Small Boats on Big Water. What You Need to Know

[Music] so I get a lot of questions about small boats on the big rivers a lot of people see me or they did see me fishing in a 15-foot John boat on the Ohio River I feel like I'm kind of obligated to make this video I don't think it's gonna get a ton of views but that's not why I'm making it the reason I'm making it is because maybe it'll help somebody make the right decision one day so I've had people message me and ask me you know they'll say I got a 15-foot jumbo or a 14-foot jumbo do you think I'll be okay out on the Ohio River or there's some other big body of water and I guess they asked me because they've seen me do it the last thing that I want to happen is for you guys to watch one of my youtube videos and see me out on one of these bigger bodies of water at my little jon boat and thank to yourself well he done it and he's fine so I can do it and I'll be fine well the truth is I've had some really close calls out there guys and that's what I want to talk to you about today so when I'm thinking about safety and the rivers there's three things to me that come to mind I'd be current that'd be wind and then be barges the barges you can keep your distance and normally be okay but you always want to keep your distance that way if you see some bigger rollers coming or something you've got time to throw that anchor rope out get rid of it and take off and be gone don't ever take a chance if you think you're in danger get out of there you know that's why it's a good idea to tie a buoy or something to the end of your anchor that way when whatever is happening is over you can come back and still get your anchor rope out but you can still take off and be safe even in my bigger boat now guys I always like to keep my distance from those Barb's because you just never know the biggest weight that I ever seen come off of a boat and the river was actually from a tug with no barges attached to it he came by play on the water was that big square nose on that tugboat he messed the river up for 30 minutes keep your distance from those barges you know that's something you can avoid just don't get too brave just because you see one box come by and you say you know he didn't make any weight that doesn't mean the next one when he comes by is not going to make five footer so the next thing I want to talk about is now current on its own is normally not gonna get you into much trouble but what can happen is the debris coming down the river is what you got to look out for if you're anchored up and you know your anchor ropes are running at this angle so you've got a hundred foot log coming down the river and three mile an hour car so if your anchors hung down here on the bottom and that tree hits your anchor oh something's got to give if your anchors home you know it's probably not gonna break your anchor oh it's gonna pull the front of your boat down in the water something else to keep in mind if your boats falling down the river and say you got a tree right here and your boat gets up against that tree and stops momentum of the boat the current from hitting the side of the boat so our can actually pull it underwater it doesn't really matter how big of a boat we're talking they're even bigger boats I've seen videos of barges sinking because I got up against something and the current rode it so you got that's something else to keep in mind some of the best fishing that you can ever experience especially in the springtime is blow the locks and dams on a river but at the same time it's also some of the most dangerous waters on a river if you don't feel safe don't do it there's no fish worth risking your life over this is normally really turbulent water there's an undertow with some of these dams that can pull you back towards the dam and get you in trouble the water can change at any minute there's normally a siren or horn or something until blow but sometimes it doesn't give you enough time especially if you're anchored so the best thing to do there if you've never done it before go with somebody that knows what they're doing go with somebody that has experienced below these dams but what scares me the most guys when I'm out on these big rivers is wind because that's where I've had my close calls that's where I've got into some trouble that's the main reason I decided to buy this bigger boat I had an experience a while back I was out on the Ohio River I ran about four or five miles upstream everything was good it was a calm morning I knew we were gonna get some winds later in that day but I let my guard down made a bad decision I ran farther upriver than I ever should have from so I get up to where I'm gonna finish get right anchor up and here comes this north wind upriver anytime you get wind and car against each other it causes a mess and by mass I mean big waves I honestly thought that was it that day I was scared to death there was probably two two and a half three foot waves you know I was out there in a fifteen foot boat so they felt like ten foot waves to me I'd never experienced anything quite like that and it literally scared me to death and I went and bought a bigger boat that's how bad it scared me I needed one anyway luckily that day I was by myself Landon wasn't with me the water temperature was in authorities the air temperatures in the 30s if I'd have went in that River you know they'd have probably been the hand because there was nobody around me to help me so here's a good example of just how serious wind and current can be when you mix them together there was a big catfish tournament in Alabama on the Tennessee River the boats headed out before sunup to get to their fishing spots and when they come out of the harbor and got on the river here's what they were dealt with so you can see right here just how rough the water was that's a big body of water but these were also big boats I heard everything from seven to ten foot on the sides of the waves I just can't imagine what those guys went through out there that morning the water was cold the temperature was cold several boats did sink as you'll see right here luckily nobody lost their life but there was a lot of equipment lost so a friend of mine here on YouTube dieter milhorn he has a really good youtube channel and he actually made a video about this tournament and he shows exactly what they went through out there that morning so if you want to check that out I'll put a link to that in the description hopefully this video helped somebody make the right decision one day if you have any tips on boat safety guys leave it in the comment section that way maybe somebody else will see it and it'll help somebody make a good decision one day if you're thinking about going out fishing all these big rivers guys remember they're smaller rivers that dump into these river bigger rivers and they can hold some nice fish I've caught some my biggest fish fishing tributaries off the main rivers mainly because it was too rough for me to fish out there that day if you get a lot of current the rivers blown out it pushes those fish up into those tributaries so if you've got a small boat that might be a better option for you that way you can still be safe you can still be fishing the Ohio River even you're up in a tributary a mile you know still catching the same fish you're just being safe about doing it hopefully this helps somebody guys hope you guys have a great day remember to be safe out there on the water god bless you guys and we'll see you next time

Channel: Hagen Grubbs Fishing

Views: 25,691

Rating: 4.9809828 out of 5

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Id: 6dz966EPM2I

Length: 7min 15sec (435 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 14 2020