B.A.S.S. anglers rescue Canadian couple on St. Lawrence River

Holland, Mollineaux assist after sailboat flips in high winds

Accidents happen fast on the water, a fact demonstrated recently during practice for the B.A.S.S. Nation Eastern Divisional last week on the St. Lawrence River.

In windy conditions, anglers Joe Holland and Chris Molineaux came upon the capsized sailboat, and in tough conditions, managed to get the couple safely onboard their boats and bring them in for help.

The video of the rescue was shot from Mollineaux’s boat.

“I was out pre-fishing by this island and I kept seeing sailboats go around the island, didn’t think much of it but the waves were building, were up to 3 to 4 feet, so I’m fishing and I look over at the island again and I see something strange and the more I look at it I see it is the top of a sail, so I drop everything and fly over that way and when I get there I see two people in the water,” Holland said in a press release.

“It was tough keeping my boat from slamming into the sailboat but I finally got it up close and first threw a life jacket to the man who didn’t have one one, then I pulled the lady up onto my boat, she was in pretty bad shape, really shaking a lot with deep tremors, then I maneuvered my so the man could climb up the ladder in the back, but he was pretty spent so I helped him in and then he just collapsed on the back deck of my boat.”

“The couple were in their 70’s and from Canada, so once I got them secured I just drove back over to the port that they launched from, there were a bunch of people looking for them so they helped them off my boat, I saw there was an ambulance waiting…”

“…and then I just went back to pre-fishing for the Nation divisional.”