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Fishing: How To Fish: Safety
Outdoor Recreation Safety: Fishing
By Bruce E. Mathews
Excerpt from “Outdoor Recreation Safety” - Neil J. Doughtery IV, Editor
Most people envision fishing as a pretty innocuous activity. The thought of being in harm’s way while fishing seems ludicrous. However, the fact is any fishing activity has the potential to snag the unwary or unsafe participant. Tiptoeing through the white water trying to cast to that little pocket just beyond reach: making just one last cast with that thunderstorm approaching: dealing with surf, waves, ice, freezing wind - anglers do get exposed to some marginal environmental conditions, not to mention problems with hooks, knives, and handling fish. This is not to suggest that fishing ranks up there with bungee jumping and shark wrestling in terms of a pure adrenaline rush, but plenty of hazards do exits for anglers.
To prevent accidents and injuries while fishing, as with other activities, the two essential ingredients are knowledge and good judgment. By understanding the hazards and how to avoid them, and practicing the appropriate skills, anglers can usually avoid exposure. by excersing good judgment, anglers can sidestep injury when they cannot avoid exposure.
This chapter will focus on identifying and reducing or eliminating hazards and exposures to those situations that may result in accident or injury while fishing. However, fishing often involves exposure to additional hazards less directly related to the activity, such as interactions with wildlife, boating hazards, weather,insects, and so on, and readers can find other chapters in this book that more specifically address them.
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