The Angler hit a stripe guide with 4 people on board. Two were killed, and the rest were flown to the hospital. Angler was Coming around a blind turn in the fog. MLF is cancelling the tournament.

I went with a buddy of mine fishing on the river last year.

We launched at about 4am, he took off down river at 60mph in the dark running with the GPS only. It was pitch black dark and I was very uneasy about it.

I asked him what he was going to do if he hit a partially submerged floating log or debris in the channel.

He had No good answer


Prayers sent to those involved

Yep, they'll be standing in line at the hospital or funeral home

And lawmakers. Everybody will want them to make a new law over it.

At what point are they gonna limit HP or speed?

Not suggesting they should, but isn’t this like the 3rd or 4th killed over the past couple of years? NASCAR’s sole purpose for entertainment was speed and they limited that. Can’t imagine they won’t end up doing the same for MLF boats when the entertainment part is supposed to be the fishing and not the ride to the fishing spot.

I said the same thing to my boys this morning...go back to 19' boats and 150's. Slow them down 20mph. I don't think it'll happen tho.

I’m seeing the pictures posted and it looks like a pleasure boat. I guess it is some type of guide boat

Put a gps device on them, set a speed limit according to the body of water and conditions - or a standard across the board, deductions based on going over the limit for X amount of seconds w/ a certain threshold for DQ.

if you google search "smith Lake boat accident" an image will come up of a blue/white pleasure boat from another accident; if that's the on you saw. Search last 24 hours

Wow, a common sense approach! I like it.

3 of em gone now.

And may be wholly justified and not some frivolous lawsuit. I imagine the tournament has liability insurance. If not, the sponsors had better be trying to hide their assets. If one of those tourney fishermen killed one of my family members while running wide open in the fog, I'd be looking for some way for them to make amends. I know monetary gains wouldn't get it done, but I'd lie awake at night trying to think of something.

Oh Lord that's terrible... Prayers for all those folks involved...

Wouldnt surprise me none... seems as though that's the FIRST thing that pops into peoples heads when they hear of an accident like that...I'll be honest with you, I fished a many tournaments with sometimes hundreds of boats going out at first light and make a big bend in the river and run into some fog no one could possibly know was there....It's not a great feeling running when you get fogged in all of a sudden, Thats when common sense should've kicked in, (Anyone know the drivers age?) The driver of the boat would bear all the responsibility if it was up left up to me.....

Ok. That’s what I saw

Amazing, simple and likely free idea. I'm sure there are apps that are probably free that could do this.

Very tragic incident.

This might be an unpopular opinion, and I agree the MLF guy is likely gonna be at fault here, BUT…a professional fishing guide should’ve known that a wave of tournament fishermen would be headed his way. If the fog was thick, I’d personally be trying to get towards the bank and out of the boat lanes in case some idiot comes rolling through. I don’t know if they were fishing, or motoring at the time, but he should’ve known that 150 boats were upriver from him and almost all of them would be headed downstream. The way Smith lays out, any tournament that launches out of the park will have almost every boater running downriver through the Miller Flats area. Just seems like that aspect is being overlooked by most. Again, I feel like the tournament fisherman will be ruled at fault, and most likely justifiably so, but it seems like the guide could’ve done his part to help prevent the accident as well.

Yep, this aint the time to call Alex. Hire a real law firm because this situation demands that a lot of people have to write checks.

The tournament organizers bear responsibility as well. If it was foggy with poor visibility they should have delayed the start.

Not delaying the start is absolutely negligent. Somebody made the decision to launch, make em pay.