Be safe...

Accidents happen anytime, to anyone, and you can never be too prepared to prevent one.

You, your passengers and others can be injured or killed if you -

- Operate your boat too fast, or under the influence.

- Run your boat in the marsh at night without lights.

- Don’t wear life jackets.

- Don’t conduct scheduled maintenance on your boat and motor.

- Don’t carry a fire extinguisher.  If your boat is on fire, you are in the water.  If you are in freezing temperatures, you and your passengers may not hunt another day.

- Don’t carry a first aid kit.

- Don’t carry a paddle and push pole.  A push pole will not help you in deep water and a paddle alone will not help in shallow mud or weedy waters.  Carry both.

- Don’t carry survival gear.  Be prepared to spend the night.

- Don’t carry a tool kit.

- Don’t carry a cel phone.

- Don’t tell someone where you are going and how long you will be gone.

- Don’t mount your motor, battery cables and fuel line correctly.  A pinched battery cable can cause a fire and death.

- Venture into new backwaters without a map and/or GPS.

- Overload your boat.

- Remove boat floatation to make room for storage.

- Overpower your small boat.

- Run your motor while others are in the water putting out or collecting decoys.

- Don’t wear the safety lanyard.

- Don’t use fuel deicer in freezing temperatures.

- Don’t check your oil, and fuel levels.