I copied this post from another web site. This guy is a expierenced river fisherman. Stuff happens and we must be aware of things all the time and take nothing for granted.
Hope you enjoy the read, take a few seconds to think about it. 
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The day started out just fine, unloaded the boat, fired up the motor and headed out with the air temperature at 5 degrees and the wind chill being 12 below. I motored thru the Prescott area and got thru the no wake zone and headed out wide open and that is when it all went wrong. I hit a dead head and it broke the steering on the motor and I was thrown out of the boat. I made several attempts to make it to the boat that was going in circles and then I was worried I was going to get hit by the boat and I decided my only hope was to swin to shore. I kicked off my sorrell boots and my gloves because I was sinking. I saw how far the shoreline was and I did not think I could make it to the shore and I flipped over to the backstoke but was unable to lift my arms to stoke because I had too much clothing on. I had sweatpants, insulated pants, 3 sweatshirts, a jacket and a hooded sweatshit. Then I had Carhardt bibs on and a Carhardt jacket. Then my boots and gloves. So I was carrying a lot of weight. I prayed to God to give me the ability to get to shore because I had three grandchildren who needed their grandpa to be around. I just kept kicking my feet, pushing myself closer to shore until I hit the bottom with my feet. When I turned around there were two, what I would call angels, standing on the shoreline encouraging me to make it to shore,. I told them I can’t go any further and they told me, “Yes, you can, yes, you can.” Then the two guys dressed in only sweatpants, t-shirts and socks ran into the water and dragged me to shore. They helped me get up the stairs to a waiting police squad car. There a wonderful lady sat and visited with me to keep me awake because I felt delirious. The ambulance arrived a couple minutes later and I was transferred to the ambulance and they took off all my wet clothes and covered me with warm blankets. They brought me to Hastings emergency room. They put me under what is called a Beirr Hugger, which is like an air matress that warm air is pumped into to warm your core temperature. After about 3 1/2 hours of being underneath the warmer, my core temperature was back to within the normal range. and I was able to be released. I found out by the DNR agent that my boat continued to spin in circles until it crashed into the shore and he thought for sure he would be dragging the river for me and couldn’t believe I made it to shore in that cold of water. After I got released and had a hearty breakfast, my son-in-laws and I went back down to the river and got the boat. The boat had a buoy chain wrapped around the prop which I needed to get a hammer to break the chain loose from around the prop. The motor was really beat up and all iced in and when I took the hammer and broke the ice off the motor, believe it or not, the old Mariner started , even though the prop was half gone and chunks were out of the motor. We were able to get it on the trailer and get it home. I was really exausted after that happened but grateful to be alive. Today I can barely move. My wife is typing this as I dictate the story. I learned a valuable leson. No matter how many times you are on the river you should always have a firm grip on the motor and if its below 30 degrees stay home, because no fish is worth your life!
