A tragedy on the river

[Masboy]

yesterday the fire company an there rescue boat an everything came flying by my home headed for the river like many times before.I get worried when that happens because one or more of my three sons are out fishing on weekends but glad all three were down river at the head of the bay fishing yesterday.

but some others were not so lucky an I heard the boat capsized over at the powerplant where I fish a lot. it can get rough there with a south wind meeting the current of the plant. one made it to shore an they been searching for two others with no luck. I see so many out there in small overloaded boats an see some of them get sucked up into the discharge next to the water gates an have a hard time getting out.

this makes me so sad seeing people with kids in there boats being so careless an risking all there lives . This old river has taken many a life since I was a kid an keeps taking them. the stretch where I live from dam to dam is 14 miles long an about a mile wide in places an up to 120 feet deep in some narrow 50 yard wide channels with current an small like whirlpools.I just wish people would use some common since an respect this water!

[vixenmaster]

That is sad to hear. I used to catfish in the Ms. usin my 12' V hull & a 4.5HP ESKA. Gotstid to knowed what yer doin & where yer at fer sure.

[Oppie]

That's a real shame. The Susquehanna has claim it's share up here on the northern end, many have hit submerged trees, spill then get tangled up in em.

Latest twist up here is the Bath Salts drug, raises body temp's pretty high so they seem to want to strip and head to the river, very bad move.....

[lswoody]

I know that we all have done some stupid things but just a little common sense goes a long way. A river that big calls for a big boat. The small river I fish can get very dangerous when we have alot of rain like was the case a couple of weeks ago. When it is like that I just fish a pond nearby and stay away from the river.

[rayman]

Nearly every time I go out on the Gulf of Mexico, I here the Coast Guard responding to distress calls on the radio. Things can happen like sudden changes in weather, but an awful lot of people use poor judgement. The price can be very high for slip-ups on the water.

A guy I worked with years ago was fishing with some friends. He said a thunderstorm came up so they decided to pull the anchor, but it was stuck and they tried to pull it out with the boat going backwards into the waves. A large wave came over the stern and he said the boat capsized before they knew what was happening. No chance for a radio distress call. He said they climbed on top of the bottom of the boat and managed to get a couple of bow lines to hold on to while the storm came over them. The anchor line somehow came loose because they were adrift. His friends wife called 911 when they were not back by dark. They drifted all night and most of the next day before a rescue plane saw them and sent a coast guard boat to pick them up. He said one of them went under the boat and got some bottle waters, so at least they had that. He said he was terrified during the storm and through the night and they would have probably drowned if they didn't have the bow lines to hold on to. He also said a pod of dolphins stayed very close to the boat almost the entire time and that there was a very large one that he could have touched several times it was so close. When they were picked up the following day, they had drifted 35 miles at about a 45 degree angle out to sea.

True story. Scary stuff!!

[rayman]

Well it happened again last Saturday. An acquaintance of mine went fishing in the gulf with three other men, all around 70. They went offshore in a 21' bay boat in high winds and seas. The story I got is that they took a waive over the stern and the boat capsized about 10:00 am 11 miles from shore. They managed to hold on to the boat but my friend drowned almost immediately and another man drowned sometime later. The two survivors were recovered at 8:00 Sunday morning. The other two have not yet been recovered. Its not a time to be overly critical of the decisions they made, but a very good time to reflect on safety equipment, practices, and emergency procedures.

[Oppie]

Sorry to hear of the tragic lost of your friend.

[Masboy]

Sorry to hear that. these two boys that drowned here were around 20 years old an the third swam to shore . man at the launch where they brought in the body's an boat said it was an 8ft boat with three boys in it an they had no lifejackets aboard. bad judgement an decisions don,t turn out well on the water. I fished the delaware bay alot an my main concerns were saftey an weather.no fish or anything else is worth someone dying for.

[Bronzeback]

Two have died here on two separate local lakes in the last week...One Pymatuning and the other Conneaut.

[Oppie]

Here's a real sad one.
Bout 4 yrs ago a hunting buddy of mine's wife was on vacation near myrtle beach SC. and was sunbathing on the back of a boat with another lady, as they were returning to the dock another boat driven by a drunk in a no wake zone hit them so hard he came over top the back of the boat an pinned the two women under his boat.
Both women were hospitalized, buddy's wife ended up paralyzed from the waist down.
About six weeks later my buddy couldn't take it anymore and put a gun to his head. His wife is in a wheelchair today but doing well.
The driver that hit them was some kind of foreign national here on vacation, he went home and was never prosecuted for some reason.

At least two lives trashed by a thoughtless individual.
Ya just never know....

[rayman]

Yea that's a sad story. I'm all for having a cold one or two on the way in, but safety is always number one. Sounds like that foreign national needed to go missing in some swamp somewhere.