I am sure there were life jackets on board (rental), they just didn't have them on. Sounds like a VERY inexperienced boater in the first place. Hopefully they learned a valuable lesson and thank god no one was injured or killed. Now, to the marina that rented the boat, I think a good start would be to make them pay for the recovery expenses and then go from there. Maybe WAY south towards the dam the water would have been fishable even in that wind but no way should they have been out on the open end up near the causeway....

Ya it was the causeway. Just watched this again, last night I thought they said the dam sorry.
Didn,t see any writing on the side so doupt it was a rental but could be I guess.
Still ...how stupid can ya get.

it looked like a rental boat and it was up near the espyville marina. i heard it on the scanner yesterday

Atleast they can laugh about it..

Not sure what is brighter: Going out in the first place, Not wearing your life jackets, or Allowing yourself to be interviewd on TV? We cancelled our club tournament up there Saturday AM because it was flat out dangerous and life threatening. The other club scheduled for Saturday did as well and the Open tourney on Sunday was also cancelled. Did manage to get in 5 hours of fishing Saturday PM with a buddy in a protected area.

They are lucky to be alive.  Wind can completely flip a pontoon.  That water looked like chocolate milk.

I think they were trying to get to the Spillway to jig!!

ORIGINAL: rapala11

can't fix stupid, eh?

wonder which livery they rented out of, also? that guy should be fined for renting, given the conditions. pymatuning is a killer.

Rap, you're right, you are absolutely right. How stupid can one person or a boat full of people be. First of all, yes the marina is partly responsible for renting the boat out to them. But, the Adults are the ones who made the final decision. They are responsible for this. Most likely they signed a waiver releasing the marina from all responsibilities; second, a pontoon boat, come on!!! They're asking for it. I'm happy everything worked out for them. This time, they lucked out. I gotta tell ya, this just irks me though. I used to work for a local ambulance service many years ago, and I've been present at a lot of drownings at Pymy.  I'm taking this more personally then most; but again, I've earned the right to be.

Where are you guys getting that this was a rental boat? It's not mentioned anywhere in the article, or video. Plus most rental places don't begin operations this early in the season, and have more up to date, later model boats than that one appeared to be.

Thats what I said.  lol
You,ll usually have the rental no. on the sides.