RedactedNarrative: On April 30th, 2021, at 6:23 PM, I Agent, and Agent 2 were on patrol and received a call from the Vernon Parish Sheriff’s office in reference to a stranded boater at the Vernon Lake Spillway Park. The dispatcher advised me that a boat had been swept over the spillway and the operator of the vessel was clinging to a tree branch in the Anacoco Bayou downstream of the spillway. Upon our arrival, the operator had received assistance from a fisherman that waded toward the operator and threw a line to him helping him to shore. Acadian Ambulance services had responded to the scene and the operator identified, REFUSED MEDICAL TREATMENT. 
  
  He said that he had launched his boat and upon entering the vessel he started the out-board engine and shifted it into reverse. He said that the engine failed, and that he was unable to restart the engine. He then stated that he attempted to activate the vessel’s trolling motor but that it failed as the trolling motor battery was dead. Operator said that he realized that the current was pulling his vessel toward the spillway and then he attempted to manually propel the vessel with a paddle. Operator said that the vessel struck the spillway and that he exited the vessel jumping into the water in order to swim to shore. He said that he was swept over the spillway after the boat proceeded him. After being swept over the spillway, he finally was able to hold on to a branch until he was assisted by a fisherman. Operator was not able to provide me with a boat registration and could only provide me with a name of a subject that he had recently purchased the boat from. I was not able to view the vessel because it had floated downstream on the Anacoco Bayou. (The spillway acts as an overflow-flood channel which empties into the Anacoco Bayou.) The incident occurred due to mechanical failure of the vessel’s engine swift hazardous water. Operator DID NOT USE a PFD. No alcohol or drug use was detected. He had no insurance on the vessel.