This is the second fatal accident in three years for the weekly night tourney there, will be interesting if any changes occur to try to prevent this again in the future...

Sad deal for those kids.

https://www.youcaring.com/jasonandsaraclarkandfamily-875501

:-( :-( more sad news... those 2 kids are going thru a lot right now.

This is terrible. 2 kids at that age losing both parents at the same time. Prayers for them as they will have scars forever from this accident.

Really sad news for sure. It just takes one wrong decision. Prayers up for all impacted in this terrible accident.

So sad for all involved, especially the kids. Prayers

They don't understand that their GPS won't show them that floater that is in the middle of the boatlane this time.

Anyone who has run Conroe knows how hard it can be to see other boats at night. The farther south you go the worse it gets. Some nights are worse than others depending on the moon light. You need your graph dimmed way down. Any light in the boat makes it harder to see. The shore line lights make it hard to discern a boat light from a shore light. To me it's hardest to see a boat that's not moving. It's gotten worse over the years. The absolute hardest place to run into at night is Rush Creek. Tons of shore line lights there. Even when paying attention out there things happen real fast. I always make sure that whoever I am riding with keeps a lookout as well. There have been times when my passenger said "you see that boat?" I may have not seen it until he pointed it out. You can't ever relax. You have to be constantly scanning. Most people who have run the lake for years can tell you a time or two that it got too close for comfort. Things can happen very fast. Some boats have lights mounted so at some angles they can be seen and other angles they can't or it's very difficult. Planing speed is usually mid 30's for most bass boat. Some a little more, some a little les.

Both boats involved had Conroe tournament anglers with a lot of time on Conroe. One was in the tournament that night the other was not but did fish the tournament quite a bit. A lot of hours at night either coming back to the weighin, fishing pool lights or running out in the Sunday tournament. They knew the lake and all the rules. It can happen to anyone in a blink of a eye.

You have people out there who run too fast, don't have lights on, don't have lake knowledge, etc. It's ironic that those factors don't seem to play into the accidents that are occurring.

I haven't fished that tournament in years. It's 50 minutes from where I live and it ends too late for work next day. When I lived in Conroe we fished the weekday tournaments that ended in the dark at least for part of their schedule a lot. Lots of tournaments over the years with runs back in the dark. That was before they had the planing speed rule. I always knew they had higher risk. You feel less comfortable at night. However you accept the risk or not depending on your view. Life is full of risk. About all you can do is make sure you are doing the right thing and keep watch.

This is a very sad deal, and life changing for everyone involved. Prayers up to each one of them!

FWIW, i saw this morning that they have changed the hours for the Tuesday and Thursday to 5:45-8:45.

Continued prayers for these families!

I'm the same way. Stuff like this is just terrible. Just not worth it.