Reaching too far, recipe for disaster

   That's the way it goes when kayak fishing. My son-in-law, Jeff,  is visiting here from England  and was fishing from a kayak, his first ever yak fishing experience.
  I had given him some basic instruction, stayed close by for a bit, but when he looked as if he could handle himself, I moved off to fish.
   Sometime later he hooked into a nice bass. The fish had taken the hook quite deep. Jeff, my son-in-law, was trying to get the hook out of the fish and had leaned way over the side of the kayak.
   The next thing he knew, he, along with the rod and reel went into the lake. Of course all the gear went straight to the bottom.
   Not the worse for wear, Jeff got back into the boat, and as the British say, sorted himself out. About that time I found him and learned of his experience.
   Rods and reels can be replaced. We had taken the time prior to launch to get into good PFD's, something I always wear on the water, especially in my kayak.
   Today the one Jeff was wearing proved to be one of the most helpful pieces of gear we had along on the trip.

   As a former high school teacher was fond of saying: "A word to the wise should be sufficient." Be safe on and around the water.