An accident this morning at Barkley Lake claimed the life of a co-angler fishing the BFL Regional there.
Kentucky Dept. of Fish & Wildlife public-affairs officer Sgt. Garry Clark issued the following statement to BassFan about the accident.
"Two bass boats in two different tournaments collided on Barkley Lake near Kuttawa, Ky. at approximately 7:15 this morning," Clark said. "One boat was fishing the Renegade Bass Classic, and there were two people on that boat. The two people in the other boat were fishing the BFL Regional bass tournament. They were on Barkley out in the main channel – one heading east, the other heading west. They came on a collision course and collided with each other. When they realized they were on the same course they tried to make amends and still collided.
"On the (Renegade) boat, it ejected the operator but he had his lifejacket and killswitch on and it didn't hurt him. (Both the driver and the passenger) were unhurt. In the other boat, the passenger did have the boat hit him and he died on the scene. The driver was okay – he had his safety stuff on too. He was practicing safety as far as having the killswitch hooked up and lifejacket on while moving."
Sgt. Clark added that the deceased was a 41-year-old male from Eupora, Miss.
According to FLW Outdoors standings and pairings for the event, Freddy McCrory was the only co-angler in the event from Eupora, Miss. His boater today was David "Scotty" Young. Young, a Kentucky Lake legend, survived a terrible boating accident in October 2007 at the Kentucky Lake BFL Regional that resulted in lacerations to his head and a neck injury that required surgery. His accident apparently occurred when his boat contacted underwater structure. Young's motor became dislodged and struck him. His partner then was uninjured.
The sport grieves.
