Bass fisherman dies in accident — Sioux City Jour

Just a reminder to be very careful this fall as river gets foggy. My prayers go out to both involved and their families.

Bass fisherman dies in accident — Sioux City Journal

One man died and another was injured in a boating accident Sunday during Sioux City’s Fish America Foundation Missouri River Bass Open.

A boat collided with a wing dike near Jackson, Neb. Fog was a factor in the accident, the Dakota County Attorney’s Office reported.

Passenger Robert J. Evers, 51, of Omaha was pronounced dead at the scene.

Driver Paul Hansen, 51, of Ames, Neb., was transported to Mercy Medical Center — Sioux City. The hospital did not release any information on Sunday regarding Hansen’s condition.

how terrible. I hope the other guy is going to come out allright. Prayers to the family

What’s a wing dike? Is that the same as a wing dam?

Sounds like an emerged wing dam. Kind of like a stretch of riprap which extends out into the river verses lining the bank.

You would think if a guy knew that rock dike was in the area he would surely try to avoid it fog or no fog. I wonder if he was new to the river?

Very sad…

what happened that caused such an impact to kill him?? did they fly out of the boat or what?? because i am assuming that if they hit a submerged wing “dike” it would only hit the motor…maybe it was just barely submerged or something…anybody know?

Emerged. Sounds like it was a rock wall above water that they hit.

Emerged or just under the surface can have catastrophic results at high speeds. I would question the 80 mph speed (tournament morning with full load, 2 guys, full fuel, up-river, etc…), but believe even 65-70 can be fatal with a hit to rock. If the rock was just below the surface (which doesn’t seem to be the case) a lower unit can be torn completely off. When this happens you have no steering! Your fate relies completely on which direction the boat decides to head.

If the rock wall was emerged…well I don’t think this needs an explaination.

I imagine a boat at 70 would stop very very quickly if the rock was high enough, likely ejecting the people in a hurry. What good is a GPS if you can’t see other boats? Need some radar too.

I was at an Everstart on Sam Rayburn in 01.We were boat # 4 of 175.We got into fog and were lost for some time and had several close calls with other boats.

Guys, The wing dams in our area of the Missouri River are much different than what you’ll see on the Mississippi. Our Wing Dams (also called wing dikes or rock dikes here) are emerged several feet out of the water. Running into one would be like running into a very large rock wall. I heard about this accident as I returned home from a fishing trip of my own. My prayers are with the families…

This picture shows the end of a wing dam in the Sioux City area. This goes without saying but anyone coming to the area to fish you obviously have to be extra careful.

I’d like to see them push the start time back an hour if visibility is poor. This could have just as easily been another boat that got hit, possibly taking more lives.

Thanks for the explaination JM.