A would-be fishing guide only needs to purchase the proper license to be legal in Arkansas. He doesn't need to demonstrate any skills, training or knowledge. He doesn't need to pass an Arkansas boating safety course if born before 1986 and on state water.
On Beaver Lake and other federal lakes, he does need a vessel license from the U.S. Coast Guard, but only the Coast Guard can enforce its rule.
Law changes ahead for boating while intoxicated
Arkansas laws governing boating while intoxicated charges change July 22, according to Driver Control, a division of the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration.
Senate Bill 81 combines boating while intoxicated penalties with driving while intoxicated penalties. Both offenses will affect a person’s ability to drive. The process for recovering a driver’s license — including rules on use of an interlock device — is the same for a person convicted of either boating or driving while intoxicated.
Drivers will be suspended for six months for their first offense, two years for their second offense, 30 months for a third offense and one year for a fourth offense.
Refusing to submit to an intoxication text either while boating or driving will revoke a person’s driver’s license for 180 days on the first offense, two years on the second offense, three years on the third offense and fourth or subsequent is a lifetime revocation.
The Department of Finance and Administration does not keep boating records and will not suspend boating privileges, according to Tonie Shields, administrator for the office of Driver’s Services.
“Any privileges dealing with boating, those are controlled by Game & Fish,” Shields said.
A representative with Arkansas Game & Fish said boating privileges are revoked for the same period as driving privileges under both the old and the new law.
There were 95 boating while intoxicated convictions in Arkansas between Jan. 1, 2012 and Dec. 31, 2014, according to a legislative impact statement on new laws from the Department of Finance and Administration.
Source: Staff Report
In Surrounding States
Missouri does not issue guide permits or certify guides. If a person wants to guide a fishing trip or a hunt, he has to carry the permit for whatever his client is hunting or fishing for, said Travis McLain, program specialist at the Missouri Department of Conservation.
“If he wants to be the guy calling turkeys he needs to have a turkey tag,” McLain said.
A convicted felon could plausibly be a guide for a Missouri hunt as long as that person wasn’t breaking state laws by carrying a modern rifle, but instead used a bow, crossbow or muzzle loader, McLain said.
Oklahoma laws have a guide designation and that person can choose to be listed on the state website as a guide or not, said Micah Holmes, information supervisor at the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. The license fee is set by the state legislature, he said. Oklahoma does reduce cost for a wildlife guide license from $90 to $20 for people who have a U.S. Coast Guard boating license.
Source: Staff Report
Lightning Strikes
Lightning strikes about 25 million times a year in the United States, but it kills an average of 49 people in the U.S., Lightning often strikes more than three miles from the center of a thunderstorm, outside a cloud or rain but it can reach 10 or 15 miles from the thunderstorm’s center.
Source: National Weather Service.
Missouri fishing guide Joe Farkas, 57, was arrested on warrants, including one for boating while intoxicated, after a fatal lightning strike hit his client during a Beaver Lake fishing trip June 13.
The person who answered a number for Farkas' guide service in Seligman, Mo., on Tuesday said he wasn't interested in talking about the accident.
Farkas, despite the warrants stemming from a 2013 boating accident, was a legally licensed guide at the time of the fatal strike, according to Keith Stephens, spokesman for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
A court date is typically issued with a boating while intoxicated citation, so any warrant issued in Farkas' case should have been for failure to appear, said Capt. Stephanie Weatherington, boating law administrator for the commission. She said it's possible he wasn't issued a court date in 2013 because of injuries he suffered in the accident.
All a guide needs to operate on state water is to buy a fishing guide license. Arkansas fishing guide licenses are $25 for residents and $150 for nonresidents. Arkansas guide licenses require a separate fishing license if the guide intends to fish.
State licenses are sold by independent dealers and filed electronically, Weatherington said. Each night the commission gets the names of people who purchased a fishing or hunting license that day. It could be 2,000 names, she said.
"A hunting or fishing licenses entitles you to do just that. We don't run background checks," Weatherington said.
Penalties for boating while intoxicated just got stiffer under Arkansas law, said Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs.
Although there isn't a boating license under Arkansas law, boating privileges are suspended when driver's licenses are suspended, Weatherington said. The current suspension is for 90 days. State law changes July 22. The new law will combine boating and driving while intoxicated convictions and count both against a person's license to drive a vehicle. The new suspension will be for six months.
There were 95 boating while intoxicated convictions in Arkansas between Jan. 1, 2012, and Dec. 31, 2014, according to a legislative impact statement on new laws from the Department of Finance and Administration.
The new law is tough enough, Hester said.
"We can't regulate the entire state of Arkansas for one bad actor," he said.
The best thing a consumer can do is to ask for certification of a boating safety course from his pilot, Weatherington said.
An accident report from 2013 noted Farkas hadn't completed a boating education course, although he wasn't required to do so. Arkansas law requires an Arkansas Game and Fish Commission approved boating education course for anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 1986.
Beaver Lake falls under federal rules because it is an Army Corps of Engineers lake, Weatherington said. People for hire who carry fewer than six passengers at a time on federal water are required to hold an uninspected passenger vessel license from the U.S. Coast Guard. Arkansas Game and Fish cannot enforce that rule, Weatherington said. Occasionally the Coast Guard will do surprise inspections, but the rule is widely ignored, Weatherington said.
The corps does safety inspections such as checking for life jackets, but doesn't enforce boating suspensions, said Jay Woods, spokesman from the corps' Little Rock District Office. Enforcement of boating suspensions falls under the responsibility of county law enforcement officers and Arkansas Game and Fish, Woods said.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission warrants from 2013 for Farkas were in connection with misdemeanor counts of boating while intoxicated, boat manner of operation, boat collision or accident and interfering with a wildlife officer, according to Benton County Jail records.
Deputies checked Farkas' identification after the June 13 incident and arrested him on the warrants. A relative picked up his disabled boat. Farkas is set to appear in Rogers District Court on July 21.
Farkas called 911 on July 15, 2013, to report a missing passenger after a boat wreck about 3:30 a.m., according to a Game and Fish accident report.
The 18-foot boat Farkas was driving had $5,000 worth of damage, including a smashed windshield, major damage to the bow and some to the port side from hitting a dock at high speed about a quarter mile from Indian Creek Park, according to the report.
Farkas was airlifted to a Springfield, Mo., hospital for injuries, which included 22 stitches in his forehead, two broken ribs, a cut to his shin and a concussion, according to the report.
A Game and Fish officer found Farkas tried to clean up the boat and stashed a cooler with a nearly empty vodka bottle inside with friends at a nearby campsite after the incident, according to the report.
A Benton County deputy found Farkas' passenger sleeping in a pickup at the park. The man told deputies he'd been left behind when Farkas set out from the launch about 11 p.m., according to the report.
When interviewed for the Game and Fish report Farkas told the officer he didn't remember what happened.
Ed Chapko with E&C Striper Guide Services has been a guide on Beaver Lake for 26 years.
"It's what's between your ears that makes you a good guide," Chapko said.
A good guide thinks ahead and makes the experience a pleasant one for the client, he said. For him that means integrity and a dose of caution. Clients may offer it, but alcohol and boating don't mix, he said. He's constantly looking for debris or for other boaters headed toward him. He turned down clients for the July Fourth weekend because the lake is too busy. That's a hazard to him.
"You look ahead, and you put safety ahead of dollar signs," he said.
Chapko remembers the storm June 13. He herded everyone out of his pool at 3 p.m. because of the approaching weather. He heard about the lightning strike about an hour later.
Michael Franklin of Van Buren witnessed the lightning strike. There were two small storms that blew through that afternoon, Franklin said. He was on shore in a cove near Indian Creek waiting out the second one when he saw a boat stop on a point just outside the cove as if it was setting up to fish. It was raining pretty hard, Franklin said. Then he saw lightning strike the boat, a poof of smoke and a man fall. Once the worst of the storm ended about 15 minutes later, Franklin headed out. The guide was pacing the boat, saying they needed to get to shore, Franklin said. A woman was holding a man across the seats.
Franklin called 911 at 3:28 p.m. saying he was towing the disabled boat to the marina, according to a Benton County Sheriff's Office report. After being prompted by the dispatcher, Franklin's wife called out to the boat behind asking if the man had a pulse. The guide tried to take the man's pulse and shook his head no, Franklin said.
First responders started CPR once the boat arrived at Lost Bridge Marina, according to the official report.
Franklin said he asked the guide why he stopped at the point instead of heading back to the landing, but the guide never answered.
"Those kids were in his hands, and he failed them," Franklin said.
Conner Clayman was pronounced dead after arriving at Northwest Medical Center-Bentonville.
Clayman, 22, of Springfield, Mo., died on his first wedding anniversary, according to his obituary. A voicemail box for Clayman's farrier business was full, but clients wrote on his online business page he was a gentle farrier and understood horses. He often posted about his love of horses and trout fishing.
His obituary said he was "fiercely passionate" about the outdoors and loved fishing, camping, boating and trail riding. His widow, Tearnie, was his high school sweetheart, and they "had a love that many people spend their whole life searching for," his obituary said.
Clayman was the seventh of 14 people who have died from lightning in the United States this year, according to data from the National Weather Service. Two died while fishing.
Deputies found three fishing poles in a vertical stand on the boat after the accident, according to the Benton County report. The one closest to where Clayman had melted strings and the second was damaged at the top.
The Benton County Sheriff's Office didn't respond by deadline when asked if Farkas had been tested for intoxication following the June 13 lightning strike. It's unknown if Farkas faces any charges related to the accident.
Farkas told police he knew he shouldn't have been out in the weather and had seen the storm building over Oklahoma City earlier that day, according to the Sheriff's Office report.
"Joe should have really said, 'No, no can do,'" Chapko said.
NW News on 07/05/2015