Coast Guard rescues fishermen stranded in king tides

ALVISO, Calif. (KGO) -- A pair of fishermen know just how dangerous king tides can be. The unusually high tides stranded the men near the Alviso slough, the third rescue in less than two weeks.

The two men were fishing when they became stuck after the king tide pushed out. They called for help around 6:30 Monday night. To make matters worse, their cellphone fell in the water and was lost. A Coast Guard helicopter found the missing boaters near Coyote Creek in Fremont, far away from the place they originally said they were in Alviso. A Menlo Park air boat picked them up and took them to safety around 10:30 Tuesday night.

"There's lots of shallow water. I was going near the channel marker, but if you miss it by a little bit, you hit the mud. It goes out real fast, so once you get stuck and it goes out, that's that. You wait until it comes back up," said Larry Wunsch, rescued boater.

This was the second rescue in just over 24 hours. Both boats were out fishing when they were caught in the low tide and both times two men had to be rescued and taken back to shore. San Jose firefighters rescued the men on Sunday night.

Rescuers say it's a big bay and these are very small boats, so the fishermen should feel lucky they were found.