MUSCATINE, Iowa — This fisherman’s tale does not include snapshots of a grinning Steve Dahl holding up a large bass.

The 58-year-old Muscatine man returned from a fishing tournament this weekend near Macon, Mo., with a sheet of paper that reads “Thanks a lot for saving my life.”

His snapshots show an overturned boat pulled from the water at Thomas Hill Reservoir Saturday.

“I didn’t catch no fish that day,” Dahl said. “That must have been my purpose for being out there that day.”

Dahl was fishing with Nick Boyd, a high school student from Tipton, who he drew as a partner for the Muscatine Bassmasters tournament.

“I was out fishing and we heard this guy whistling and hollering for help,” Dahl said Monday. “I was the only boat that I seen.”

He and Boyd made their way to Bob Sims’ boat about 100 yards away.

“We just barely heard him,” Dahl said.

Sims, 50, who lives about 30 miles away in Moberly, Mo., was practicing for a different fishing tournament a few weeks away when his boat started filling with water.

The boat had taken in rain water when Sims left it uncovered a week earlier. After about 15 minutes on the lake, Sims said, “I opened her up and my feet were getting wet and my motor was cutting out.”

He hit the throttle “and it just died.”

He tried again without success, but water covered the batteries.

“The water was way over my feet,” Sims said.

He used a whistle, which he said Dahl heard right away, to signal for help.

“All I know was when I got over there, his boat was taking on water,” Dahl said. He and Boyd threw a rope to Sims, and towed his boat toward a landing about 400 yards away.

About 20-30 feet from the landing, Dahl could not tow Sims’ boat any farther. He told Sims to climb into his boat.

But “the boat flipped over with me still standing on it, and it slammed me against their boat,” Sims said.

His life jacket slid up against his face, Sims said, and he clung to the side of Dahl’s boat. Dahl held onto Sims, who says he weighs about 300 pounds, by his arms while Boyd used the boat’s trolling motor to take them to a dock.

About five people watching from the shore helped pull a weakened Sims from the water, Dahl said.

He estimates Sims spent more than 20 minutes in the approximately 60-degree water. The air was a cool 40 degrees, he said, with a strong wind. “That would have been a long time in the water if I’d have stayed up that long,” Sims said. “So they more than likely saved my life.”

A responding Missouri officer agreed, Dahl said.

“When you need help and somebody comes, it really is a good feeling,” Sims said. “And they treat you like a brother — most fisherman are that way.”

Said Dahl, “It was a big deal to me.” “If somebody yells for help, winning a little bit of money in a bass tournament is nothing compared to saving someone’s life.”