Off Grid Living / Camping > Fishing
Missing Boater
ChrisOlson:
The 2012 game fish season isn't even underway yet and we already got a boater killed on a local lake. This dude launched his boat on Cedar and was going to make the run from the landing to his private dock at his cabin. He never made it. They been searching for him since last Friday:
http://www.weau.com/home/headlines/Breaking_News_Sheriffs_Dept_searching_for_missing_boater_146502325.html
Searching for a dead dude in that lake is like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. It's big, deep, cold and one of our favorite local walleye lakes. Unless the guy floats up on to the shore someplace the crawfish are already chewing on him. And it's unlikely that he'll show up floating by somebody's dock because the water temp is barely 40 degrees.
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Chris
ghurd:
They'll find him.
The local walleye lake is about 4 or 5 times larger (depending on who you ask), and I don't think they ever lost a body in recent times.
Good reminder though.
A 50 YO guy who lives on, or was apperently very familiar with the lake, had something happen.
I mostly fish boonie lakes I am not familiar with, and I have not put on a life jacket in 20 years, unless it was for warmth.
I should wear it at least while underway.
G-
ChrisOlson:
I heard on the radio tonight that they searched all day and still didn't find him. From what one of the local residents said, he launched his boat at the landing at the County Park and his cabin is 6 miles across the lake on the Narrows where the lake switches from Cedar to Balsam Lake. They found his boat run aground only 2 1/2 miles from the landing so they've been concentrating the search over that couple miles of water from the landing to where they found his boat. They been using side scan sonar and divers.
But there's strong currents in that lake because of the Red Cedar River and those currents can carry a dead or unconscious dude a long ways before he gets deposited on the bottom. The guy I talked to said there was whitecaps on the lake that day so he figures he lost control of the boat and probably got thrown overboard.
To further complicate things, the bottom of that lake has LOTS of structure and the bottom littered with logs and other stuff. The old Stout Logging Company used the lake back in the late 1800's to move logs to the Red Cedar River and hundreds of those logs soaked up water and sunk. I know from experience fishing that lake that you could not tell the difference between a human on the bottom and a log in 50 feet of water with sonar.
The visibility in the lake is pretty good for divers, and probably about 10 feet this time of year. But still, when you can only see for 10 feet around you, that's a lot of area to search. They been searching for five days now and in a couple more days if nothing turns up they're going to call it off.
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Chris
Watt:
I sure wish the best for the family. They need to find him, for closure. RIP.
ChrisOlson:
Yes. His wife took the truck and trailer from the landing, around the lake, to their cabin. She make it fine. Her husband did not. They said on the news that they did not find him today. Today was the sixth day of searching. They will search for him tomorrow and if they don't find him they are calling it off. From that point it will be up to the family to hire private people or company to continue the search.
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Chris
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