I am thankful that we are all alive. Sank my boat, my friend his dog, me and my son are okay. This is just a reminder how things can change on the water in a matter of an hour or two. My boat has been a work in progress for the last three years. In the search for a open floor plan hunting jon boat. I did some things that will never happen again. To those that are working or building your rigs, think about how your boat will do and if stuff goes wrong, will it still float or will it sink if things go wrong. I did many things yesterday, that looking back now I can tell you should have been red flags, but I was excited to get out for the first time here in minnesota, as I have been almost a 45 day run of working every day. Little issues build fast, I'm not preaching what you should do just hope my story will help someone. I have a 1648 jon boat with a long tail on it. Went hunting for divers on a lake I have been on many times before, but conditions went from not good to dangers real fast. Waves were to big, wind was to much and we had to much gear, not to help was I had little floatation in the boat and it sank. grabbed my son when it went down in 6 or 7' of water with probable three foot rollers and swam to shore. Got my boy, my friend and his dog up to the highway about 500 yards from the water. Got ride in the back of a truck back to the landing,to get the wet clothes off and start to warm all of us up. Once we were warm started to figure out how to recover gear, and then come up with a plan to find boat in water which is also current side of Mississippi river. My brother, father, father in law and mother inlaw came to help. Got almost all gear back, minus blind,my blind bag and my friends ammo box with two Mojos and his wallet. Dragging a jon boat full of water on bottom of lake sucks. Took four grown men and three ropes to get close to shore had to use logs to flip boat on side to dump most of the water out, slam back down, drag some more so as to keep waves from filling boat up, then bail with five gallon buckets, and towed down river with current and waves so we didn't sink two boats. PLEASE BE SAFE OUT THERE AND THINK BEFORE YOU GO OUT. A couple birds are not worth you, your son, or your friends life.

Man, glad you guys made it. We never have enough time to peruse our passions and at times all of us can get carried away in our excitement to "get out there" wherever "there" may be... Hard won reminder here that it can all go to chit fast! Bet that water's getting chilly up that way, huh?! Really glad it turned out this way and nobody was hurt.

Not one bit of that sounds fun... Glad y'all are ok

Boy someone had his hand on y'all. Glad y'all made it out!!

I don't cross and big water but we have to worry about stumps down here. I actually almost threw my buddy out today when I slid into a stump.


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Yea x2 glad y'all all or well

Glad to hear your alright. A guy drowned on a lake close to here fri night. Sounds like 3 of them were bow fishing and the weather got bad and the waves flipped their boat. The other two made it to shore. When crossing big water with these boats you learn quick to always keep an eye on the forcast. I know Ive been caught in weather that I shouldnt have been in.

Glad yall are all ok man. That Mississippi is dangerous, specially down in the venice area, current is horrible, tugs everywhere, ocean Liners everywhere, and if some happens and you need to run ashore you are fcked, bc the entire bank on both sides are rocks

Glad to hear y'all made it out ok. Thanks for sharing.

Glad yall made it out! I am a rescue diver for daphne Search and rescue dive team, and every year we get several calls for lost or capsized hunters. Its always a weird feeling when I go out hunting and its rough, so I sometimes have to make that call to turn around. Its hard to call off a hunt, especially after all the scouting and prep work and money, but a few birds are not worth losing my family, friends or dog.

I agree guys, lake pepin in lake city mn, water was 44-46 degrees. Didnt feel cold tell we got back to the truck. To much adrenilan i guess. Might be done hunting water for the year. Will see. Have fun hunt safe.

Glad yall made it out ok.

I have to cross or be in big water everytime we go out. Ive never called off a hunt but told my boy he couldnt go a couple of times. Gotta have the rite setup for sure. Thats why I run a 18'x51" with 25" sides. Got some buddies that got in a bind tryin to hunt with us last year in 14' boats. It can go to shit real fast.

Glad your alright. There is a search going on as I type for a fisherman that went over the Dresbach dam this weekend. It doesn't look good.

Glad to see all of you made it safely back to shore. How far a swim was it? What was water temp? 16' boat on big lake equals recipe for disaster. Did you not know winds would pic up that day from the forecast? How did the sinking progress? Were you taking water over the transom? Big wave swamped you?

Just would like details to let everyone know why and how it happens. If you want to put this past you and not share anymore with us, that's ok, too. I used to wake up in a cold sweat with nightmares thinking about what could go wrong while hunting with my son when he was younger. I usually woke up from the dream when we were looking into each others eyes at the point we both knew we were not going to make it back to shore. The thought that this could happen has driven all of my decisions when there was bad weather or cold weather and what path we decided to take. I'll usually try to pick a path that parallels dry land just in case we get tossed or hit a stump. Sometimes I'd just turn around and head back to the ramp...did this many times. I've let the thrill of the hunt get the best of me a few times, though, particularly with heavy fog. I've seen people do some really stupid things in the fog....like crossing the Atchafalaya River in a heavy fog during high water in a small skiff at 4 am coming in from drinking all night. or crossing it in a larger boat with several deer hunters and dogs packed in. But duck hunters are the worst, especially on public land where there's pressure to get to your spot first.

I'll never forget the trip my son and I made three years ago when I first started using my wooden skiff with that 23GTR on it. This was before my mods and the boat would barely plane with all of us and the gear. There were tornado warnings and the wind was blowing fiercely. We made it to our spot. Killed a couple and called it quits at about noon. Well, by then the weather was in full blown tornado conditions and it was raining heavily. We were chugging along and taking on water from the heavy rain. My bilge pump malfunctioned and we had to start bailing with what ever we could find. In addition, my engine would starve for fuel and shut down every 5 minuets or so.. Made it to land with water ankle deep in the boat. It wasn't a cold day, though and the water was warm. We had to wait it out on the bank and thought we were safe. All of a sudden the wind picked up and we realized we were in the middle of a small tornado. The trees started cracking all around us and branches were falling. We huddled down at the bottom of the boat until it passed. Finally, the winds died down a bit and we attempted the last leg of the return but the engine shut down in the middle of lake Henderson and just would not start again. Had to hail another boat for assistance. We managed ot connect the fuel line directly to the gas tank and bypass the quick connect that was causing the whole issue with fuel starvation.

Man this hit home . Glad you guys made it and yes we all have to be careful . This sunday I swamped my rig also . Went out scouting and alittle bass fishing . After a good morning of watching ducks working the lake and taking pic's and catching a few fish , about 1 pm heading for the ramp . The area is a shallow lake , a real swamp lake with hydilla all the way to the top , only access is a mud motor , and the bottom is muck . Thank god it didn't happen out there or there would've been a search party called , no way in hell would've been back at the ramp by dark . First let me say , I'm no rookie to mud motors , been using one for 3 years , but coming into the canal at the ramp , turned to tight and gunned the motor . A very dum ass move on my part , a longtail has alot of torque and power and we forget sometimes . Well it flipped that 14 footer and me . Lost a phone and a avery push pole , but I was safe . Now I'll have to break the motor down and rebuild it , we have to also respect the power as well weather conditions when hunting or fishing .

Glad yall made it out.

Drowning was the first problem, hypothermia the second problem. So you were faced with two types of death staring at you.

I see you're in Byron, MN. Where on the the River were you??

These are scary stories to be hearing at the beginning of duck season. I wear my life jacket when I am operating in the dark period. My daughter would not understand why I was too cool to wear it If attending my funeral. Flooded timber in the dark shit can go bad in a hurry. We launched our 50 hp on the white river last year and hit a cypress tree 3 feet up and took on 20 gallons of water. It was 9 degrees that morning.


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Im sure the guys I ride with think its stupid that i wear mine (auto inflate PFD) and Always have the kill cord hooked to the pfd. If someone ever says anything to me about wearing it, I just tell them I have never recovered a dead body from the water that had a life jacket on.

If you hunt big water have a big boat. End of story.

glad to hear everyone is ok.

this is what big waves look like

Glad everyone is ok!

Mitchv, yea I see that, it really is sad.


Mn gunner, pepin, lake city




DGuidry, about 100-150 yards water temp 44, only one foot waves, wind started out the nw, but was supposed to change to ne. But it never did.

Yea, I happy with out come and lesson learned.