Pitt Passage Drowning

Kardinal is spot on.  I was fishing alone on a local steelhead river in my sled. I was standing on the bow sight casting and fell in.  I had thermal undies, camo bdu's and heavy pack boots on. I was soaked from the armpits down as I had caught the gunnel on the way over and kept myself from going under or being separated from the boat.  Try as I might I could not pull enough of my body out of the water to get back in and ended up riding the side of the boat several humdred yards down into the tail out till I could get my feet on the bottom and angle the boat to shore.  Wet cloths weigh a ton and very few people have the upper body strength needed to overcome all that dead weight.

If you do insist on waders and just regular jacket, if possible, I would recommend wearing the coats over your life vest so you can shed those layers if you hit the water. 

I do a version of this for duck hunting except there is a dry suit involved.  I wear my warm layers under the dry suit, put on my pfd, then I put a warm waterproof camo jacket over the top. I can easily shed it in the water if need be and still be warm with the other fleece layers under the dry suit.  When I am done hunting, the bottom third of the jacket is soaked and weighs about 20 extra pounds. The insulation layer under the waterproof cover usually wicks the water up from the seat well.

 I also will throw a jacket on over the top of the PFD when fishing if I get cold.  I never wear it underneath.  I also through and additional fleece jacket in a dry bag inside the yak just in case I need a new dry layer.