DANGER SPOT: The river mouth at Patea which can be difficult to navigate.PHOTO/ BEVAN CONLEY
Police have described as "foolish and unintelligent" a fishing expedition which resulted in the death of a Hawera man at the Patea River mouth bar yesterday.
Hawera Sergeant Lincoln McCrea said the man, aged 54, and a man in his mid-20s from Eltham had set out on fishing trip in
a 3-metre Fi-glass Fireball boat.
At 7.45am the boat was flipped by an enormous wave across the bar, he said.
"Both men made it to the shore but the Hawera man died soon after," he said.
"They should never have gone out in such a rough seas. I'm a fisherman and go out from Patea regularly. But if I get there and the sea is rough I just turn around and go home which is what these two should have done."
