Reelfoot Rescue!!

[kingkrappie]

This past Saturday was the West Tennessee Crappie Club tournament on Reelfoot Lake. I learned about the WTCC on crappie.com, and corresponded with some of the guys via the website. Once they decided to have a tournament at Reelfoot, I joined. The weather was a little less than idea (imagine that), the wind was blowing harder than forecasted, and the sun was a no-show. My fishing partner, Chippy (who also joined the WTCC and I’m trying to talk him through joining crappie.com) and I made it out through the stumps to the deep water and caught some fish. Around 11:30 we decided the wind was getting too bad to stay out, and we had enough fish, so we were going in.

My outboard wouldn’t start, seemed like I didn’t have enough battery power but I’m still investigating. I had ran my trolling motor hard all morning and I didn’t have enough juice left in them to crank the motor, so our only option was to try to troll in. Not very far into the trip I could tell my trolling batteries were about zapped. It’s hard to explain the severity of this too anyone who hasn’t been on Reelfoot with the water down low, but there are stumps everywhere, from the size of a stick to the size of a car hood, thousands a foot above the water, and thousands more just under it. We had three foot white caps that kept turning my boat sideways, which is no good way to hit a stump, if there is such a thing. The wind was taking us towards the bank, just about a ½ mile off course. My plan was to try to “catch” a stump and hang on if I did completely lose power. I was a mile out and seriously white knuckling it, tapping my tm to weave stumps while bobbing up and down and staring intently at the water, scanning for underwater stumps in between waves, Chippy was pretending not to be worried, I was having less luck!

Just when I’d about gotten all I could get out of my tm and my nerves, I hear something, I glance up and there is a fellow almost right beside me, signaling me, I accepted! David Prine as I later found out, had been watching our struggle, and was working his way towards us to help. Between the wind and my concentration on not drowning, I never heard him coming. We quickly secured a rope and he towed us in. I cannot emphasize how much I appreciated it, towing through the stump fields is tricky, he did a hell of a job. He never looked back once, just stood up driving and scanned for stumps, swinging us in occasional figure eights to dodge stumps. He only hung us on one, and with a little throttle pulled us right off, more or less! Once we got safely on the ground and our boats on the trailer, I got to talking to him, and he was also fishing the tourney and also had just joined the WTCC! His name is David Prine from Brownsville, TN. We couldn’t stop thanking him, he just kept sayin’ no problem. It was great to meet the guys that came down and we had a good time talking with them and are going to try to make it over to Kentucky lake and fish some more of their tourneys. Thanks again to all the guys and especially David Prine.

By the way, those scent wigglers work!

[mduncan62]

Getting stranded in high winds is no joke. David Prine showed what kind of a guy he is. A great one. Glad all made it in safe. Good reminder for the rest of us that haven't gone out this year, check your batteries and equipment.

[crappiecrazy]

Thanks for sharin the story about a unselfish angler helping you'll out. I can imagine it was a pain for him to tow you'll in thru the maze of stumps. I had an angler pull me off a stump in the middle of lower basin at dark. It was not as serious as your situtation but I really did not want to spend the night stuck on a stump in the middle of reelfoot lake. I thank the guys who take time to help others out.

[bugman]

Great work Mr Prine,thats what it's all about.

[crappie4me2]

Thanks David for being a true Sportsman!!! Good Job!!

[beagle man]

good end to a bad day, glad y'all made it out safe and to Dave a big atta boy sir. you did well, thanks for helping out two strangers. nice bunch of folks on here.and the water.

[BarryG]

Crappie fisherman are the BEST! I only hope that if I'm in a bad way like that someone like David will be around. I would have to say David is GOOD PEOPLE!

[skeetbum]

Excellent outcome of a bad situation. I have a couple of stories that didn't turn out that good. David Prine has shown himself to be a stand up kind of man, and my hat's off to him. Good people abound here, and the feeling is spreading.

[magnum500]

I had a similar situation while fishing a bass tournament on Lake Murray. The motor would not start and we were about three miles from the landing. We had the cowl off of the motor trying to figure out why it would not start. We looked up and saw a boat coming toward us. There were two young men in the boat ages 15 and 14. They asked if we needed help and then offered to tow us to the landing. We hooked up to their boat and they towed us to the landing. We offered them money for the gas used to tow us in and they refused. They said they were just glad they could help. We thanked them and they took off to go fishing. It was great to have someone willing to lend a hand,especially at that age. Their parents raised them right!!

[Eager Beaver]

Depending on the size of your motor but they have a cord to start a motor if the battery is low. EB