Fisherman saves life of elderly man

He cautions about the importance of wearing lifejackets.

MILLEDGEVILLE — When Jody Bellflower set out to go fishing recently on Lake Sinclair in Baldwin County, he had no idea the dramatic twist his outing soon would take.

As it turned out, instead of fishing, he ended up saving the life of an elderly man and helping a second elderly man get his boat back to shore safely following a boating mishap.

“I’m not looking for any publicity and I don’t consider myself a hero or anything like that,” said Bellflower when asked about the steps he took to save Mike Davis’s life.

Bellflower, who serves as vice president of operations at CBA in Milledgeville, said he wanted the story told purely for safety reasons.

“People don’t wear their lifejackets and they really should,” Bellflower said. “You just don’t ever know what might happen, and people should wear them when they are out in a boat.”

The 47-year-old Milledgeville resident and businessman said he never goes fishing by himself, or with anyone else, including his son, without having his lifejacket vest on.

Neither Davis nor his friend, Charlie Jackson, were wearing their lifejackets. At least two lifejackets were in the floorboard of the boat, as Georgia law requires, though.

Bellflower said the men were from Gordon and Macon, but he wasn’t sure which one of them lived where.

Bellflower recalled that he had set out for a morning of fishing out at Little River Park. The weather was nice and the fog had just lifted.

“I had just taken off about 7:30 a.m., just after daylight,” Bellflower said. “I took off southbound on the lake, passing kinda the mouth of Beaver Dam, the hot water discharge park. I just kinda looked over my shoulder as I’m passing the mouth of Beaver Dam, and the entrance to Oconee River. There, I always try to be careful of boats coming and going.”

When he got closer toward the power line area, Bellflower said he saw a big splash.

“You could just see the water look like it had exploded,” Bellflower said. “It looked similar to a Jet Ski making a 360-degree turn in the water. That’s what I thought it was. But I said what is a Jet Ski doing out here in deep waters?”

He initially decided to continue with his plan to go fishing until something suddenly told him to turn his boat around and go in the direction where he had just seen the large splash.

When he got to the area, he saw it was, indeed, a boat, and that it was right side up.

Bellflower said when he put two and two together he knew something bad had happened because there was a lot of floating debris on the lake.

“There were some logs and all kinds of trash in the water,” he explained.

A short time later, Bellflower spotted a man laying on the deck of a boat, and holding another man who was in the water.

Bellflower immediately went into a life-saving mode.

He pulled his boat beside the other one. That’s when one of the men told Bellflower that they had hit a log.

“The guy in the water had no lifejacket on and the other man was holding onto him,” Bellflower said. “He was holding onto his jacket with one hand.”

Bellflower said he later found out that Jackson has Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

He knew right then that there was no way he was going to be able to get his buddy out of the water.

At that point, Bellflower said he eventually grabbed hold of Davis.

“I wanted to give Charlie a break,” Bellflower said. “So, I held onto Mike and got him flipped around. Mike was like, ‘Don’t let me go, don’t let me go.’ ”

Bellflower said he remembered telling Davis to hang on to the boat.

“I said come on, Mike, you’ve got to hang onto the boat,” Bellflower said. “He kept trying to put his arms up and hold onto the gunnel of the boat.”

Davis, who reportedly broke some ribs in the mishap, was shaking from the 51-degree water temperature.

“He was in a lot of pain at the time,” Bellflower said.

Eventually, Bellflower said he managed to get Davis into his boat and Jackson was able to get his boat restarted.

They then headed to Lakeside Marina where Davis and Jackson managed to get their boat reloaded onto a trailer and headed home.

Bellflower said he telephoned his wife, Jill, to let her know what had happened.

He said he also shared with her something he witnessed during the rescue.

“I told her that I had never seen the fear in a grownman eyes like I saw in that man’s eyes,” Bellflower said. “He’s looking at me to help, because he was basically helpless.”

Bellflower said the experience was an unforgettable one.

“I’ll never forget this as long as I live.”