Cricket's Terrible Tournament
Terry M. Taylor
Dateline: 4/26/99
I'm not by any means a professional writer but I would like to tell this story in hopes that it might help someone else in a similar situation.
My nephew and myself have been fishing a monthly tournament on lake Julliette for almost a year now. Neither of us are good fishermen by any standards, but we enjoy trying, and since I own a small boat I chose this tournament because it would put us on an equal horsepower level with the other competators.
On Sunday, February 28 we had our monthly tounament. The day started out much like any other except we had a stong cold front passing through. Once the initial front passed, the wind got incredible strong and stayed that way the remainder of the day. We fished with very little success, I lost a two pounder at the boat and our hopes of gaining some ground and pulling ourselves out of last place diminished with the clock.
As we started in to the weigh-in our thoughts of another bad day were prevailent in our minds, but we had no idea just how bad it would become. Coming back down the lake we passed another tournament boat that was having trouble with their outboard motor and they waved us down. They asked me if we would tell the the tournament leaders that they were having trouble but were on their way.
Instead I asked if they would like a tow, which they gladly accepted. I don't know if the waves being kicked up by the wind were too much, or if my boat was simply too small for the task. We had towed them several hundred yards but it was really putting a strain on my boat. The nose was riding extremely high and all we could muster was about ten m.p.h. I asked my nephew to take the wheel and I went up and sat down on the front deck of the boat to put a little weight on the front end. We did pick up a little from the sound of the engine.
A minute later we took a wave that just kind of washed down the front deck and I didn't think too much about it. But a minute or so after that we really took a big wave over the bow and I told my nephew to back off which he did. I don't know if backing off was the problem or all the water coming into the boat or what, but we turned over at that point. I know I came right back up and was able to grab the hull of my boat, but my nephew said he tried to jump away from the boat as we went over.
The next thing I remember one of the guys on the other boat was telling me to grab his hand. The other guy threw my nephew a seat cushion to grab onto, you see we did not have our life vest on ( I know that was stupid under the conditions we had).
As soon as they had me in the boat one of them put on a life vest and jumped in to try to get to my nephew, who was about one hundred feet from the boats by now, but the waves and current created by the wind made it impossible to swim. Danny stayed near my nephew Keith while Ricky and myself cut my capsized boat loose and tried to get to them. The current was too strong for his boat and his trolling motor was dead from fishing in the stong wind all day. Ricky had a short paddle on his boat and I grabbed it and convinced him that our best bet was to try and reach the shore of a point close by and try to get some help from someone else.
I knew if we could reach the point we could hopefully get the attention of the guys at the weigh-in spot just around the point in the next cove. Fortunately we reached the point, and after what seemed like a long time of yelling help and waiving our arms got the attention of another guy who was about to load up his boat. He came over and we told him that there were two guys in the water around the point. After getting both of them back to the dock he returned and picked up Ricky and me.
They wound up taking Keith and Danny to the emergency room to treat them for hypothermia because they had been in 56 degree water for twenty to twenty five minutes. Both of them were very fortunate they were not in the water much longer. I've heard all my life that the good Lord looks out for drunkereds and fools, and I don't drink enough to consider myself a drunkered, but not having on our life vests and maybe some of my other decisions that Sunday could solidly put me in the other catagory.
Danny kept apologying for what happened because he said ya'll were trying to help us, but like I told him they needed help and if it happened again the next day I would probably do the same thing. Besides, I can never repay him for what he did in trying to get to Keith and possibly risking his own life in the process.
I lost some material items that day and wound up damaging my boat, but it could have been so much worse because I could have lost someones life, and that cannot be replaced.
I would like to take a moment to thank everyone that helped us that day the Monroe county EMT's, Stanley Scott -who picked us up - and everyone who assisted Keith and Danny before the EMT's arrived. I would also like to thank Tim Kendricks with DNR who not only retreaved my boat but stayed in touch with my wife that evening by phone and has since called to check on Keith's condition and even went back out on the lake and found some of my gear.
We all tend to take these guys for granted and even get ill sometimes when they check us for our licenses and safety equipment. Believe me, I will never again take these guys for granted, because Tim was a God send. I hope that others can learn from my bad experience and wear your life vests when moving and be more cautious so maybe you won't be in a similar situation.
Also, I hope that if any of you run a tournament that safety will be of the utmost importance and maybe take a couple of minutes to make sure that all boats are in before starting your weigh-ins. Maybe you could make everyone give you their tag number or vehicle description and if they are not back for the weigh-in, and their vehicle is still in the parking lot you could send some guys back out on the lake to check for them, because time could be of the utmost importance.
Fishtale One Year Ago: 04/27/98 - Best Beer Battered Fish Ever - A recipe from David Bass you are sure to like!
