Professional bass anglers make their livings out of their boats. So it stands to reason that in order to be successful in their chosen profession, they must be good not just at fishing, but driving their high-performance boats in any and all conditions.

In rough conditions, driving a 70-plus-mph bass boat can be a chore, but during these conditions, the

angler's more alert to all around and caution's at a high. In calm water conditions, though, the angler may relax a little. A kill-switch may be disregarded, the angler might not pay 100% attention to the water ahead, or may not put on a lifejacket for a short run down the lake or river.

It's these momentary lapses that can turn a routine run into a life-threatening experience.

And it could happen to you. Just ask Gary Dobyns.

Dobyns is arguably the most decorated western angler in history. Yes, there are names like Skeet Reese, Gary Klein, Dean Rojas and others who've made the pilgrimage east to compete, but Dobyns has made his living purely off the West.

He's won 39 boats, in excess of 25 Angler of the Year awards, and $2 million since he started fishing competitively in 1982.

He's operated a boat for over 35 years, averages between 175 and 200 days on the water each year, and has never had an accident or close call in all of that time.

That all changed a few weeks ago on March 10.

That's when Dobyns was practicing for the Western FLW Series at the California Delta – a waterway he's intimately familiar with. What transpired that morning would ultimately change his life, and he hopes his experience will change yours too.

Here, in his own words, he tells the story.

A Practice He Won't Forget

Dobyns started his official practice a day late due to a prior commitment with his sponsors. His first-day practice wasn't too hot, so he decided he'd head to another area (Big Break) the second day to check out the waters there.

"There were three of us sharing information on the water. My buddy Phil Strader and I had gone to the Break to check out the water there and my other buddy, Minnesotan Mark Courts, went to another area.

"I'd figured out the Break pretty fast and then got a call from Mark that he was on some nice crank-fish in another part of the river. I decided I'd go to where he was to try and help him put something together since he'd never seen the water before.

"As I was running out of the Break, I saw Phil and stopped to tell him where I was going. Then I fired up the motor and headed out into the San Joaquin River. I was cruising in glass-calm conditions at about 70 mph. The next thing I know the boat made a 180-degree turn to the right, threw me out of the driver's seat into the port-side, and then into the water.

"I don't remember anything as I was being ejected, but I hit hard enough to break all the handles on my reels and break the rods. The only thing I do remember was when I hit the water – at 70 mph."

In Deep and Broken

"I never lost consciousness, which is one thing that saved my life," Dobyns said. "I knew I was in the water but didn't realize how deep I was until I started swimming for the surface. It seemed like it took forever to get there and the fact I couldn't use my left arm didn't help matters.

"Then, as I was about to hit the surface, my right hand hit the bottom of the boat. My kill-switch had stopped the boat right on top of me. In hindsight, I'm so thankful for that because I wasn't wearing a lifejacket and I was in the middle of the San Joaquin which is about a half-mile wide. I would've never been able to swim to shore.

"I pulled myself around to the back of my Z520 Ranger, put my foot on the cavitation plate of my Evinrude and tried pulling myself aboard with my right hand on the cowling. It took two tries to get myself onboard.

"I was just lying on the back deck in pain when I heard a boat coming by. I held my arm up waving and the boat stopped. It was my friend Steve Hayashi.

"Steve saw I was banged up pretty bad and I told him to go around the corner to get Strader. They came back, got me on my feet and transferred me into Phil's boat.

"At that point, they called an ambulance and we headed into the Big Break Marina."

Unscheduled Hospital Visit

"Once we got to the ramp, the ambulance had already arrived," Dobyns said. "They took me out of the boat. Strapped me to a backboard and put me in the ambulance. By that time I was going into shock and the EMTs couldn't get an IV into me because my veins had collapsed.

"They transported me to John Muir Hospital where they finally got the IV started and then assessed my damages. I ended up having compression fractures of my vertebrae, a number of fractures in my ribs (too many to count), the ligaments in my left knees were messed up and my left arm was badly injured."

He spent 5 days in the hospital before he was allowed to go home.

His Campaign Has Begun

With 2 weeks of healing behind him, Dobyns has already hit the seminar trail – a painful trail at that.

"Since the first day I could get out of bed, I've been on tour at sports shows around the west," he said. "But the change is I'm doing a lot of seminars on boating safety and the importance of a lifevest and kill-switch.

"I'm a 35-year veteran boat driver and had never had any problems on the water during that time. I'd gotten lax about using a lifevest anytime it wasn't required by tournament regulations. That's the message I want to get out to everyone.

"I don't care how much experience you have driving a boat, you need to wear both your lifevest and kill switch at all times the big motor is on," he added. "There's nothing you can do when a boat decides it's going to spin out – you're going for the ride no matter what and you may not be as lucky as me."

Notable

> "I'm so thankful I had connected the kill-switch that day – it's the second thing that saved my life," Dobyns said. "The third thing was Steve Hayashi and Phil Strader. I'm so thankful for their help."

> About his friends, he said: "Since this incident, I've had so many friends contact me and say that they've been pitched from a boat. It happens more often than people realize."

> Dobyns also noted a recent occurrence. "At the FLW East-West Fishoff there was an angler whose trim pump went on without warning as he was running down the lake. His motor came out of the water and his boat did three 360s before it settled."

> At the same FLW Western Series event where Dobyns got ejected, another angler got ejected from his boat after hitting an unseen cruiser wake at speed. He was wearing his lifevest.

> Dobyns said he now gets 10 to 15 emails a day from anglers who say they're now wearing their lifevests because of his accident.