Teen Brothers from Nevis Save Duck Hunters After Their Boat Sinks

Two 17-year-old twin brothers from Nevis are being credited with saving three people and their dog out of a sinking boat on a Nevis area lake. That group had gone out duck hunting on First Crow Wing Lake recently when their boat sank and there was no way for them to swim to shore.

Darcy Gagnon, a recently retired State Patrol officer, was working one night when she received a call about a duck hunting trip gone wrong near her house.

“The report that we got is there were three hunters in the boat, no life jackets, and their boat was sinking,” said Mark Gagnon, Darcy’s husband and the father of the teens.

“When you have a lot of gear and a lot of people, boats don’t like to float very well,” said 17-year-old JT Gagnon. “And they had the dog go up front, took a scoop in the front, killed the motor and in the back, wall of water comes up in the back and it just [sinks].”

Not only did the boat sink, but the passengers were unable to make it to shore due to the unstable lake bottom. Gagnon immediately called her husband and two 17-year-old sons.

“We got woken up by our dad saying that someone that was sunken in the lake – duck hunters,” said 17-year-old Will Gagnon. “And the nearest police boat, the fire department boat was about a half hour to an hour away and we were the closest to the situation. So we went out, put the boat in the water, and tried to rescue these people.”

One reason the family knew it was so important to step in was that the boys have been hunting on this lake for years. They knew exactly where the access point was, even though it’s hard to get to.

“It’s in a big waterfall management area and not really on the maps,” explained Mark. “So unless you’re familiar with the access points to look at the county map and find it, I don’t think you’re going to find the trails and these access points.”

It would have taken first responders an extra 30 minutes to an hour to get to the incident site, whereas the Gagnons’ house was only about a mile away. The two boys jumped right out of bed and got to work.

“It’s a small boat,” said Mark, “So only one boy went with it. So we got the boat turned around, had a little difficulty with the mud in the weeds initially, but got out, got started, went out, found the duck hunters.”

“He got them into the boat,” said Will, gesturing towards JT, “and onto land safely and unharmed.”

Once they made it to shore, the hunters were handed over to first responders, who were eventually able to make it to the scene. No one was harmed during the whole incident.

And the boys’ reward for saving everyone? As with other 17-year-olds, it was simply time to go to school.