Friends help rescue fisherman who fell into water at Big Cedar Lake

WASHINGTON COUNTY, Wis. (CBS 58) -- In Washington County, a group of young men quickly turned into heroes saving a man who fell out of his boat.

They were out on the water putting in a pier for a client when they first saw him.

“One guy in particular came out, and he had a nice little boat, it was nine-feet long and it had a smaller motor on it," Nolan Kasten, 19, said.

The fisherman gave a brief chat, and then left.

Kasten said the man was gone for about 30 mins before coming back their way.

“He was coming north up the lake right here, just like right straight towards where we are now, and right here is where he lost control," he explained.

“When Nolan said, ‘oh my God, he flipped out of his boat’, sure enough, we saw him in the water and then a few seconds later we heard him screaming for help too," Carson Stingle, 20, said.

Kasten, Stingle and two others jumped into action.

The man’s small boat was now spinning in water about 60-feet deep.

“It was in a tight circle, and it was moving quick, so we had to act quick and get it done," Kasten said.

The friends say the fisherman’s was wearing waders that had also started to flood.

“Panicked. He was terrified. You could tell," Stingle said.

“We could have probably called first responders but I think we were a little quick thinking," Kasten explained.

The friends believe the man was in his 60s.

Neighbors say they’d seen his boat – the S.S. Minnow – that day, and also on days before.

But no one who CBS 58 met knew his name.

“Sadly, that would have been nice to have gotten that but, you know, at the end of the day it just felt nice to do the good thing," Stingle said.