On 3-22-11 this officer was notified by the Franklin County Sheriff's Office of two fishermen that had not returned from a weekend fishing trip.  I was advised their truck and boat trailer was located at White Oak Park on White Oak Creek, a tributary to the Arkansas River in the Ozark Pool.  A search for the bodies and vessel was conducted by responding agencies.  The body of V1's occupant was discovered on the south side of an island just north of the river channel adjacent to Citadel Bluff Park (GPS - N 35 28 16.9 W 93 56 24.1).  The search continued during daylight hours when the conditions were not too bad on the river with no success until the following Sunday morning (3-27-11).  During our search that morning, approximately 1 hour after a barge went by the operator's body was located in the water (GPS - N 35 28 08.0 W 93 59 05.4).  The Arkansas Game and Fish Dive Team located V1 with their sonar and were able to recover the vessel without incident (GPS - n 35 27 55.3 W 93 59 29.6).

V1 was a 20ft fiberglass hull with a 25hp tiller handle motor.  The bow light is permanently mounted to the bow but the stern light was inserted, there was also a spotlight mounted to the bow and all light controls were in the "on" position; the spot light was blackened where it had blown when it was submerged.  The spot light was also facing straight up, I believe due to the force of the water.  There was no flotation in the vessel and some of the supports had been removed.  The motor was in forward gear and the throttle was at 100%.  Victim 1 (operator) had a cell phone in his vehicle last used on Saturday 3-19-11 at 05:11PM  for 7 minutes.  The person called was interviewed and he advised that he had planned on meeting Op/Victim 1 to go fishing, but they never met and The person called never heard from him again.  The person called went to Op/Victim 1's residence on Sunday 3-20-11 and tried to call him without success.  The person called also advised it was not uncommon for Op/Victim 1 to be out on the river after dark.  This officer believes Op/Victim1 was traveling east, downstream, when water came over V1's bow swamping it Saturday evening after dark.  Op/Victim 1 never let off the throttle thrusting V1 downward until submerged.  The front seat Occupant/Victim 2 was washed from V1 and was unable to swim; Op/Victim 1 was submerged with V1.  V1 never turned over and was retrieved on the bottom of the river upright with the lower unit imbedded in the sand on the floor of the river.  The contents of the vessel were still inside, including a fishing pole, a shad throw net, a large rock, a trolling motor in a homemade forward compartment, loose sinkers and a tackle box just to name a few items that would have been washed out if V1 would have turned over at any time.  Two life jackets were found floating on the north bank in the area of the recovered vessel.  There was no bilge pump and the kill switch lanyard was still hanging from the motor.  

This accident was not reported to us until Tuesday (3-22-11) due to the fact the reporting parties stated it was not uncommon for these subjects to spend all weekend fishing.  Therefore, we cannot know for certain the time the accident occurred (but evidence does point to the fact it occurred after dark).

V1 was designed for trout waters and was not adequate for the Arkansas River.  The river flow was at 24,800 CFS on Saturday night (3-19-11).

MULBERRY                      