RedactedNarrative: According to the passenger, he and his cousin and operator of the vessel were both fishing in murray's mill pond in catawba county on june 8, 2014 at approximately 11:00 am in a small aluminum vessel powered by a trolling motor. The operator was dealing with issues from the trolling motor on the vessel, and the passenger was fishing on the front. The passenger shifted his weight to the port side of the vessel and caused it to take on water which caused him to lose his balance and fall back into his seat. The seat then broke and he and the seat fell to the stern of the boat with the operator. (please note, there is no mention by the officer of this report as to what caused the seat to break). This shift in weight to the stern of the boat caused the boat to capsize and both the operator and passenger to fall into the water. The boat was not equipped with any pfds of any kind. The passenger and operator were both swimmers. The passenger stated he made it to the shallows where he could stand and upon looking back he could only see the top of the operator's head and his hands as he went down. Another vessel with two occupants heard the commotion and came to assist. Upon arrival, they were able to lend a cellular telephone to the passenger who ran to the top of the hill and called 911. The catawba county sheriff and catawba county rescue team pulled the body of the operator from approximately 10 feet of water where he was last seen going under. They found no evidence of foul play nor any presence of intoxicating or impairing substances. The vessel was recovered and turned over to family members. 
  
  In my opinion, the causes of the accident were operator inexperience and lack of proper pfds.