Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Tonya Papanikolas reporting A father and his two sons were out fishing on an overnight trip. But early this morning, they hit a snag, literally.
Steven Beaton took his two sons night fishing, like he's done many times before.
But on this Father's Day, they spent the morning being rescued instead of gloating over their fish.
The bottom of Beaton's boat is torn underneath, from the middle of the boat all the way to the back. He doesn't know how it happened. He says he was going about 45 miles an hour when he suddenly heard a big boom. And his five-year-old son Aaron, launched forward.
Steven Beaton/ Rescued on Utah Lake: "It took him and threw him where the seat's missing over here. It threw him over here, and the ice chest smashed him pretty good."
This is the area where the family was stranded-- about half a mile from shore at the north end of Goshen Bay.
Within five minutes, Beaton says his boat was almost submerged, but he used his cell phone to call 911.
Payson police asked another boater just launching to help.
Gary Bellon/ Helped Rescue Stranded Boaters: "The boat was totally sunk. There was only about a foot of the bow sticking out and they were all three standing on it. I didn't know if it was going to go under completely or not. So we just got up there as fast as we could. Our first intention was to get the boys on the boat."
They took the family safely to shore. Utah Lake State Parks officials still don't know exactly what happened.
Park officials say this was a deeper area of the lake. But along the shorelines, water levels are low.
Ty Hunter/ Utah Lake State Parks Manager: "Mother Nature dealt us another not-so-good year." "You get on the eastern shorelines, it can go from four feet to zero real fast. It's just real shallow over there."
Hunter says the best thing to do is ride slowly through unfamiliar areas and always try to notice what landmarks you're near in case of an emergency.
You should also carry a fire extinguisher on board, and most importantly, wear your life jackets. That's something the Beatons did, but they were thankful they didn't have to use them.
