ProRodeo Sports News - Oct.4, 2019

PRCA bull rider Boquet helps rescue pair from sunken boat Right place, right time COWBOY HEROES

BY SCOTT KANIEWSKI I f they’d had a few bites earlier or not as many bites later, Dustin Boquet and Joe Hunt might never have happened along Henry Sparks Jr. and Troy Metzger. But neither of those scenarios occurred. Instead, Boquet, a PRCA bull rider, and his friend Hunt started back into the final weigh-in for the Big Bass Splash fishing tournament in Lake Fort, Texas, on Sept. 22 at what happened to be the right time. As they headed in, Hunt spotted something and told Boquet there might be an issue in the water. “Joe was like, ‘Boquet, I think that’s a boat sunk out there,’” Boquet said. “I started going that way and was about to say, ‘That ain’t no boat.’ Then I saw them wave and was like, those are people in the water.”

we didn’t have anything to turn in. Then I started catching a couple. It all happened for a reason. We would’ve flown in and never have seen them.” Boquet was in the area after competing at the 75th Annual Four States Fair & Rodeo in Texarkana, Ark., which ended Sept. 21. He placed second there and earned $3,557. “That (fishing) tournament kicked us in the butt,” Boquet laughed. “Thank God the bull riding paid off because the fishing didn’t.” Sparks and Metzger offered Boquet and Hunt compensation for the rescue mission. Unsurprisingly, the bull rider and his buddy turned it down. “There was no way we were going to take that,” Boquet said.

Dustin Boquet, left, helped rescue Henry Sparks Jr., right, and a friend when the boat Sparks was on capsized.

“Somebody had just lost their whole, dadgum boat, and that’s the last thing you want to do, take money from them.” The fact that they helped a couple guys, including a vet, was payment enough. “That made it a little bit better because normally you don’t get to help veterans too much,” Boquet said. “Sometimes they don’t get the respect they deserve.” Hunt went a step further. “Joe jumped in the water and got in the rod box and got most of Troy’s rods out of the rod box,” Sparks said. “He swam up under there (the boat) to get those, kept diving under there to get those rods. “Those guys, man, they did a lot for us. I had to reach out to somebody and say these guys are awesome.” Boquet can’t stop thinking the fishing derby played out the way it was supposed to. “It all stuck out for a reason that I stayed out

Boquet and Hunt gunned the boat. When they pulled up, they found Sparks and Metzger clinging to an overturned boat. “My partner and I were heading to the weigh- in … and the boat just started taking on water,” said Sparks, who turned 64 the week of the derby. “Next thing you know, that joker had capsized.” Sparks, an Air Force veteran, and Metzger, also in his early 60s, were in the water about 45 minutes before Boquet and Hunt arrived. “We were so weak, they pulled us in (their boat),” Sparks said. “They gave me a bottle of water, and to show you how weak I was, I could hardly turn the cap to get my bottle open.” With little luck on the lake, Boquet and Hunt had considered heading in early to the weigh-in. But Boquet suggested they stay longer. Then, Boquet got a couple bites, so they didn’t head in until later. That timing proved all the difference. “They had like 500 boats on the lake,” Boquet

“Joe was like, ‘Boquet, I think that’s a boat sunk out there. I started going that way and was about to say, ‘That ain’t no boat.’ Then I saw them wave and was like, those are people in the water.” – DUSTIN BOQUET

there a little bit longer than I normally do,” he said. “I guess the good Lord made those fish start biting a little bit so I would stay out there because I wasn’t about to stay out there too much longer.”

said. “The tournament hours end at 2 p.m. I’m sure like 200-300 boats had passed them and nobody had seen them. I stayed out a little longer when

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