the wake of Ric Burnley's Kayak Angler outerwear test video comes this account of a close call in the cold, 45-degree ocean off Washington State. It is presented courtesy of 'Kallitype,' a regular at NorthwestKayakAnglers.com. 'Chet,' the victim of this mishap is physically well and shopping for a full dry suit.   
My buddy Chet and I went to Point-no-Point to catch the last day for salmon.  We got there around 8am, air temp 38, water mid-forties.  We geared up and launched into a 10 mph north wind, about one foot chop, pedaled out -- I in my Hobie Adventure, Chet in his Revolution. 

Got about half mile offshore to the north of Point-No-Point, 110 feet of water.  We were in VHF contact, maybe 100-200 yards apart. I started marking fish after an hour or so and heard Chet holler "TER!"---thought he hooked something, then heard "I'm in the water!"

I turned and sprinted over to him. He was beside his boat, hanging on. I was bow-to-stern with his boat; he was between the boats.  He was wearing NRS farmer john wetsuit bottom, a sweatshirt over cotton long-john top, and a winter jacket under his life vest. 

I tried to get him onto his deck, but he was unable to kick up. After only 10 minutes in the waterhe was getting immobile. His wet clothing was weighing him down (he weighs over 200 lbs).  He had tried to kneel on his seat and reach his tackle box on the rear deck, and got too close to the gunwale and went overboard. The wind took his boat about 10 yards away, and he had to swim for it. That took what energy he had. 

He got one hand under my stern bungees, and held onto his boat with the other, and got one leg up on my stern. I got a good grip on his lifejacket with my right hand and pedaled for shore. It took me about 20 minutes to get us into the shallows. He was able to stand on his own, but was pretty blue and hypothermic.

He got his wet clothes off, dry ones on, and into his truck with the heater going while I retrieved the boats. I am rethinking my choice of Kokatat Goretex bibs and Koke semi-dry top with folding Velcro neck seal!  The waist overlap-folding seal seems to be tight, but I intend a pool test this week, including going in head-first with the neck folded over.  Any leakage, and it's full dry suit for me. 

I didn't blink an eye at spending $1800 on a new Hobie, but thought $500 for the Meridian Angler drysuit was too much! I have a different opinion today. Chet and I had talked in the past about clothing for winter paddling, and he was content with the wetsuit farmer John, but is now of a different mind.  And---his VHF was in the boat, not in his life-vest.  He could not have made an SOS call if I had been out of earshot. 

"Be prepared" has taken on new meaning, no longer theoretical. The Mirage drive saved his life. I could not have paddled to shore and held him with one hand. God bless the guy who invented the Mirage drive! I intend to have a throw line, and equip my boat with pad-eyes and lifelines. My sit-in sea kayaks all had lifelines along the gunnels, now I see how useful they can be. And some exit and re-entry practice can really pay off.
Kallitype shared additional thoughts afforded by the luxury of hindsight. "In retrospect, I might have tried harder to get my pal up onto my back deck, and leave his boat to be picked up after I got him to shore but at the time felt the need to get moving toward shore as quickly as possible. He was exhausted but relatively stable between the two kayaks. I considered  using my VHF to call a mayday and get CG involved, but that would have meant he'd spend more time in the water waiting.  A water temperature of 45 degrees does not allow much leeway for trying things!" Kallitype said.

You are a hero kallitype! That is truly harrowing story.

Wer the sweatshirt and winter jacket cotton? I try not to wear cotton on the water when it is cold because of the absorption. The nice thing about polyster is that it does not absorb much water and thus does not gain much weight when it is wet - especially compared to cotton.

If Chet is reading then he can probably answer, but if he is not and you know the answer kallitype please respond. Does he think it was the extra weight of the soaked cotton material that kept him from kicking back onto the boat?  If his upper body was really heavy due to soaked clothing that sure seems like it would make it tough to get back in the kayak. I am curious because so far I have been using a semi-dry top and waders. I have not water tested my outfit yet, but perhaps I should next time out. I am glad to hear he is safe and doing well! Once again congratulations on saving your friends life!

Thanks for the report and for your heroic efforts saving your friend.

I think you may also be saving others by encouraging us to test our gear and practice recovering.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the report and for your heroic efforts saving your friend.
I think you may also be saving others by encouraging us to test our gear and practice recovering.

+1 Yes, Ter, thanks for that!  You referred to Chet's wetsuit as "bottoms" in the beginning of your account, but called it a "farmer john" later on.  I'm a bit confused as to which type of wetsuit Chet was wearing. Bad idea anyway to combine wetsuit bottoms with a sweatshirt and cotton thermal top. I never wear any cotton on the water any more, when paddling. I wear jeans in my 16' johnboat.
45 F water bites hard! I don't like anything much colder than 46 F water with my 5mm full surfing suit. It take perfect 3 to 5 foot point waves to suck me out into that kind of cold
A few years back, a surf fisherman drowned while wading in the surf at Ocean Shores. He was wearing a wetsuit underneath his waders, got knocked down by a wave, and his waders filled completely with water. He couldn't make it back in and succumbed while fighting the current. The wetsuit under the waders didn't do him any good.  End of story.

Just laid out my duds for tomorrow's trip (just a little flat lake in WA) and checked every label to make sure there was zero cotton in any of it! I'm still using waders and a non-dry top so I'll avoid testing things until I acquire the right gear.

When I fished there yesterday the water temp was 46 and the air was 42. Hoping to land a larger Rainbow legally this time!

iHop

Chet's a lucky dude, and you're a good fishing bro for not losing your head. 

Thanks Demonick---we're both in full Kokatat dry suits now. 

I plan to head out into the Cove here to practice re-entries some more. Also maybe play a little on some mushy small waves. I need to get my downwind sail system dialed, too, and see how it handles and if I can steer it well enough with my paddle so I don't have to get a rudder system.

Chet was wearing a NRS 3mm "Farmer John", which leaves the neck and shoulders and arms bare.  He had cotton long-sleeve undershirt. cotton sweatshirt, and a heavy cotton insulated jacket.  He also is pretty heavy, big gut---over 200# at about 5'8", and not in very good shape.  He made several attempts to pull himself over the gunnel, but could not kick himself up onto the boat, the combo of spending 5-8 minutes in the cold water until I got over there,with the added weight of the soaked clothing, made it too much for him to get back aboard. Plus, he got his head pretty well soaked in the fall, which helped chill him fast.  The downside of a wet suit is just that---it fills with very cold water, which takes a good deal of your body heat to warm up.
 
   Whatever you choose to wear, practice self-rescue in realistic conditions so you're sure you can get back on your boat, without gear loss or worse.  And it's amazing how little wind it takes to push your boat out of reach!!  I am not sure about tethering yourself to the boat, I've seen good arguments for and agin.

I will throw another curve to this, I wear a drysuit. My question is what do most folks use to layer under their drysuit. I just bought a Kokatat Polortec union suit as my first layer. What other piece's of clothing do you wear so you don't get to hot but are not cold and wet with sweat.

Fleece tops and bottoms for me, and sometimes polyester shirt and exofficio boxer briefs.  If you're hot, dangle your legs in the water to cool off, or take a dip and climb back in.  Reality check right there too.  If you aren't willing to dip in the water to cool off for fear of not being able to get back in the boat, you shouldn't be out there in the first place.

I had a situation that was close to that, my brother in law and myself were fishing for pinks out of Dash Point State Park this summer, and he had already pulled one pink on his fly rod without any problems. The second pink he hooked onto, a large buck decided to take a couple of laps around him and on the second time around, he got his fly rod snagged up with his bait caster rod that was in a vertical pole holder behind him and he got off balance and he went over. Luckily we were only in about 8ft of water when this occurred and maybe 75 yards from shore.  Best thing was he didn't loss his fly rod or the fish,  when I got over to him he had an iron grip on his fly rod and the kayak. He passed the rod to me while he tried to climb back onto the kayak but after a few tries he tired and gave up and started swimming for shore with the kayak until he regained his footing on the bottom, at which time I passed the rod  with the fish still fighting back to him and he landed the fish on shore.  Erik was in waders with a belt, but no splash top, by the time he arrived at the beach his wadders had filled with probably at least 5-10 gallons of water making it very difficult for him to walk. We were so lucky that this happened so close to shore and during the summer, when water and air temps were warmer.  I've come to the personal conclusion that if I'm on the water I'm in my dry suit, or if it summer time, and it's hot I'd wear clothing that wouldn't impede me re-entering my kayak while soaked like nylon pants or shorts.  The other lesson that I learned from this incident was, less is better, you don't need the whole tackle box, take only what you need with you, and take only what you are willing to lose.  Also if your not using something store it inside the hull or tether it to your kayak, anything not attached is as good as gone. Second, if fishing with more than one rod, stow the unused rod in the hull or in a horizontal location that is out of the way of being tangled up while fighting another fish. And third practice, practice, practice, it's always better to learn in a controlled situation, without losing gear.

Some waders come with neoprene gravel guards to keep junk from getting into your boots while walking around in muck.  Since I am not walking in my kayak, I pull them up above my knees to help protect fish from poking holes in my waders.  This also, in theory should slow down water flow to below my knees in the event of water entry. 

I have huli'd hard in the surf more than once, and had to swim a bit.  Have yet to get a trickle between the dry top and waders. I attribute this to being a bit chubby in the belt area, as well as wearing puffy fleece that seams to seal things around the waist. 

I am glad to hear that in both situations you guys  keep your cool and everyone ended up safe. 
What I wear under my dry suit depends on the weather.  Early season or on warm days I may wear a non cotton top and nylon pants.  As it get gets colder I add poly pro long underwear top and bottoms, fleece pants and a fleece jacket or vest.  I prefer the vest over a jacket to reduce the bulk on my arms.   
 
For those of you having a hard time getting back into your kayaks here is a link to some good information of using a paddle float and rescue stirrup. 

http://www.topkayaker.net/Articles/Instruction/PaddleFloat.htm