Why have so many rules?

Ever wonder why we have so many rules? Ever wonder why some of us break so many rules from time to time? I guess it’s just human nature to both make and break rules. But as I’m about to point out there are times when rules do need to be in place and observed. Many rules often seem silly or trivial to us but you can bet that they are most likely there in place for our well being.

I fished in bass tournaments for many years and was out on the water sometimes two and three times a week. I was as about as comfortable driving my boat around as I was my truck. Matter of fact I was probably more confident on the water than I was on land. It was just this sort of confidence and complacency that could have gotten me seriously hurt or killed. This type macho thinking is common in outdoorsmen…not just fishermen, and often does get people hurt.

Now as a boater I knew perfectly well all the rules…even though I was guilty of not always following them. Rules such as wearing a life vest, having a fire extinguisher on board and not overloading a boat with too many passengers I pretty much obeyed but sometimes felt they were unnecessary. That was until one hot summer night while fishing a night tournament in my home town on my home lake.

It was around nine or ten o’clock pm on a clear hot August night. My partner and I were fishing a stretch of bank we had fished many times before over the last few years. The night was quiet except for the low murmur of our own conversation. As we were talking I had him to stop and listen for a minute for I had thought I had heard a voice. Sure enough somewhere in the darkness we both heard it…sounded like a woman yelling. Next we heard a man yelling and then came the sound of a small outboard motor. A small boat was slowly coming up the lake toward us. We had up until then been fishing with our lights off so as soon as we heard the other boat coming we turned them on so they could see us and would know to go around.

The boat approaching was traveling very slow and it took them several minutes to make their way close to where we were. They didn’t have the first light shining on their boat and by the sound of things they were pretty well intoxicated. Lots of yelling and swearing going on and it sounded like they were all trying to give directions. The boat got within about twenty five or thirty yards from us before the driver ever even saw us which caused him to suddenly swerve [to the dismay of his passengers] and cut between us and the bank. This caused more yelling and swearing. As the small craft was passing I shined my own flashlight over in their direction to get a better grasp of the situation and was totally amazed at what I saw. There were five grown ups riding in a ten foot aluminum jon boat. The waterline looked to be about two inches from pouring over the side of the boat. I heard my partner say “Lord help um” when my light shined on them and he could see what was going on.

Well none were wearing life vests, the boat was very overloaded, much alcohol was being consumed and their were no lights on their boat anywhere…I’d have to say they were breaking a few rules.

As they slowly passed us by one of the drunks stood up and let me know without a shadow of a doubt that he didn’t like me shining that light on them. And when he stood up and waved his beer bottle at me and said his piece that’s when it happened…they sank. When he stood up and rocked the small craft it was just more than it could handle and with one sucking kind of a sound it vanished. My partner during and I sat there with mouths wide open in awe of what we had just seen.

Beer bottles and trash floated all around while the drunks made their way the short distance to the bank. Luckily no one was actually hurt but had this happened out in the middle of the lake things could have been a lot worse. Once out of the water the soggy five began a very long sobering hike back to the main road. The last we heard of them as they made their way through the woods and out of earshot was that someone’s daddy was gonna be real mad about his boat.

Needless to say as my partner and I prepared to head back down the lake to the weigh-in a short while later we both were wearing our life vest, made sure both flashlights were working and the boats running lights were on. And we have fished and boated in a much safer manner ever since.