Two Tournament Boat Crashes Today – One Deadly

One on Lake Norman in North Carolina, one boat appears to have “run over” the other, both operators went into the water, but survived.

The other on Smith Lake in Alabama, where it appears Angler Flint Davis was killed when his boat was hit in the rear.

The odds are slim that adding two videos will allow my post, so I’ll just say as of now, youtube has the most coverage with videos of the aftermath in both incidents.

Stay alert out on the water guys, and wear your PFD, it may have saved lives in these incidents.

I can’t make sense of how the initial post didn’t go up, I specifically did not add any attachments, just text.

Anyway, one crash on Lake Norman in North Carolina where one boat was “run over” from the rear and destroyed, multiple people went in the water but survived, with non life-threatening injuries. Charges have been filed.

The other was on Smith Lake in Alabama, where Flint Davis’ boat appears to have been hit from the rear, reports say Joey Broom did not survive, and several other people are injured.

Stay alert out on the water and wear your PFD, it likely saved lives in these instances.

Initially the only good reports were available on YouTube, that seems to be the best info source with video of the aftermath.

Two boats ran up onto from behind……speed kills folks, slow down.

Horribly sad deal in both cases. There’s been an insane amount of inaccurate news about this all day on social media.

Probably never get the full story, be interested in how the accident happened. Sounds like boat speed had something to do with it, but…. Latest info states 2 of the guys drowned after the accident. PFD’s aren’t fashionable, but they may save your life.

Lake Norman reminds me of Tonka as far as boats and boating.
FYI – they stock walleye there also.

3 dead in one of the crashes. Sad deal. I read something that said a center counsel boat was also involved somehow. TBH I have a feeling the bass fishermen were most likely more at fault, though at this point it certainly doesnt matter. They tend to be hot rodding around. Sounds like the bass fisherman was blinded by fog and struck a guide boat.

Matter of time before this happens below the dam on Pool 4 . Gotta show boat off that 400 horse after catching 12 inch saugers all day and run her wide open through the pack .

isu22andy wrote:

Matter of time before this happens below the dam on Pool 4 . Gotta show boat off that 400 horse after catching 12 inch saugers all day and run her wide open through the pack .

I seen this on rainy like no other. I totally get going through the pack, but at 55 mph is a little wild especially 8 ft away from stationary boats.
Big boats, big motors and operators staring at 3 big screens, distracted driving at its finest. We all do it, but some are a little more dumb then others.

Bearcat89 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>isu22andy wrote:</div>
Matter of time before this happens below the dam on Pool 4 . Gotta show boat off that 400 horse after catching 12 inch saugers all day and run her wide open through the pack .

I seen this on rainy like no other. I totally get going through the pack, but at 55 mph is a little wild especially 8 ft away from stationary boats.
Big boats, big motors and operators staring at 3 big screens, distracted driving at its finest. We all do it, but some are a little more dumb then others.

I totally agree. I’d much rather have a boat run through a busy area like Rainy River on plane and clipping along at like say 35mph versus the people that are trying to be polite and think they are being kind by going slow but on step making a huge wake. Not to be the drunken ohv litter stereotype hating guy but generally the guys driving way to fast trying to show off have a glitter boat with a merc turned on loud mode with it trimmed up way beyond being functional.

Yep – I don’t mind people going by on plane – I prefer it actually so you don’t get the huge wake like said. But there’s a large difference between 25-30 mph on plane and some dipshit trimmed to the max going 60 mph. Probably makes a good TikTok though.

Death toll was 3 on Smith Lake…tragic

CaptainMusky wrote:

Sounds like the bass fisherman was blinded by fog and struck a guide boat.

That’s what I read too. Heavy fog, reduced visibility. Not sure you should be even allowing high speed bass boats to leave the starting spot if there is reduced visibility. Relying on those guys who have thousands of dollars on the line to exercise caution themselves doesn’t seem likely to end well.

Dead on Gim! I bet there will be a wrongful death lawsuit with this against that tourney trail. They have a history of having incidents much like this! All 3 people in that guide boat were killed.

I realize it might be easy to assume the tourney competitor was at fault, but have they released any details of the crash? Who hit who? I haven’t seen anything other than speculation. In the other crash yesterday with NPFL on a different lake, I believe that bass pro was charged with reckless driving or something like that.

The one report I read said it was the tournament boat that struck the guides boat who was fishing at the time.

Final report from sheriff’s office and/or Alabama conservation dept. will be interesting. Some have said fog, others have said there was none. It sounds like a wide area with a shoal across it, so he crossed in the deeper channel and coming around the island too fast. I’m wondering if there’s any gopro footage? It seems like every pro boat has one or two running all the time. This is pure speculation, but wonder if the driver had his head in a screen watching the GPS map. Another thing is with all the giant graphs up on the very front of the boat they can impede vision. Terrible situation for everyone there.