LAKE TAWAKONI, Texas — Texas Game Wardens found a missing fisherman alive after he had spent nearly four hours in Lake Tawakoni following a boating accident during a local tournament, according to an agency account and body-camera footage published Tuesday by FOX 4.
Watch the Texas Game Wardens body-camera rescue
The publisher-hosted video below includes the Texas Game Wardens body-camera footage of the rescue. It shows wardens reaching the life-jacketed fisherman, taking hold of him beside their boat and bringing him aboard.
Video source: Texas Game Wardens body-camera footage published and hosted by FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth. If the embedded media file does not load, use FOX 4's fallback video page.
Search crews spot Steven Otto in open water
FOX 4 reported from the Texas Game Wardens' release that wardens in Rains County received a call at about 7:15 a.m. Saturday concerning missing boater Steven Otto. His boat had struck a submerged stump and thrown him into the lake during a fishing tournament.
Multiple crews searched the water for several hours. Game Wardens Josh Bonney and Dewayne Noble said they had searched for more than two hours before moving farther toward the middle of the lake. Wardens aboard one of the boats then spotted Otto at a distance with binoculars.
The body-camera footage shows Otto in the water wearing a bright life jacket as the wardens pull alongside. The rescuers reach for his hands, reassure him and help him onto the boat. Otto told them he was tired after being in the water for almost four hours.
Wardens credit two pieces of boating safety equipment
Bonney told FOX 4 that Otto was alert and waving when the crews saw him. The warden said the season's warmer water and the absence of a severe head injury also worked in Otto's favor. ThinBlueNews is not adding a medical diagnosis beyond that source account.
The agency emphasized that two safety choices mattered: Otto was wearing a life jacket, and he used his boat's emergency engine cutoff switch. The cutoff is designed to stop the engine when the operator is thrown away from the controls.
“Always wear a life jacket and use your engine cutoff switch. They only work if you use them.”
Texas Game Wardens, as quoted by FOX 4
The rescue provides a clear public-safety lesson without needing speculation about the accident: flotation and a connected cutoff switch gave search crews time to find a boater who had been ejected far from shore.
Readers can find more verified lifesaving work in ThinBlueNews' rescue news, body-camera rescue videos, first responder heroes and latest news.
Sources, video and image attribution
- FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth — “Body camera video shows missing fisherman's rescue at Lake Tawakoni,” published July 28, 2026. FOX 4 identifies its underlying information as a Texas Game Wardens news release and includes interviews with Game Wardens Josh Bonney and Dewayne Noble.
- FOX 4 publisher video page for the Texas Game Wardens body-camera footage. The same publisher-hosted MP4 is used in the embedded player above.
Featured-image note: The image is a true frame from the Texas Game Wardens body-camera footage published by FOX 4, not a recreation or unrelated representative image. ThinBlueNews selected a frame showing the wardens taking hold of Otto, cropped it to the site's 1200 × 630 format and added only a factual source strip.
If an agency representative, responder or reader sees anything that should be corrected or updated, please contact ThinBlueNews through our corrections and editorial standards page.