lashing my knife to PFD

[BarryB]

I with John;

I was taught from my first instructor to alway have a knife on your PFD, and I have the same knife as John (Good Choice!).

The knife is for safety in case you get entangled in line or other stuff in the water. Mine is also on the upper portion of my PFD and it has never got in my way, as a matter of fact I loop my spray deck handle on it while Iam walking around to kepp it out of the way!

Barry

[brian1]

To mount the knife, you may have to adapt a small strap that fits the knife and the PFD. The "strobe" is ONLY to be used in emergencies, so it can be anywhere on the PFD where you can get at it. A single steady white light should be mounted so it can be seen 360 degrees and not blind you as you paddle. Perhaps on a hat. You are required to have a light but not required to show it all the time when paddling at night. Some folks say it attracts power boaters because they get nosey. The light is to avoid a collision.

Thanks for the advice, now i know the techniques on how to mount a knife.

[Ken Hartlein]

Another hazard a lot of us don't think about that can be real bad is fishing line, especially the stuff used in salt water fishing, sometimes as big as 100 lb. test. Have you ever tried to break 100 lb. test mono?? Don't. You will need a knife if you ever get your boat or you tangled in it, a cast net, or any number of other things along a coast line. I always carry a knife on my PFD that I can yank out of a sheath.

[texnomad]

On Edit: My apology to the original poster. I jumped topic from how to lash a knife to a PFD to another subject entirely.

[Dickc]

Knives sold in scuba shops for divers have a line cutter knotch, and trust me, when you're tangled in monofiliment line under water it will not be slack. Sissors are an interesting idea but I don't think I could use them if I were wearing gloves and they would be hard to hold onto and operate with cold hands.

The best idea is to not have any monofiliment line or anything else laying in the kayak that you could could get tangled in. The knife is a backup in case you forget that advice.

I carried 2 knives when I was scuba diving on wrecks and there was always a lot of monofillinment line to get tangled in but the only time I needed a knife was to cut the wetsuite off of a girl who had drowned. Then I yelled for someone to give me a knife which Marianne did. Later I felt a little foolish when I realized I had one strapped to my leg and one to my arm. The girl was pronounced dead after we had done CPR for a couple of hours on the way to shore. Not the best day of my life.

But we're talking about kayaking not diving and if you get down to where there's a lot of monofiliment line you've got bigger problems than you can solve with a knife or sissors.

Dickc

[Ken Hartlein]

Along the coast and in the lakes here they do a lot of bank fishing, and there is a lot of Mono in the trees, water, reeds, piers, weeds, etc. I have had to go a ways from shore several times to keep out of fisherman's lines that were from bank poles. Calaveres Lake is real bad about it because of the big red fish there.

[PeteS]

I don't know about Texas but it is illegal to leave an unattended fishing pole in the Florida waters.The reason is interesting, RVers would park their motorhomes all winter(for free) and tell the cops that they were fishing....because their poles were stuck in the ground next to the water. I too carry a folding knife, in my ditty bag, just in case.

[Ken Hartlein]

I was talking about lines from people sitting on the bank fishing, they throw their baits 50 yards or so out and catch reds. Most of them will wave at you and call out that they have a line in the water so you won't get tangled in it.

[PeteS]

The land fishermen are not as pleasent here. They get miffed because they think we are scaring the fish with our kayaks. I've been called names I never heard before, ha. The redfish in the tidal creeks are huge here. I have been startled several times when the redfish get spooked and breach next to the boat.

[Ken Hartlein]

I need to come see you, I love to catch Reds on a fly rod.

[PeteS]

You would probably only catch one, Ken. With 6lb weight-forward line on a 15lb butt kicking Redfish, it will take ALL DAY to land it...heh, heh...
If you fish from the kayak, you better pack a lunch, because you are going for a ride and may not make it back before dark!

[texnomad]

A 15 pound fish in Texas is called bait.