Sad news to report out of Tennessee this morning on Kentucky Lake.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency responded to a report of a two-boat collision on the West Sandy portion of Kentucky Lake in Henry County at approximately 5 p.m. on Friday, Mar. 10, 2023. The boating incident resulted in one fatality of a 39-year-old man.

TWRA preliminary investigation indicates that a Triton boat and a Javelin boat collided, ejecting all occupants of both boats into the water. Two occupants were able to return to the boats. However, the operator of the Javelin was missing. Several local fishermen responded to the collision to assist the boaters. TWRA used a remote operating vehicle (ROV) to locate and recover the body of TJ Long, a resident of Dresden.

Assisting agencies include Henry County Sheriff’s Department, Henry County EMS, and Paris-Henry County Rescue Squad. This is the fourth boating related fatality on Tennessee waters this year.

My condolences to everyone involved.  

 

I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often the way people run around the lakes wide open.

5 minutes ago, Woody B said:

I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often the way people run around the lakes wide open.

Just my opinion, but it happens to often now, this is the 4th in Tennessee alone.

Florida leads the nation in boating accidents and fatalities.  Most of them involve collisions or people falling overboard.   Years ago, I was in a bass tournament on Lake Okeechobee where two boats collided and one person died.   The bass boat driver was in court for years after that.  You never want that to happen to you.

Accidents happen more often than we want to know about especially on The Lake. Most are all speed related running through the back areas of the vast amount of tall reed areas. 
 

More than once I’ve been thrown around like a doll into the gunnels or landing in my boaters lap. 
 

All it’s takes is common sense and a little looking out for the other guy. 
 

 

 

 

Mike
 

It's a good time to review these tips.  This isn't your normal, boring safety video:

 

 

The stuff I worry about are the things I can’t control.   It freaks me out when I hear about a steering mechanism breaking.  My boat doesn’t even reach 60 mph, but losing steering would be really bad.  I am lucky to fish on lakes alone often enough,  so collisions are not a big possibility.  The lakes I do fish around here don’t have really tight areas to consolidate crazy boat drivers either.  Take off for tourneys is scary enough.  I don’t like driving a boat in traffic at all. 

PFD’s. Wear them.