On a dangerous boat accident on Lake Travis

As local bass fisherman, Bobby Whiteside, and I slowly worked our way casting soft plastic worms against a steep rock wall in Lake Travis, Whiteside related details to me about his recent, life-threatening night crash into a stone wall in the same lake. His Triton bass boat was destroyed. We were in his brand-new Skeeter bass boat.

About three weeks previous Whiteside and his grandson, Wes Garza, were fishing a Canyon Bass Club tournament. They launched his 21-foot Triton boat from an unlighted ramp on Tournament Point. The tournament started at 4 a.m., which meant three hours of night fishing before dawn. It was a totally dark night – no moon, no stars.

Things started out good.  Bobby and Wes both had several keeper bass for the tournament. Then they made a run to another area.

“We were running 28 MPH, when suddenly the depth finder went from 50 feet to 14 foot depth,” recounted Whiteside. After that the story gets foggy. Bobby thinks he remembers pulling back on the throttle, jerking the steering wheel hard to the left, and shouting a warning to Wes. At that moment they hit a three foot high rock wall and Whiteside was knocked out cold.

“I was wearing my hooded raincoat (it was raining) and did not hear any warning.  But I was holding on to a handle on the console when we hit,” said Wes. 

The right bow of the boat was crushed and the electric trolling motor and 10 rods and reels went into the lake.  When Bobby came to, his face was covered with blood.  His glasses were gone and blood was in his eyes.  He couldn’t see. “I knew all was okay when I realized that my grandson was not hurt,” said Whiteside.

Wes helped him to clean off the blood and found his glasses.

“(Bobby) thought we had hit a submerged rock and torn a hole in the bottom of the boat,” said Wes. “But I knew that we had hit a wall because when the right bow hit the wall, my side dipped steeply, and we took on a wall of water,”

They actually bounced off the wall and the submerged trolling motor, still connected to the boat with the power cable, anchored them.  Don’t think of this electric motor like my little $100 troll. This is a $3,000 deluxe, motor that will do about anything except hook a bass for you.

“I knew it was ruined and considered cutting the cable but Wes and I began to pull it up by the cable”, said Whiteside.”It was super heavy but we did it.” 

To their surprise four of the 10 bass rods were tangled in the cable.  That was a bonus.

Bobby and Wes were surprised that the engine started.  They idled back to Tournament Point.  Wes waded in with a flashlight and found the boat ramp.  After he backed the trailer to the water they tried to load the boat.  But the hydraulic power trim was destroyed and they couldn’t raise the lower unit.  It was dragging on the ramp.  Fortunately, two members of the bass club that had arrived late to the ramp came to the rescue.  But even with their muscles the lower unit could not be lifted.  Wes recruited two more big men who were running a marathon race to help and they finally got it up enough to jam a board under it.

Word was spreading quickly among the bass club about the wreck as Bobby and Wes got to an Emergency Clinic in Lakeway.  Bobby looked bad with black eyes and a deep gash in the forehead. They sewed him up with 18 stitches.

Within a few days Bobby had a new bass boat and was fishing a state bass tournament on Lake Sam Rayburn in East Texas.  His thumb was still jammed so he couldn’t reel in a bass.  He would set the hook, walk down the boat and let his tournament partner reel in the fish.  They caught their limit of bass.

Some of the bass club members came down hard on his case about night fishing.

His response was typical Whiteside.  “As soon as I get my new boat rigged I will be night fishing again.  And if Wes will go with me, I will take him. Night fishing on Travis is safer than the day with so many drunken ski boat drivers.”

I asked Wes about going night fishing with his grandfather again. “After the initial shock I’m okay now and I’ll go again,” replied Wes.

Whiteside has had other close calls at night on Lake Travis.  He and Leonard Moeller ran upon a rock island at 43 MPH.  The boat skidded between two large boulders. Then Leonard, recovering from the impact, asked, “How deep are we?”

“Step out old man,” answered Whiteside. “We’re on land.”

Fortunately, one of Whiteside’s students came by in a small boat on that cold winter night and helped rescue them.

Bobby and I were running about 40 MPH one night on Travis and saw a dock light in the distance that we wanted to fish under.  Not knowing that a bass boat was tracking us at 2 a.m., Whiteside cut the wheel toward the light, right in front of the boat behind us.  Thank God, the driver behind us was alert. He laid his boat over on the port side and passed us in a flash.  He could have cut our boat right in half.  Close call!

I told Whiteside that he had about used up his nine lives.  He replied, “By age 78 most of us have already used all of them.”