Agents received information around 11 p.m. that three boaters were stranded on Toledo Bend after their boat was swamped and ran aground.  Agents along with a Sabine Parish Sheriff’s Office deputy responded to the scene immediately and found the three boaters clinging to a side of a cliff near the water with their personal flotation devices (PFD) on.

The agents were able to load them in their vessel and transport them to the bank where they were checked out by medical personnel and released.

Agents learned that the boaters left out of Kite’s boat launch near Florien around 9 p.m. in an 18-foot vessel.  They were fishing for about an hour in a half when large waves started to come over the gunwale and eventually flooded the vessel causing the vessel to run aground and then sink.  The boaters were able to make a call for help before swimming to the shore and clinging to the cliff to await for help.

Agents were able to retrieve the sunken vessel on March 27.  Agents believe that high winds and waves as the contributing factors for this boating incident.