What If... You Go Fishing

I would not take off my boots.... find two sticks and brace on either side of the ankle and walk out.

if you have a sprain, ice and movement, no matter how slow, is better than letting it swell.

if I wasn't far from the truck I still would not take off the boot till I got home. cuz you will never get it on again.

 

Spoken like a bunch of non-fishermen!

 

Depends
With a low cut boot you can remove the boot, cool the ankle in the water, use the complete sock to pad the splinted ankle and walk out with dry feet.

 

How do you know it is a severe sprain and not a break? The boot will add support but if the swelling gets to be too much, the boot will need to be cut off. @Dunerunner how wide is the river and approximate distance back to the truck. Need that info before I can answer.

 

Sounds like you may have met my cousin. Cheboygan or Presque Isle County?

 

I would work on leaving after the injury because I would not be sure if it was a sprain or break. Due to the river running high and fast, safety first. Fishing can wait, getting to shore would be the priority since the severity of my injury is unknown. With the temp of the water plus the current, chances are high that I could injure myself more getting back to shore. I need to get off that rock.

This exercise makes me think of fishing in the Eagle River. It is beautiful place to fish and standing on a rock in the middle is great but during Spring run-off I always stay on the shore. Those rocks can be slippery. Someone just died on the Eagle because their raft over-turned and the strong under-tow swept the person away.

 

Eastland County.
Been fishing for about an Hour, from no where "Game Warden" "How's the fishing/" All of us had license!

 

I think they teach that line in Game Warden school.

My favorite NC DNR officer line was upon approaching a body floating near Wilmington. The body was wearing only one blue sock and about forty feet of sand fence, and was bobbing up and down with one hand partially free of the fencing, looking like it was waving. We got to talking about finding bodies, and after a pause, the officer said, "They won't hurt you."

I much prefer finding fish over floaters.

 

You can usually tell a break from a sprain (first hand experience speaking here) without taking off the boot. Even wrapped for support as I showed above, if you take your weight off the foot for a short period of time a break will feel like you are literally on fire as soon as you put your weight back on it. With a sprain it will hurt and you probably felt tendons tear, but you will not feel like someone has an oxy acetylene torch applied to the damaged area. After you walk on a stabilized fracture or break the pain will diminish until you take the weight off of it and then attempt to walk again.

Because of my tendency to get sprains and hiking boot preference I always wear an oversized boot. I typically wear a liner and heavy Norwegian rag or winter weight polypropolene sock, but have enough room to wear a second sock if needed (though it's tight, it's doable). This gives me the wiggle room I need if my ankle swells a bit.

I also use a shorter height rather than taller boot - I got hooked on the Danner Mountain Light type boot (unfortunately they don't make one wide enough for me) style back in my packing and mountaineering days. With a shorter boot you can skip or widen the lacing around a swollen ankle. A taller boot wouldn't allow for that though it might prevent the injury in the first place.

BTW, I could never have jumped 8 feet with a short run of a few feet even in my prime when I could run for miles at 14,000' plus elevations. Best I could have done was to catch the other side and get wet, and from the description above I would have been swept away. I've taken some pretty big risks in the outdoors, but would have only done that one if no other alternative was available.

 

I'd loosen the laces now and then if toes were going numb

 

IF I managed to hurt my self.
Materials present I first would get out of the water and assess the damage if any .
Something broken requires a splint and not putting any weight on it .
Make a crutch and put my fishing gear aside so i don't have to fumble with it getting to the truck .
Nothing broken ,
Soaking my injured foot in the water for cooling and anticipated pain relief . fish while I'm waiting .
If I catch any thing cook it there on shore .
With an ace bandage bind up the foot if necessary and make a walking staff and hobble to the truck leaving the gear behind .
If you don't take expensive gear it becomes expendable in the light of an emergency. If you take expensive gear it becomes a liability trying to preserve it and traverse terrain getting to safety.

 

Definitely leave the boot on. I had one cut off after a trailer fell on me and the foot expanded and turned black as quick as.the boot was.removed.

Take an aspirin, stay dry, pack up your gear and strap on your bag.

This sounds like a nice open spot to fly fish, although 6' is a bit short for a fly rod, although the bright floating fly line is rated at 27 pound breaking strength. Alas, I have a spinning reel plenty of hooks and some sinkers to get the line over or around a flexible sapling or tough old bush that looks solidly rooted. I seem to have a real talent for getting snagged in trees and bushes anyway, so this should be easy.

This is a good example of why stout cordage should be in every bag.

Gently pull the vegetation over to me and use it to drag myself to the shore or as support to make the drop to the safer boulder. Once on shore I can cut a splint and a walking stick and make my way to safety. Or if I fell in and got wet, I can start a fire and dry off first if I'm that far from the truck.

 

Not one to take unnecessary risks especially in the woods, so leaping from boulder to boulder over water that aggressive is not my cup of tea .
It is unlikely I would be caught in such a situation .
Being a tracker ,keeping ones eyes on the path is critical , the draw back is not paying more attention to the surroundings ,never the less though the victim might make bad move I'll lead my team well around the situation or rig a way through safely , or speculate on the possibilities the victim is hidden in the hazard . It is to uncommon for a predator to take a lost victim.

 

I was also thinking of weaving monofilament into cordage as well if any anchor points on your rock could be found.

 

If you had to run and jump to the bolder in question, how were you planning on getting back ?