DriftJam Near Miss

[Fullthrottle]

So my wife, her sister and I met up with some friends and went out to DriftJam on Lake Murray. Everything was going well the first part of the day, everyone was having fun, listening to music, people watching and everything else that goes on at one of these types of events. As the day went on and people started to leave, we had noticed that the college kids in the line of boats across from us had been partying really hard all day and some were starting to leave. Then all of the sudden we noticed they started to scramble around and two guys and a girl jumped into an old 180 Sunbird CC and started to drive away. The kid driving the boat suddenly nails the throttle and the boat broke hard left and was now coming straight for us. As the girl starts screaming at him, he notices hes going to hit our boat, he drops it in neutral and is now coasting towards us at a pretty good rate of speed. Myself and everyone around is yelling for him to hit reverse, but he doesn't. In a panic I ran to the back of our boat where my sister in law is laying out and am able to catch the bow rail of his boat. Luckily, by doing that I was able to push the front of his boat enough and our boat turned enough so that he didn't run us over. Before I could begin cussing him out, I noticed he was taking a ton of water over his transom....."oh $h!* yall are sinking".
Now his girlfriend panics and jumps out of the boat nearly causing it to capsize on top of our boat, and now his motor is underwater and shuts off. Luckily he was only about 150' from land now and a group of guys were able to push his boat to shore before it capsized.
It was by far the scariest moment I've ever had on the water. Luckily nobody was hurt and I still don't think my sister-in-law knows how close she came to getting run over. And to our knowledge DNR didn't even write the guys a ticket for DUI. Bottom line stay safe and always be on the lookout for boats around you.

[sinkermaker]

Any time you are at event like that you have got to watch out for the drunks. Thank God nobody was hurt

[MidHillbilly]

Glad you came out OK. I have been surprised this year at just how little I have seen SC DNR on the water at Clarks Hill. I expected to see them Memorial Day Weekend at least and still did not see any. I had heard that Georgia DNR was short 43 rangers but not sure about SC. They sure have not been out as much as past years.

[Fullthrottle]

Glad you came out OK. I have been surprised this year at just how little I have seen SC DNR on the water at Clarks Hill. I expected to see them Memorial Day Weekend at least and still did not see any. I had heard that Georgia DNR was short 43 rangers but not sure about SC. They sure have not been out as much as past years.

Can't say as I've seen a DNR boat up here on Wylie at all this year. Also, we put in a Dreher this weekend and DNRs 197 Pioneer sat in the parking lot at the ramp all weekend. Saw two boats blow the No Wake Zone at that ramp as well.

[STUMP HUNTER]

Stories like yours are coming more frequently and everyone needs to watch out on any lake at all times. Glad everyone is ok

[91tiger]

It was a near miss for me with Drift Jam as well. I didn't know anything about Drift Jam and almost fished Murray on Saturday. Luckily I decided to go perch jerking on Greenwood. Got 103 by 10AM so it was a great choice. Glad you are OK and glad I wasn't anywhere near it.